Busy. Circuit training, transformation, living off of tuna and baked potatoes, eating to the point of monotony but I feel so much more alive, a real physical connection to myself that never really had before.
Comics - more of Seven Soldiers, the stories so far are all wonderful, I love Morrison because he makes me want to be a writer, not that I want to be the next Morrison but he inspires and creates in a way that few can, he is to a higher standard than most, if not all other comic writers in my opinion. I cannot wait to see his screenplay realized and the acts of global tomfoolery that it is supposed to fund.
Books - Bushwhacked by MOLLY IVINS, new John Connolly, old Chuck Palahniuk, dummies guide to meditation and to chess, Bill Bryson and Don Winslow. My book habit is grandiose and frightening, but I cannot stop it.
Saturday, May 28, 2005
Saturday, May 21, 2005
Three stories
12 pages each, so will be working on those to get those out as soon as possible. Going to go for three genres, which I will look upon as I drink coffee and eat eggs!
Wednesday, May 18, 2005
Ice Cream Man Loses It
and beats up a teenager.
Let's face it, if someone mouths off at you, go with that instinct to crack their fucking face open, that voice inside your head, which sounds like a testosterone-fuelled actor you like(mine is Vin Diesel with his Riddick voice) is GOOD and should be listened to. Because it's a process that helps you grow, do you keep wising off and risk a beating or consider that maybe respect and manners is altogether healthier.
Let's face it, if someone mouths off at you, go with that instinct to crack their fucking face open, that voice inside your head, which sounds like a testosterone-fuelled actor you like(mine is Vin Diesel with his Riddick voice) is GOOD and should be listened to. Because it's a process that helps you grow, do you keep wising off and risk a beating or consider that maybe respect and manners is altogether healthier.
Tuesday, May 17, 2005
George Galloway
Is currently laying the smack down on the senate commitee with regards to allegations regarding Iraqi oil. I feel that he is doing something right if he is attracting all of this heat, and I was pleased that he won his seat, and I am pleased that he will be in Parliament, hopefully fighting for the people in a way that Blair would never do.
Monday, May 16, 2005
Sunday, May 15, 2005
A point worth making
by Alan Moore, who has led the way in showing that the mainstream superhero comic can be interesting and challenging, if you apply a little intelligence and get past your own perconceived notions of how a character should be..
one of the things that prevents superhero stories from ever attaining the status of true modern myths or legends is that they are open ended. An essential quality of a legend is that the events in it are clearly defined in time; Robin Hood is driven to become an outlaw by the injustices of King John and his minions. That is his origin. He meets Little John, Friar Tuck and all the rest and forms the merry men. He wins the tournament in disguise, he falls in love with Maid Marian and thwarts the Sheriff of Nottingham. That is his career, including love interest, Major Villains and the formation of a superhero group that he is part of. He lives to see the return of Good King Richard and is finally killed by a woman, firing a last arrow to mark the place where he shall be buried. That is his resolution--you can apply the same paradigm to King Arthur, Davy Crockett or Sherlock Holmes with equal success. You cannot apply it to most comic book characters because, in order to meet the commercial demands of a continuing series, they can never have a resolution. Indeed, they find it difficult to embrace any of the changes in life that the passage of time brings about for these very same reasons, making them finally less than fully human as well as falling far short of true myth.
one of the things that prevents superhero stories from ever attaining the status of true modern myths or legends is that they are open ended. An essential quality of a legend is that the events in it are clearly defined in time; Robin Hood is driven to become an outlaw by the injustices of King John and his minions. That is his origin. He meets Little John, Friar Tuck and all the rest and forms the merry men. He wins the tournament in disguise, he falls in love with Maid Marian and thwarts the Sheriff of Nottingham. That is his career, including love interest, Major Villains and the formation of a superhero group that he is part of. He lives to see the return of Good King Richard and is finally killed by a woman, firing a last arrow to mark the place where he shall be buried. That is his resolution--you can apply the same paradigm to King Arthur, Davy Crockett or Sherlock Holmes with equal success. You cannot apply it to most comic book characters because, in order to meet the commercial demands of a continuing series, they can never have a resolution. Indeed, they find it difficult to embrace any of the changes in life that the passage of time brings about for these very same reasons, making them finally less than fully human as well as falling far short of true myth.
Tuesday, May 10, 2005
Why Comics?
Why comics?
I like the fact that there exists near total freedom to go for the themes and ideas that interest you, that it can be as utterly low-fidelity as you might wish or as slick and crafted as you like, that you are relatively free of the comic equivalent of test screenings or creation by commitee that plagues cinema. I like building my own toybox of tricks and narrative conceits as well, mostly by raiding my own comics collection and really sucking the marrow out of it, but still coming up with something that is uniquely me. That I have waited this long for people to put my words into images is testament as to how much I love comics.
I like the fact that there exists near total freedom to go for the themes and ideas that interest you, that it can be as utterly low-fidelity as you might wish or as slick and crafted as you like, that you are relatively free of the comic equivalent of test screenings or creation by commitee that plagues cinema. I like building my own toybox of tricks and narrative conceits as well, mostly by raiding my own comics collection and really sucking the marrow out of it, but still coming up with something that is uniquely me. That I have waited this long for people to put my words into images is testament as to how much I love comics.
the last knight
Found this on the hard-drive, this was an earnest attempt to create something that straddled the 40's saturday morning serials and the merchandise driven child-orientated entertainment of today, would like some comments on it as to whether it has legs or not.
THE LAST KNIGHT
A young boy, living in care breaks into the apartment of an old man, when dared to by his twin brother, David. Instead he finds the occupant waiting for him, and offering him an opportunity to redeem himself. The old man explains that he had been tasked to guard an artifact, and that a boy would come to claim it, one who would pass the wards set to protect it. Intrigued, the boy touches the sword and becomes swathed in light, transforming into an idealized adult version of him.
The old man is delighted, and when the boy relinquishes his contact, he transforms back into his child-self. The old man has found his successor, he tells the boy to come back tomorrow.
At the home, David is curious but the boy says that it was boring and he wouldn’t bother going back there, but David doesn’t believe him.
He goes to return the next day, but his social worker arrives to take him to visit a potential foster family, but when he asks if his brother can come, the social worker tries to explain that David’s behavioral issues mean that the likelihood of them both being taken as a pair is unlikely. The boy refuses to see the family, choosing his brother over the possibility of a life outside of the care system.
He returns to the house, and the old man tells him about the sword, and what it is capable of. It is intelligent, and has it’s own desires, for which it needs a wielder, in return it will grant the wielder skill in battle and health, as well as strength and durability. The boy is dubious, but when the old man hands him the sword and draws his own, the boy transforms and parries the blow smoothly, only to see that the old man has a second dagger ready to strike, at this the boy-knight feels a cold liquid flow over him, solidifying into armor.
David, meanwhile is all over the boy when he comes back, but the boy is not interested in sharing with him, David pushes him but the boy calmly gets up and walks away, David seethes with impotent rage, going to play with his toy robot collection and draw pictures of him as a superhero.
That night, the boy transforms into the knight and activates the armor, going to the roof with the old man. He then looks out over the city, as the old man talks to him, telling him that he can do whatever he wishes. The knight concentrates and then he lifts off into the sky, the sword blazing with power.
End of first act.
David is invited to hang out with some of the older boys at the home, and they hang around, drinking alcohol and smoking, David is encouraged to try them and soon the entire group is intoxicated. A young woman walks by, and one of the boys makes a crude comment, which the woman laughs off, an act that enrages the boys who start following her, David is entirely out of his depth here but is swept into the situation. He chooses to join in, rather than to walk away or question what is going on here. Eventually it becomes a chase, and they herd her into an alley, preparing to physically attack her.
Until the knight comes sailing down from the sky above, sword in hand and armored up. One of the boys laughs, whilst the others throw bottles at the knight. He bats away the bottles, although he does take one to the head as he strides forward. As one of them rushes him, he flips the sword and knocks one out with the pommel, before sliding the blade up the back of the shirt of another to throw him up into the air. David is aghast, and catches the knight’s eye before he too, turns and runs. The knight sees to the woman, and flies off, following David.
David runs, straight into the path of a patrol officer, knocking him flying, to further add to his misfortune, the woman he was involved in attacking, alerts the officer to the situation. Shocked, the knight watches the officer detain David and take him into custody. The woman starts to mention the knight, but soon stops as she realizes how crazy she sounds.
David is thrown into a holding area, whilst the knight hurriedly returns to the home, and swoops into his room, stashing the sword by moving a false panel in the ceiling and hiding it there. As he tries to sleep, he hears the altercation as the staff is alerted to David and the other boy’s situation.
Meanwhile, David is terrified, surrounded by the desperate and the dangerous as he waits for someone to arrive. The social worker arrives and David returns to the home in disgrace, he is crying in his bed and reject’s his brother’s overtures of comfort. During the night, the boy is awoken by the sound and light of the sword in the alcove, he goes to retrieve it and feels it tug in his hand, pulling him. David however is awake and after his brother leaves, he follows him. The boy is led out to the garden behind the home, where the old man waits, dressed strangely.
He tells him that it is time to begin his quest, that the boy must come with him, that he has a higher destiny. Nervous, the boy is reluctant but looking at the sword, and then behind him, he nods, accepting the call to adventure. A rift opens, and he steps through, the man following. David runs, just as the rift closes, but he too, is pulled through.
*David is pulled into the earlier part of the timestream, where he, with his emotional problems, his imagination and the technology of the machine collective, enables him to become the machine-warrior known as the Spite, the nemesis of the Knight who, when the boy arrives has already led the collective to great victories
*The Spite is David’s rage, frustration and his torment rendered into a fighting robotic form, all sharp edges and smooth, metallic cool.
The boy emerges to a massive reception, where the entire population of the Skin has gathered to welcome the fulfillment of their prophesized victor, wielding the weapon that was sent to the proposed location as decided centuries ago. *The Skin are humans who chose biological advances and evolution to advance them to a level where their abilities are akin to evolution and the use of magic. They are one tribe who live in a massive city grown from organic materials, that has it’s own intelligence and moves on a massive pseudopodia. An earlier generation discovered the multiple universes and sent out exploratory craft, but when one of them brought back a virulent plague, the program was scaled back. As the war with the Collective began, the Skin discovered the prophetic writings of the great leader Darwin, and the discovery that the Skin’s progenitors had sent the sword into a parallel universe where it would await alongside an engineered line of genetic descendants until such time as it was needed, a time that was worked out through massively complex calculations akin to magic – the principle being that coincidence can be manipulated, that the universe is made of information and that information can be accessed and controlled – the Skin used it to improve themselves and their way of life, the Collective want to use it to bring about stability and order to the way of all things.*
The boy has the potential to lead the Skin, to if not, victory, but at least force a cease fire by forcing the Collective to defensive postures rather than offensive ones. But the boy must face the Collective’s champion, a sentient engine of destruction known as the Spite. The boy is overwhelmed, but the sword seems to give him inner strength and he promises he will do his best to help them.
The Skin has no real army as such, relying instead on the natural defenses of their sentient city and their own manipulations of coincidence against the Collective. So, the boy is led to quarters, where he sits with the old man, known here as Duo, he’s confused. Duo tells him that the sword has all the answers, so he leaves the boy who concentrates upon it.
He enters into a trance state, another dimension, one where everything is made up of motile metals, the same material as the sword. He speaks with an avatar, whom shows the story of the current war, that the Collective and the Skin were once one race, until their progenitors grew apart. Fearing war, the Progenitors withdrew to another universe, seeding a parallel universe with the weapon that would have unbalanced the conflict, believing that, once they had left, the two sides would come to a truce of some kind. Unfortunately, the Collective have become increasingly aggressive and so, the Skin spent valuable resources on awakening Duo and ensuring that the Sword would return to this universe. It is a conduit to a number of energy sources, all accessible to the Wielder. He comes out of the trance state, to find Duo looking at him, to tell him that the Collective have launched a skirmish.
First battle here, the Sword covering him in armor and he takes to the skies at this point, the Collective’s war efforts are a cross between the insectoid adversaries of Starship Troopers and the Terminators. The Sword starts drawing upon other-dimensional energies, destroying the robots in massive explosions, before diving into the fray, taking them apart with single blows of the sword, one of them fires a beam that blinds him for a moment but does no apparent damage. He eventually destroys the generator that is deploying the robots and returns to the city. They are both exultant and frightened of him. Duo is the only one to approach him, which unnerves him somewhat.
Meanwhile, we see that a gathering of robots are plugged into an ovoid structure, and above them, plays the footage of the Wielder in combat, with all sorts of biometric data overlaid. The ovoid structure vents gas, and the footage closes in on the armored visage of the Wielder before blinking out entirely. We see a small palm pressed against the glass, before it slips away entirely.
The Wielder is seen by the Skin’s delegates, who grant him the freedom of the City and are willing to discuss tactics with him. He is curious about the Collective, and suggests that they might see if they can find out anything about their numbers and capabilities, they mention that when they might be able to use remote viewing to gauge their strength, which the Wielder agrees to.
The remote viewers, a group of Skin sit in what appears to be the alien equivalent of a sweat lodge, and the smoke coalesces into a screen upon which we see the Collective’s base of operations, a massive machine city, devoted to constant production and movement, cold and alien. At the center, they focus on the ovoid, which is connected to massive umbilical cords and then finally we see a massive mechanical humanoid, bristling with edged weapons and guns, which touches the ovoid tenderly before the screen fades back into smoke.
Meanwhile, the Wielder is hungry and goes around asking what he can get to eat, Duo presents him with a plug of what appears to be moss, as the Skin have a selective trait that has removed the need to eat, instead they have grown this for the Wielder’s benefit, which contains all the nutrients and sustenance a human male needs. Reluctantly, he ingests it and finds that it is surprisingly tasty!
That night, he dreams about David, they are stood in a desert where the sand is black and the sky broods with clouds, he is running towards him but cannot reach him. He wakes up in tears, and tries to get back to sleep but cannot. Instead he meditates upon the sword once again, practicing with it, eventually in his adult form, he manages to fall into a troubled sleep.
The next morning, he begins to test the sword’s capabilities, almost ‘hacking’ it to get the fullest advantage, formulating an effect that allows him to process motion, to move at incredible speeds, although the perceptual effect makes him nauseous.
In the Collective city, inside the Ovoid, we see the perceptual effect that the Wielder suffered on a screen, the same hand reaches to touch the screen, cancelling it.
©Matt Blissett 2004
THE LAST KNIGHT
A young boy, living in care breaks into the apartment of an old man, when dared to by his twin brother, David. Instead he finds the occupant waiting for him, and offering him an opportunity to redeem himself. The old man explains that he had been tasked to guard an artifact, and that a boy would come to claim it, one who would pass the wards set to protect it. Intrigued, the boy touches the sword and becomes swathed in light, transforming into an idealized adult version of him.
The old man is delighted, and when the boy relinquishes his contact, he transforms back into his child-self. The old man has found his successor, he tells the boy to come back tomorrow.
At the home, David is curious but the boy says that it was boring and he wouldn’t bother going back there, but David doesn’t believe him.
He goes to return the next day, but his social worker arrives to take him to visit a potential foster family, but when he asks if his brother can come, the social worker tries to explain that David’s behavioral issues mean that the likelihood of them both being taken as a pair is unlikely. The boy refuses to see the family, choosing his brother over the possibility of a life outside of the care system.
He returns to the house, and the old man tells him about the sword, and what it is capable of. It is intelligent, and has it’s own desires, for which it needs a wielder, in return it will grant the wielder skill in battle and health, as well as strength and durability. The boy is dubious, but when the old man hands him the sword and draws his own, the boy transforms and parries the blow smoothly, only to see that the old man has a second dagger ready to strike, at this the boy-knight feels a cold liquid flow over him, solidifying into armor.
David, meanwhile is all over the boy when he comes back, but the boy is not interested in sharing with him, David pushes him but the boy calmly gets up and walks away, David seethes with impotent rage, going to play with his toy robot collection and draw pictures of him as a superhero.
That night, the boy transforms into the knight and activates the armor, going to the roof with the old man. He then looks out over the city, as the old man talks to him, telling him that he can do whatever he wishes. The knight concentrates and then he lifts off into the sky, the sword blazing with power.
End of first act.
David is invited to hang out with some of the older boys at the home, and they hang around, drinking alcohol and smoking, David is encouraged to try them and soon the entire group is intoxicated. A young woman walks by, and one of the boys makes a crude comment, which the woman laughs off, an act that enrages the boys who start following her, David is entirely out of his depth here but is swept into the situation. He chooses to join in, rather than to walk away or question what is going on here. Eventually it becomes a chase, and they herd her into an alley, preparing to physically attack her.
Until the knight comes sailing down from the sky above, sword in hand and armored up. One of the boys laughs, whilst the others throw bottles at the knight. He bats away the bottles, although he does take one to the head as he strides forward. As one of them rushes him, he flips the sword and knocks one out with the pommel, before sliding the blade up the back of the shirt of another to throw him up into the air. David is aghast, and catches the knight’s eye before he too, turns and runs. The knight sees to the woman, and flies off, following David.
David runs, straight into the path of a patrol officer, knocking him flying, to further add to his misfortune, the woman he was involved in attacking, alerts the officer to the situation. Shocked, the knight watches the officer detain David and take him into custody. The woman starts to mention the knight, but soon stops as she realizes how crazy she sounds.
David is thrown into a holding area, whilst the knight hurriedly returns to the home, and swoops into his room, stashing the sword by moving a false panel in the ceiling and hiding it there. As he tries to sleep, he hears the altercation as the staff is alerted to David and the other boy’s situation.
Meanwhile, David is terrified, surrounded by the desperate and the dangerous as he waits for someone to arrive. The social worker arrives and David returns to the home in disgrace, he is crying in his bed and reject’s his brother’s overtures of comfort. During the night, the boy is awoken by the sound and light of the sword in the alcove, he goes to retrieve it and feels it tug in his hand, pulling him. David however is awake and after his brother leaves, he follows him. The boy is led out to the garden behind the home, where the old man waits, dressed strangely.
He tells him that it is time to begin his quest, that the boy must come with him, that he has a higher destiny. Nervous, the boy is reluctant but looking at the sword, and then behind him, he nods, accepting the call to adventure. A rift opens, and he steps through, the man following. David runs, just as the rift closes, but he too, is pulled through.
*David is pulled into the earlier part of the timestream, where he, with his emotional problems, his imagination and the technology of the machine collective, enables him to become the machine-warrior known as the Spite, the nemesis of the Knight who, when the boy arrives has already led the collective to great victories
*The Spite is David’s rage, frustration and his torment rendered into a fighting robotic form, all sharp edges and smooth, metallic cool.
The boy emerges to a massive reception, where the entire population of the Skin has gathered to welcome the fulfillment of their prophesized victor, wielding the weapon that was sent to the proposed location as decided centuries ago. *The Skin are humans who chose biological advances and evolution to advance them to a level where their abilities are akin to evolution and the use of magic. They are one tribe who live in a massive city grown from organic materials, that has it’s own intelligence and moves on a massive pseudopodia. An earlier generation discovered the multiple universes and sent out exploratory craft, but when one of them brought back a virulent plague, the program was scaled back. As the war with the Collective began, the Skin discovered the prophetic writings of the great leader Darwin, and the discovery that the Skin’s progenitors had sent the sword into a parallel universe where it would await alongside an engineered line of genetic descendants until such time as it was needed, a time that was worked out through massively complex calculations akin to magic – the principle being that coincidence can be manipulated, that the universe is made of information and that information can be accessed and controlled – the Skin used it to improve themselves and their way of life, the Collective want to use it to bring about stability and order to the way of all things.*
The boy has the potential to lead the Skin, to if not, victory, but at least force a cease fire by forcing the Collective to defensive postures rather than offensive ones. But the boy must face the Collective’s champion, a sentient engine of destruction known as the Spite. The boy is overwhelmed, but the sword seems to give him inner strength and he promises he will do his best to help them.
The Skin has no real army as such, relying instead on the natural defenses of their sentient city and their own manipulations of coincidence against the Collective. So, the boy is led to quarters, where he sits with the old man, known here as Duo, he’s confused. Duo tells him that the sword has all the answers, so he leaves the boy who concentrates upon it.
He enters into a trance state, another dimension, one where everything is made up of motile metals, the same material as the sword. He speaks with an avatar, whom shows the story of the current war, that the Collective and the Skin were once one race, until their progenitors grew apart. Fearing war, the Progenitors withdrew to another universe, seeding a parallel universe with the weapon that would have unbalanced the conflict, believing that, once they had left, the two sides would come to a truce of some kind. Unfortunately, the Collective have become increasingly aggressive and so, the Skin spent valuable resources on awakening Duo and ensuring that the Sword would return to this universe. It is a conduit to a number of energy sources, all accessible to the Wielder. He comes out of the trance state, to find Duo looking at him, to tell him that the Collective have launched a skirmish.
First battle here, the Sword covering him in armor and he takes to the skies at this point, the Collective’s war efforts are a cross between the insectoid adversaries of Starship Troopers and the Terminators. The Sword starts drawing upon other-dimensional energies, destroying the robots in massive explosions, before diving into the fray, taking them apart with single blows of the sword, one of them fires a beam that blinds him for a moment but does no apparent damage. He eventually destroys the generator that is deploying the robots and returns to the city. They are both exultant and frightened of him. Duo is the only one to approach him, which unnerves him somewhat.
Meanwhile, we see that a gathering of robots are plugged into an ovoid structure, and above them, plays the footage of the Wielder in combat, with all sorts of biometric data overlaid. The ovoid structure vents gas, and the footage closes in on the armored visage of the Wielder before blinking out entirely. We see a small palm pressed against the glass, before it slips away entirely.
The Wielder is seen by the Skin’s delegates, who grant him the freedom of the City and are willing to discuss tactics with him. He is curious about the Collective, and suggests that they might see if they can find out anything about their numbers and capabilities, they mention that when they might be able to use remote viewing to gauge their strength, which the Wielder agrees to.
The remote viewers, a group of Skin sit in what appears to be the alien equivalent of a sweat lodge, and the smoke coalesces into a screen upon which we see the Collective’s base of operations, a massive machine city, devoted to constant production and movement, cold and alien. At the center, they focus on the ovoid, which is connected to massive umbilical cords and then finally we see a massive mechanical humanoid, bristling with edged weapons and guns, which touches the ovoid tenderly before the screen fades back into smoke.
Meanwhile, the Wielder is hungry and goes around asking what he can get to eat, Duo presents him with a plug of what appears to be moss, as the Skin have a selective trait that has removed the need to eat, instead they have grown this for the Wielder’s benefit, which contains all the nutrients and sustenance a human male needs. Reluctantly, he ingests it and finds that it is surprisingly tasty!
That night, he dreams about David, they are stood in a desert where the sand is black and the sky broods with clouds, he is running towards him but cannot reach him. He wakes up in tears, and tries to get back to sleep but cannot. Instead he meditates upon the sword once again, practicing with it, eventually in his adult form, he manages to fall into a troubled sleep.
The next morning, he begins to test the sword’s capabilities, almost ‘hacking’ it to get the fullest advantage, formulating an effect that allows him to process motion, to move at incredible speeds, although the perceptual effect makes him nauseous.
In the Collective city, inside the Ovoid, we see the perceptual effect that the Wielder suffered on a screen, the same hand reaches to touch the screen, cancelling it.
©Matt Blissett 2004
Monday, May 09, 2005
en theos
It is the latin word for enthusiasm, and means 'god within'. It appeared in an open letter the late comedian Bill Hicks wrote to a clergyman who berated him for his religious material, the idea that the excitement one feels when doing something pleasurable or meaningful is divine encouragement. Better that, a catma rather than a dogma.
No mission statements, just ideas, opinions and random mutterings.
No mission statements, just ideas, opinions and random mutterings.
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