InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "No"

kingrockwell (kingrockwell) wrote in scans_daily,
@ 2009-07-26 21:27:00

Current music:	Low ~ "Dinosaur Act"
Entry tags:	creator: brian john mitchell, genre: indie, medium: videos

The mini-comics of Brian John Mitchell
So, Friday night I went to see a couple bands play at one of my favorite bars. The first one was Remora, the one-man show of Brian John Mitchell, head of Silber Records. He played his effects pedal more than his guitar, but to interesting effect. Anyway, when he mentioned he had mini-comics on sale for fifty cents, the dollar in my pocket was already spent.

Figured I'd share.

BONUS GAME! what do you recognize on my bookshelf? :D

These tiny things (in their adorable little bags!) pretty much keep to one panel to a tiny baby page. I didn't do much scanning because it would be such a pain to do so, but he has a few of them up on the website.

Just A Man is a western revenge-type story drawn by Andrew White they just put out. The first issue's on the website in CBZ format or in regular old jpeg on White's LJ, with another due in a month, as he tells it.

The second, both written and drawn by Brian John Mitchell, is Lost Kisses, a silly stick figure comic about relationship type humor? It's bizarrely adorable and kind of funny in an almost bitter way, at least the one issue I've read. He has most of the issues on video, so I'm gonna go ahead and post the one for #6.

It's an issue in two parts, examining an abusive relationship, with one side the pros, the other the cons. The video splices them in together.
The inside covers both carry disclaimers that the video leaves out, so I took the liberty of scanning them.

Heh, does anyone else think the second one walks an uncomfortably thin line? If you have to explain that you don't like to think you're a misogynist, isn't that kind of a red flag?
now i feel like the disclaimer's just going to put people more on guard but I'm showing the video anyway

This is the flyer to go along with them

XO sounds interesting, but I haven't read it yet, so I can't say anything beyond that. After I got to chatting up the bartender on the subject for a while (she really liked Just A Man), she ended up buying the whole lot of worms, so I got to read the first issue. It was something else, but as a fan of surrealism I thought it was just a stream-of-consciousness action story with weird things thrown in for the sake of weirdness. Dunno.

So, what do you guys think?

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jlroberson
2009-07-27 02:31 am UTC (link)

I think he's being too defensive. But saying what he said isn't a sign he's a misogynist, it's simply saying that he's aware some people take things like this that way. But I don't think, if that video is representative of his work, that he needs to be worrying about that.

What I saw was something that captured the many different, complex and contradictory things held in a suspension in your head when you're in love. He said good and bad things, about her and about himself, and ultimately the sense was not a negative one. It was honest, direct, not trying to hammer it into an overall framework, and rather sweet. I think that sense is best summed up in the one where he says, "I'm kind of a jerk" and she says, "I know, it's cool." That's it right there. I liked it.

(Reply to this)

	ashtoreth 2009-07-27 06:12 pm UTC (link)
	Eeee. Way too many emotional manipulator flags in the Lost Kisses for comfort. Cute idea though. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	greenmask 2009-07-27 08:26 pm UTC (link)
	Seriously. Gee whiz. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	parsimonia 2009-07-28 12:28 am UTC (link)
	The comics are cute. The one that made me raise an eyebrow was the "she killed her own child in the womb" bit. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	kingrockwell 2009-07-28 12:38 am UTC (link)
	Oh definitely. There are enough red flags I was a little apprehensive of posting it, actually, but I guess I figured the readers could draw their own conclusions about it or something? (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	parsimonia 2009-07-28 12:57 am UTC (link)
	Oh, of course. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

kingrockwell
2009-07-28 01:12 am UTC (link)

And come to think of it, that actually reminds me of the scene from High Fidelity (book or movie, take your pick; i prefer the movie because i want to be John Cusack when I grow up), where Rob recalls the last time he and Laura had broken up and gotten back together. During the fallout, she'd found out she was pregnant and aborted it, and Rob got all offended about it and started acting entitled. It was a little more graceful there because Rob realized in retrospect that he was a huge dick about it, and it'd pretty much laid the foundation for the troubles that eventually drove them apart again.

Christ, I just realized that High Fidelity might have a lot to do with my fondness for Ollie, especially the Ollie in my head who's super-contrite toward the Arrow Family.

It might also be a contributing factor to something that'll happen later in my own comic where ~a bad breakup involves a pregnancy, and I've been trying to work things out between the timing of events and revelations so they don't end in a completely justified abortion, not due to any moral qualms, but because I already have so many ideas about the kid as he grows up, and seeing how the his mother adjusts her life around the new role.~

I don't believe we guys really have any right to an opinion about the morality of abortion. Not our bodies, not our business. It is our right (if not obligation!) to fight to put the choice in women's hands, but we have no place to tell them which choice they should make (though in an ideal relationship it would probably be collaborative i guess).

If I had gone through the trouble to scan the comic, I would've left that panel out, but that would just white-wash the problem with it instead of addressing it directly.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

parsimonia
2009-07-28 03:28 am UTC (link)

Ahh I need to re-watch High Fidelity! It's been a few years at least.

Christ, I just realized that High Fidelity might have a lot to do with my fondness for Ollie, especially the Ollie in my head who's super-contrite toward the Arrow Family.

That is part of the appeal of Ollie, I think. He talks the talk, but doesn't always walk the walk–and then he has to deal with his hypocrisy. (Although it is annoying if it is never dealt with.)

I don't believe we guys really have any right to an opinion about the morality of abortion. Not our bodies, not our business. It is our right (if not obligation!) to fight to put the choice in women's hands, but we have no place to tell them which choice they should make (though in an ideal relationship it would probably be collaborative i guess).

Agreed 100% on all of that. Well, actually, I would say that both men and women have a right to an opinion on whether or not it's moral to have an abortion. But the costs of such opinions can be very high for women if they influence society and health/government systems to the point where women doesn't have access to safe and legal abortion (not to mention information about it in the first place).

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	parsimonia 2009-07-28 03:29 am UTC (link)
	Also, I don't think I knew you were working on a comic! Is it a webcomic or are you aiming for print? (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

kingrockwell
2009-07-28 03:57 am UTC (link)

Webcomic, though I've toyed with the idea of doing some indie publishing when I have more pages and money to cover the overhead. I've been working on it on-and-off for four years, and it has almost as many chapters finished, though it hardly feels like it's even gotten started.

I think the major reason it hasn't updated much lately is that, though I love writing and pencilling it, I've come to terms with the fact that I hate the finishing process, even after I got tablet, but I can never keep a reliable inker (well, finisher since that part's done digitally, but it's essentially the same job minus the ink). I've been half tempted to post a want ad for the job on no_scans, but the fact that I can't offer anything in return other than experience and the knowledge of a job well done for the trouble.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

	kingrockwell 2009-07-28 04:02 am UTC (link)
	Whoops, misspelled link. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	thebigapricot 2009-07-28 10:26 am UTC (link)
	Hey, I liked this! (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

kingrockwell
2009-07-28 07:09 pm UTC (link)

Thanks, it should only get better from here! (i haven't even introduced any villains yet!)

One bonus of an almost two-year hiatus is that you get hindsight to things you did wrong in the very chapter you're working on (i did something very dumb on page 14 of chapter 4 (and come to think of it, another on 14 of 3!) and totally have a chance to fix it early on now) as well as time to figure out where you're going and how you're getting there.

I've already completely changed the direction the next chapter's going and thought of a bunch of things I need to focus on (working on conveying different bodies beyond just faces/hair, making Feather less of a jerk (or at least so much of a jerk to the point it blows up in her face and she has to work her way back to being sympathetic), a lot of haircuts, and needing to study Cockney slang so James has more than just the accent).

Hanging around scans_daily for the last seven or eight months has certainly helped put some things in perspective, like how I'm now endlessly embarrassed at the little black dress Feather's wearing in chapter 3 (i know it's modest compared to what most comic characters wear, but it's till cheap and ridiculous) and you will never see it in a fight ever again. The big ol' boots will come back some time when she doesn't have an injured arm, but likely in a different form (the heels on them wee much worse in early design), and she'll still have skirts now and again, but never one that would hinder a kick.
It's a lot to think about, but worth it if I want to make a better comic.

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	blowingsteam 2009-07-28 02:53 am UTC (link)
	She reminds me far too much of my fiance's ex, whose Aunt stalks me and who threatened to stab him if he left her. Needless to say, I don't think it's cute. It's a bit manipulative and disturbing. Guys stick with girls like that because they feel like they'd be a jerk for leaving a girl with a rough childhood. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	kingrockwell 2009-07-28 06:17 pm UTC (link)
	Well, the description on the video is "the pros and cons of an abusive relationship" (Reply to this) (Parent)

	Thanks (Anonymous) 2009-08-03 04:32 am UTC (link)
	Thanks for the review & helping to spread the word. hrt Brian John Mitchell (Reply to this) (Thread)

	Re: Thanks kingrockwell 2009-08-03 09:14 am UTC (link)
	No problem, thanks for the vote of confidence! (Reply to this) (Parent)