Radiant Comics

I thought that I had a topic earlier in the week to write about but now I have forgotten. I should have written it down. Imagine how much information was lost because someone didn’t write it down. It is no wonder that “Civilization” (yeah, I just hadda use quotes around that I’m feeling cynical) kicked into high gear when people learned to write things down.

Writing is a magic thing. When you don’t know how to read letters are just marks on paper. But to those in the loop the letters’ meaning is clear without even thinking.

I often use fake writing in my artwork. I use real writing too because I like the space words and pictures create when they are next to each other but sometimes I don’t want words. I just want the idea of writing or symbols. So I make up some letter forms. They vaguely remind me of Middle Eastern lettering because there are lots of curves and swoops but they are really just based on the motion of my hand. What is important is not that they mean anything literal but that they could be a vessel for holding meaning. Just like writing is. Sometimes the cup is more important than what is inside the cup.

I’m still trying to remember that topic but my remembery (a word I stole from the Family Circus) isn’t working. It had something to do with something. That much I am sure about.

One thing I do remember is that I like my devil to be the Prince of Lies. I watched a movie the other night and the devil showed up in it. I don’t like it when most movies or comics use the devil as a character because he usually lets me down. He gets messed up by because they humanize him and give him some vague sense of honor. In the movie the devil has the hero’s soul and then lets him go for no good reason. The devil is supposed to be deceitful and trick you out of your soul. You are supposed to think that you have won but then the twist comes and you have lost and when he has you he has you for good. That is what makes him the devil. I know that in the movies the hero has to win but the devil shouldn’t just let him win. Out of character.

Do you know that you can’t buy a good french curve anymore? They are all crappy with burrs on their curves. I think computers killed the french curve market. Maybe they still make them in France. Have you noticed that France is the only country you are allowed to be bigoted about? Turn on the TV and you will hear every bad thing said about the French that would never be said about any other ethnic group. How did that happen?

My favorite quote I have discovered recently is by René Magritte the Surrealist painter. I read it in a magazine called “The Sun” which I have subscribed to for years and has a section of quotes on its last page. It goes, “The mind loves the unknown. It loves images whose meaning is unknown, since the meaning of the mind itself is unknown”. I love images of the unknown and I make images of the unknown so how could I not like that quote. The mind looks for meaning and will try to find it if it is there or not.

And that’s my story for tonight.