Who am I, do I make a difference...
Each morning I wake up, stagger over to my iMac (which, clever thing that it is, is already up and running) and over a hot cuppa joe read about ten or fifteen of the mornings blog entries. Obviously not everyone is a slack as I am with this stuff, but some of these people write blog entries every fucking day! How do they do it? OK, some of them are writers - ex-2000AD bloggerDavid Bishop wants to write for television, and is very determined he's going to get there - but how do artists like Sean Phillips or Ashley Wood do all that work, and STILL find the time to blog about it every day?
Buggered if I know. When I'm busy I don't have the time, or the energy, to keep this thing up to date, and when I'm not busy, I'm too bloody depressed to sit down and blog. Not "damn, when is the next job going to arrive" depressed, real " what the fuck am I doing here, should I just go and slash my wrists" depressed. I never used to be like this, so why should I be now? Does anyone else in the comics business get like this, and if so, how do they cope with these feeling?
Not that I've been navel-gazing for the last few months. I've finished another run of Knights of the Old Republic covers. (Yeah, yeah, I'll post some pics when I get the OK from Dark Horse). Then, about a months ago I got together with a local playwright, and we've been adapting one of his short two-handers into a ten page comic piece. It's all very well drawing colourful characters running around blowing shit up, but two character just talking - and for ten pages - is something else altogether. It's been a challenge, and I think that it has turned out really rather well. I have no idea what we'll do with the story - Tom wants to try and publish it for use in his school drama classes - but it has been fun to do, and i think we've learned something useful.
Some blogs that have cheered me up lately? Rhodri Marsden writes an IT column for the UK daily The Independant and in his spare time plays occasional keyboards for Scritti Politti, and he's such a clever and funny writer he could make opening a can of baked beans sound like something I should be doing in the next five minutes. Only recently have I stumbled across the Pete Townshend blog, and I'm still catching up on this one. Now Townsend is THAT Pete Townshend, guitarist with the Who, and he's currently writing his autobio, and serialising sections of it online. Back in the day the Who were a Real Band, and in about 1972 they released one of the all-time best live records ever - The Who: Live at Leads. Fried lots of brain-cells listening to that one, phasers set on stun. His blog entries about that wonderful period between 1965 and 1969 when rock'n'roll really grew up make for fascinating reading, and I can't wait for his next postings.
And the title of this posting? Comes from a great song Before Hollywood by Chris Bailey, vocalist of that wonderful old Oz rock outfit The Saints. They once released a song called Know Your Product. And their first album was called (I'm) Stranded. Kinda how I feel at the moment....
Buggered if I know. When I'm busy I don't have the time, or the energy, to keep this thing up to date, and when I'm not busy, I'm too bloody depressed to sit down and blog. Not "damn, when is the next job going to arrive" depressed, real " what the fuck am I doing here, should I just go and slash my wrists" depressed. I never used to be like this, so why should I be now? Does anyone else in the comics business get like this, and if so, how do they cope with these feeling?
Not that I've been navel-gazing for the last few months. I've finished another run of Knights of the Old Republic covers. (Yeah, yeah, I'll post some pics when I get the OK from Dark Horse). Then, about a months ago I got together with a local playwright, and we've been adapting one of his short two-handers into a ten page comic piece. It's all very well drawing colourful characters running around blowing shit up, but two character just talking - and for ten pages - is something else altogether. It's been a challenge, and I think that it has turned out really rather well. I have no idea what we'll do with the story - Tom wants to try and publish it for use in his school drama classes - but it has been fun to do, and i think we've learned something useful.
Some blogs that have cheered me up lately? Rhodri Marsden writes an IT column for the UK daily The Independant and in his spare time plays occasional keyboards for Scritti Politti, and he's such a clever and funny writer he could make opening a can of baked beans sound like something I should be doing in the next five minutes. Only recently have I stumbled across the Pete Townshend blog, and I'm still catching up on this one. Now Townsend is THAT Pete Townshend, guitarist with the Who, and he's currently writing his autobio, and serialising sections of it online. Back in the day the Who were a Real Band, and in about 1972 they released one of the all-time best live records ever - The Who: Live at Leads. Fried lots of brain-cells listening to that one, phasers set on stun. His blog entries about that wonderful period between 1965 and 1969 when rock'n'roll really grew up make for fascinating reading, and I can't wait for his next postings.
And the title of this posting? Comes from a great song Before Hollywood by Chris Bailey, vocalist of that wonderful old Oz rock outfit The Saints. They once released a song called Know Your Product. And their first album was called (I'm) Stranded. Kinda how I feel at the moment....
posted by Colin Wilson at 6:00 PM
4 Comments:
First off...I too get depressed! Hell! Why not?! It's a depressing world. I sit at home drawing silly things inside rectangles while the outside world gets on with being insane.
I often feel like I'm in a bunker. It's a slightly depressing bunker because it feels like I'm hiding from the world somewhat, bomb shells going off, people dieing horrible deaths at the hands of mad folk and extremists, the health system letting folk die painfully in place of letting them have new yet expensive drugs (I live in the UK!) while I'm all safe and warm in my little arty bubble. Not a great feeling!
When I get really down about things I tend to remind myself how lucky I am doing what I do and if I feel slightly uncomfortable about it then that's a small price to pay. At least I'm not Canadian!
(you KNOW I'm joking here right?!)
(I actually wanted to be Canadian when I was younger! Honest!)
Thanks for the Pete Townshend blog link! I've had his phone number for years but never had the balls to call him! (Got that while organising a 48 hour drum marathon)
And you really shouldn't feel bad about not blogging as much as some folk do. If it becomes a chore then it's time to stop right? But hey, please don't you dare! ;)
Best wishes to you Colin!
Don't go pulling a Wally Wood on us, fer god's sake.
You're so emo these days, big fella!
Sorry to hear what a crappy time you've had recently. Do you think it has much to do with cabin fever? Locked away and toiling at your work without anyone else to bounce it off, without the excitement of others around you plying the same craft?
Is there any way you could get into a shared space with some other artists, comic artists if they're to be had? Just some other people to shoot the shit with and have coffee breaks with? Someone to make light of your shit pages and your good pages, keep it all from getting so heavy?
Any good inkers in melbourne you could bring on board?
While the last few weeks haven't been a ball of laughs around here, from what little I know about this stuff I doubt if it is anywhere close to actual clinical depression. More like advanced hypochondria...
I'm so used to the peace and quite of working alone, and so the idea of a studio sounds alarming. But having said that, I'm currently awaiting the arrival of a big Star Wars project which will no doubt come with some serious deadlines, and so a (local) inker might be a good idea...
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