1. How to Beat Trump, Musk, and Ye
2. Laziness Revolutionized Comics
3. Unexpected Joy of Music
4. They Live Angel, Part 1
5. Voting Man
1. Everything I Need to Know I Learned From the Fantastic Four
In Fantastic Four #11 Reed Richards and his team fought the Impossible Man, an emotionally stunted alien with overwhelming power. The more they fought him the more fun he had. Reed eventually figured out that the path to victory was by ignoring the alien. Once bored, he would leave. Starve the billionaire monsters of the attention they crave, ad revenues will wane and they’ll lose their power. That said, Trump should be held accountable for his crimes.
3. Lazy Innovation
Speaking of Fantastic Four, while teaching a class I thought about the story telling brilliance of the early Marvel Comics and how it sprang from laziness.
Stan Lee dictated a story in a few sentences.
“A scientist builds a spaceship for the government but it isn’t tested. He and three friends sneak in launch it early. In outer space they’re hit with space-rays. They crash back on earth and now they have powers like earth, air, fire, and water. A rock guy, a fire person, someone invisible like air, and another that can flow like water. They’ll team up and fight monsters.”
Kirby sat down at his drawing table and cranked out pages that had no words but told the story. Later, Stan would saunter back in and dictate dialog; “You’re the Human Torch because you’re on fire. No one can see you, so you’re the Invisible Girl. ‘What about me?’ says Ben. You’re hideous, you’re the Thing. I’m Mr Fantastic! We’re the Fantastic Four.” This origin story is about 5 pages. Stan Lee probably told Jack Kirby what to draw using about five sentences.
The visuals and words worked independent of each other. You could read the comic without reading the words. It made for dynamic story telling.
At Marvel, because of Stan’s laziness, artists were forced to work from the right side of the brain, visually. Other companies used real writers who wrote full scripts. Each page was carefully described and artists followed directions, very left brain. The results were stiff.
“Draw the Justice League at Thanksgiving dinner enjoying themselves. The Atom sits on a creamer, Martian Manhunter, Wonder Woman, Superman, and others raise their glasses in thanks. On the wall behind everyone are pictures of the Specter and other another guy and his sidekick. It’s well lit and everyone is happy. In the foreground, on the table there’s ham, sweet potatoes, turkey, beans, and gravy.”
Marvel: “Draw the X-Men at Thanksgiving dinner enjoying themselves.”
I don’t have evidence to back up my hare-brained theory other than reading old comics. Mostly, I was trying to get my students to tell stories visually.
5. The Unexpected Joy of TikTok
Towards the end of my Kickstarter campaign I realized I was depending on the invisible laws of Facebook and Twitter algorithms to reach people. Ben Carroll, a friend from High School, had some success posting timelapse videos solving Wordles. He encouraged me to make short movies of me drawing. I finally broke down and had him walk me through some productions. He’d been in a band so I used some of his music. Combining illustration and music scratched an itch I didn’t know I had. I tapped other friends for their music. Eric Din (from the Uptones), Jesse Michaels (from Op Ivy), Ben Arthur Ellis (the Way), John Seabury (Psycotic Pineapple), and Otis Heat. It was a great excuse to reach out to old friends and collaborate in a new, oddly fulfilling, way. Check it out.
6. They Live Angel Part I
Last year I saw the brilliant and perfect They Live ‘Consume’ Angel Tree Topper. This year I looked to buy one. I tracked down the artist on Etsy and ironically, or appropriately, he’d only made one. But he was happy to walk me through the steps of making my own.
“I used a styrofoam ball for the head and used epoxy clay for the sculpt. You could do a ball of aluminum foil and and Sculpy around it to keep the weight down. Yellow yarn for the hair is exactly what I used. Thin brass rod for the halo. The base of the body is a paper maché cone with a 1/4” PVC pipe that goes up into the head. The top stem(s) of the tree go in those of it to keep it secure. Or you could find a cheap angel tree topper and use the body.”
Updates on production coming soon. Also, next update I’ll talk about the amazing Visual Connective Tissue in Jack Kirby’s art!!!! Chat soon.
Your Pal,
Shannon Wheeler
PS. Here’s a cartoon I did around 1998 about someone basing their actions on internet voting. It’s a comic about Elon Musk before there were comics about Elon Musk.
10 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
That comment about how Marvel’s process led to more dynamic storytelling is brilliant, Shannon, thank you!