More on Shiny Beasts
and the Veitch Universe,
Bissette Zombies,
Back from the Grave!
and My Sunday Bitchfest
While I'm shamelessly huckstering
Rick Veitch's upcoming anthology of his (and our)
Epic short comics creations,
Shiny Beasts, it occurs to me that an explanation for
Veitch's book title is in order, especially for those of you who don't know about
Don Van Vliet aka
Captain Beefheart.
Yep,
Rick's latest
King Hell book indeed appropriates its title from one of
Rick's stories collected therein -- "
Shiny Beast," from the
Epic magazine procession of tales
Rick crafted under the steady helmsmanship of vet writer/editor
Archie Goodwin -- but that story itself lifted its moniker from
Captain Beefheart's first solo album with the (new)
Magic Band after his live album with
Frank Zappa,
Bongo Fury (1975).
[An aside: Now, dig. When Bongo Fury came out, I was still in Johnson State College in Johnson, VT, dreaming of drawing comics and not knowing Veitch -- whose work I knew only from his underground comix collaboration with his brother Tom, Two-Fisted Zombies -- and it was in my lowly sub-human Governor's dorm sub-floor room, shared with Joe Mangelynx, that I first spun that brand-new Zappa/Beefheart album. I still recall my first listening, looking out of our picture window that overlooked the lower entrance to the dining hall and student post office and lounge, drinking in the new blast of Beefheart. Little did I know then that Rick was still in the belly of Bellow Falls, VT, keeping head above water and likewise dreaming of doing comics, full time and forever.] By the time
Beefheart's
Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller) (1978) hit, Veitch and I were best friends and had just graduated from the
Kubert School. Shiny Beast was an omen, a godsend, an adjunct to our new life -- as cartoonists, artists, making our way into the new world.
Shiny Beast was also a mind-blowing comeback album for
Beefheart after a fallow stretch, and it immediately became a staple spin in our lowly shared
Dover, NY digs (shared by yours truly,
Veitch, John Totleben, Tom Yeates and
Tom's girlfriend
Sue Balinski). What a record!
Every tune evokes memories for me to this moment.
"Apes-Ma" entered our lexicon (and sketchbooks), as did "
The Floppy Boot Stomp" (an uncanny bit of occult
Beefheart Americana) and all the other tunes on
Shiny Beast: "
Candle Mambo," "Tropical Hot Dog Night," the blissful "
Harry Irene," and my personal fave, "
When I See Mommy I Feel Like a Mummy."
It was inevitable that something more refined would emerge from the fusion of
Beefheart music and the comic art factory that is
Veitch's brainpan.
Now, ya gotta brush up on the Captain's bio and legacy,and understand how vital
Captain Beefheart's music was to
Veitch to grok the many links between the man, the music and
Veitch's "
Shiny Beast" story (and, for that matter, much of Rick's comics work). It was
Don Van Vleit's poetry, too, that mattered to
Rick, and evidence of that influence marks not only stories like "
Shiny Beast" (which is textless, but don't let that fool you) but also his "
L'il Tiny Comix" for
Heavy Metal (itself a spin-off from
Rick's homemade, one-of-a-kind
L'il Tiny Comix that were drawn over the years as birthday gifts over the years for many of
Rick's friends and family) and other key works, up to and including his most recent graphic novel
Can't Get No (DC/Vertigo, 2006). Knowing both
Rick's art and writing and
Beefheart's music and lyrics as I do, subterranean primal beats mark my every reading of these
Veitch creations; I hear the music in my head, heart, and it's as much an echo of
Van Vliet as it is
Rick's own iconographic visual tone-poems that coax these secret rhythms and unheard melodies from this humble reader.
So, Shiny Beasts owes its name to both Rick's one-shot Epic story (splash page pictured here) and Beefheart's album and legacy -- but there's more. Rick's graphic novel legacy began, of course, with our collaborative effort on the ill-fated
Heavy Metal/Simon & Schuster movie adaptation graphic novel
1941, which we completed in a heated couple of months in 1979 for publication at the end of that year (to coincide with the release of
Steven Spielberg's feature, which was his first theatrical and critical flop). A lot of
Beefheart fueled that work, too, though it isn't self-evident. The rocky relations
Creative Burnouts endured throughout that collaboration -- due in large part to my lackadaisical lack of discipline on the project, savoring as I was my return to my
Vermont roots, having just fled
Dover, New Jersey to live in a brick schoolhouse in
Grafton, VT, initially sans electricity or plumbing, driving
Rick nuts and making the whole thing even more of an ordeal than it already was, though we came through in the home stretch -- indeed burned us out.
Still,
that gig was landed in part due to
Heavy Metal art director
John Workman's shot at "
Monkey See," the story you'll see in its totality in
Shiny Beasts;
John dug what
Rick and I had done with that piece, even if it ended up at
Epic, and we were shoed-in-to
1941:
The Illustrated Story after
John's first choice,
Alex Toth, declined the project despite
John's best efforts.
Thus, the burnout of
Creative Burnouts via
1941: The Illustrated Story led directly into
Rick's most fertile creative relationship of the 1980s: his work with editor
Archie Goodwin. Archie was already a legend to our generation via his work as a writer in comics, credited (his scripts and editing chops defined the entire
Jim Warren horror comics line via the debut issues of
Creepy and
Eerie, etc.) and uncredited (
Secret Agent x-9 scripting for
Al Williamson,
His Name is Savage script for
Gil Kane, etc.), and
Rick couldn't have conjured a better editor or mentor in the wake of
Rick's tenure working with/under
Joe Kubert.
In terms of personality,
Archie was quite different from
Joe, but he lent as steady (though less paternal) guidance to this phase of
Rick's development as
Joe had to
Rick's years at the
Kubert School and just after.
Rick's work blossomed under
Archie's tutelage, no doubt about it, and one can still see and savor
Rick stretching and reaching for new vistas throughout this run of stories. It's
Rick's ongoing work with
Archie at
Epic that really brought
Rick's comic work to a whole new level, refining his considerable skills as an artist and storyteller via the procession of tales collected in
Shiny Beasts, and
culminating in Rick's first (serialized) solo graphic novel, Abraxas and the Earthman, which I reviewed here (and you can purchase via this link, too, via PaneltoPanel.net).
That
Abraxas review includes a bit more 'inside info' on the particulars of
Rick's relationship with
Archie and with
Marvel, and the creative theft that unfortunately cast a bit of a shadow over his triumphant run in
Epic with this serialized epic (one of the few works in Epic to deserve that word association). Given
Rick's recent first-time collection of that serialized work into a single volume, the leap between
Rick's first solo graphic novel
Abraxas and his latest,
Can't Get No (my review awaits you here, if you're interested), isn't as great as it seems, though literally two decades+ lay between their original publication.
There's also the further fruition of
Rick's and
Archie's creative dynamic evidenced in
Rick's
Epic miniseries
The One, and his
Marvel Graphic Novel Heartburst -- next in line in the
King Hell reprint series, I believe -- all of which is also worthy of revisiting, or reading for the first time, if all of this is new to you.
It's amazing to contemplate how almost
all of Rick's comics work is currently in print and available (from PaneltoPanel.net, natch),and what a remarkably consistent and cohesive body of work it is, too.
With the ongoing
King Hell reprint series placing all this in easy reach, and
Shiny Beasts gathering a previously 'missing link' in
Rick's artistic evolution between two covers at last, it's time to access and re-assess
Rick's place in comics history and his generation of comics creators. For too long,
Rick's work has been seen
only in the context of his most visible mainstream comics work -- his tenure on
Swamp Thing, initially with the team I was part of (
Alan Moore/Bissette/John Totleben/Rick Veitch), then pencilling the series during
Alan's final run as writer, then picking up the reins to write and pencil the series until the ill-fated
Swamp Thing #88 censorship debacle -- rather than in its true context.
Rick's distinctive chronology is only
punctuated, not
defined by, his work on
Swamp Thing: in fact, impressive as it was and remains,
Rick's
Swamp Thing work is arguably the
least of his accomplishments, given all he did before and has done after.
It's time to tap for many of you to catch up with, and on to, what
really makes
Rick's comics and comix tick -- and
Shiny Beasts provides an ideal entry point.
Reading while spinning the good
Captain's
Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller), on vinyl or CD, is likewise heartily recommended.
"Apes-ma? Apes-ma? Your cage is getting too dirty, Apes-Ma..."__________________
Bissette, Back from the Dead??
"Baby Blight" (c) 2007 S.R. BissetteI mean,
lots of zombies.
Twenty-nine of them, in fact, one of which will be living on the cover of the upcoming
Accent UK anthology
Zombies. The rest will be malingering inside, like maggots.
This is all thanks to
Leah Moore and John Reppion, whom Marge and I met and spent some great times with in Copenhagen, Denmark back in April of 2006 (thanks again,
Arni, for orchestrating the invite!). It was
Leah and
John who eased
Marge and I over to the
Accent UK booth at the
Copenhagen comics convention, where we met
Dave West and Colin
Mathieson, which inevitably led to talk of the planned 2007
Zombies anthology.
John in particular is a rabid zombie movie fan, which led to
John extending the subsequent invite, via email, to get involved. So, kudos to
John, Leah, Colin and
Dave for opening the door so generously and pleasantly.
This mini-
Bissette-zombie-jamboree you now have to look forward to also owes a huge debt to my son
Daniel, who co-created the four-page "
An Alphabet of Zombies" with yours truly (
Dan pencilled half the zombies and really pulled the whole thing together with his writing and sense of humor, which is a bit sharper than mine in these musical matters -- yep, it's a rhyme). Mind you, it was
Dan's invite to draw a comic for his fanzine
Hot Chicks Take Huge Shits in 2006 that got my appetite up for even doing anything for publication again.
There's also a huge debt due to
everyone at the
Center for Cartoon Studies.
Dave and
Colin were also up for the
CCS students contributing to the anthology, and a group of them did just that -- I'll post more info, names, and art on this blog in the coming weeks, offering a snapshot of the
CCSers whose work will appear in
Accent UK's
Zombies and a peek at images from their stories.
The conjunction of these various persons and places has led to the first of the comics work you'll be seeing from me in 2007. What are you waiting for? Time to visit
the good folks at Accent UK, and click on the Zombies link on the left-screen menu after scrolling down a bit. They'll be updating the site soon, as everything from
CCS and yours truly was
just turned in, and
Dave and
Colin will be making their final decisions of what makes the cut in quick order -- well, as soon as
Colin gets back from
Scotland, I reckon.
More zombie news, art, and tantalizing tidbits to follow -- keep your eyes on this blog!____________________
As of this morning, it was
impossible to post via the usual ("old") blogger dashboard. I was thus
forced to sign on to the new blogger service this AM, damn it!
This required reading and agreeing to the following contract, and there's nothing I love
less on a very early Sunday morning than being forced to read, and agree to sans negotiation, a contract. I take to Sunday AM contracts like cops to aviators -- hell, I'd even prefer to deal with a ruptured septic tank this early on a Sunday, thank you (and have).
Luddite that I am, though I intellectually grasp all the issues, particularly this new corporate consolidation of the blogger realm (it's been a-comin' since 2005), I
resent the transition process, which involved cow-towing to
Google's new corporate reality or simply disappearing from this space.
The reading of this contract took some time, given all the active links to additional conditions, terms and definitions one is agreeing to with a click, and it's a brave new world of infuriating contracts that waits for all of us ahead!
Those of you with blogs know the routine first-hand, and likely didn't resist as long as I did, but for you casual readers, here's the new terms. Let this make your Sunday morning, too!:
_________
Blogger Terms of ServiceWelcome to Blogger! Before you begin using Blogger, you must read and agree to these Blogger Terms of Service ("Terms of Service") and the following terms and conditions and policies, including any future amendments (collectively, the "Agreement"): * Google Terms of Service - Google's general terms and conditions (http://www.google.com/terms_of_service.html) * Google Privacy Policy - How we maintain and protect your personal information in Blogger (http://www.google.com/privacy.html) * Blogger Content Policy - How we promote free expression and responsible publishing (http://www.blogger.com/content.g)Although we may attempt to notify you when major changes are made to these Blogger Terms of Service, you should periodically review the most up-to-date version (http://www.blogger.com/terms.g). Google may, in its sole discretion, modify or revise these Terms of Service and policies at any time, and you agree to be bound by such modifications or revisions. If you do not accept and abide by this Agreement, you may not use the Blogger service. In the event of an inconsistency between the Blogger Terms of Service and either Google's general Terms of Service (http://www.google.com/intl/en/terms_of_service.html) or the Google Privacy Policy (http://www.google.com/privacy.html), the Blogger Terms of Service (http://www.blogger.com/terms.g) shall control. Nothing in this Agreement shall be deemed to confer any third-party rights or benefits.1. Description of Service. Blogger is a web publishing service and optional hosting service (the "Service"). You will be responsible for all activities occurring under your username and for keeping your password secure. You understand and agree that the Service is provided to you on an AS IS and AS AVAILABLE basis. Google disclaims all responsibility and liability for the availability, timeliness, security or reliability of the Service or any other client software. Google also reserves the right to modify, suspend or discontinue the Service with or without notice at any time and without any liability to you.You must be at least thirteen (13) years of age to use the Service. Google reserves the right to refuse service to anyone at any time without notice for any reason.2. Proper Use. You agree that you are responsible for your own use of the Service, for any posts you make, and for any consequences thereof. You agree that you will use the Service in compliance with all applicable local, state, national, and international laws, rules and regulations, including any laws regarding the transmission of technical data exported from your country of residence and all United States export control laws.You agree to abide by the Blogger Content Policy (http://www.blogger.com/content.g) and the rules and restrictions therein. Although we may attempt to notify you when major changes are made to the Blogger Content Policy, you should periodically review the most up-to-date version. Google may, in its sole discretion, modify or revise the Blogger Content Policy at any time, and you agree to be bound by such modifications or revisions.Violation of any of the foregoing, including the Blogger Content Policy (http://www.blogger.com/content.g), may result in immediate termination of this Agreement, and may subject you to state and federal penalties and other legal consequences. Google reserves the right, but shall have no obligation, to investigate your use of the Service in order to (a) determine whether a violation of the Agreement has occurred or (b) comply with any applicable law, regulation, legal process or governmental request.Much of the content of Blogger.com and Blogspot.com -- including the contents of specific postings -- is provided by and is the responsibility of the person or people who made such postings. Google does not monitor the content of Blogger.com and Blogspot.com, and takes no responsibility for such content. Instead, Google merely provides access to such content as a service to you.By their very nature, Blogger.com and Blogspot.com may carry offensive, harmful, inaccurate or otherwise inappropriate material, or in some cases, postings that have been mislabeled or are otherwise deceptive. We expect that you will use caution and common sense and exercise proper judgment when using Blogger.com and Blogspot.com.Google does not endorse, support, represent or guarantee the truthfulness, accuracy, or reliability of any communications posted via the Service or endorse any opinions expressed via the Service. You acknowledge that any reliance on material posted via the Service will be at your own risk.3. Privacy. As a condition of using the Service, you agree to the terms of the Google Privacy Policy (http://www.google.com/privacy.html), which may be updated from time to time, as expressed in the most recent version that exists at the time of your use. You agree that Google may access or disclose your personal information, including the content of your communications, if Google is required to do so in order to comply with any valid legal process or governmental request (such as a search warrant, subpoena, statute, or court order), or as otherwise provided in these Terms of Service and the general Google Privacy Policy. Personal information collected by Google may be stored and processed in the United States or any other country in which Google Inc. or its agents maintain facilities. By using the Service, you consent to any such transfer of information outside of your country.4. General Practices Regarding Use and Storage. You agree that Google has no responsibility or liability for the deletion of, or the failure to store or to transmit, any Content and other communications maintained by the Service. Google retains the right to create limits on use and storage at our sole discretion at any time with or without notice.5. 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These Terms of Service will be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of California, without giving effect to its conflict of laws provisions or your actual state or country of residence. Any claims, legal proceeding or litigation arising in connection with the Service will be brought solely in Santa Clara County, California, and you consent to the jurisdiction of such courts.16. Copyright Information. It is our policy to respond to notices of alleged infringement that comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. If you believe that your copyright has been infringed on the Service, please refer to http://www.google.com/blogger_dmca.html for information on how to file or respond to a notice of infringement.__________________
Whew! C'mon, admit it, you didn't really read it, did you?
Well, shit howdy, I did. Damn it.
Have a great Sunday...
Labels: Captain Beefheart, Google contract, Rick Veitch, Shiny Beasts, zombies. Zombies
Of course, all of this is gravy, really. Shiny Beasts is a collection well worth owning in any case, offering a one-stop overview of all of Rick Veitch's color comics work prior to his leap into the graphic novel form with the serialized Epic sf-adventure epic Abraxas and the Earthman (also recently collected by King Hell in a single volume, and essential reading). Actually, the Shiny Beasts body of work is sandwiched between Rick's first two graphic novels -- our collaborative effort on the Heavy Metal/Simon & Schuster movie adaptation graphic novel 1941: The Illustrated Story (1979) and Rick's Abraxas and the Earthman -- Rick really is one of the unsung pioneers of the graphic novel form, plunging into the expansive format a mere year or two after Will Eisner codified it with the pioneer A Contract With God (1977/78).
