Braddy Reads Set to Sea

Oh, man!  It's been National Poetry Month ALL MONTH and I haven't done anything to commemorate it.

...Wait, it's still April?  Okay, good, then I've got time to do some poetry appreciation.

So I'ma review a comic book, mmmkay?

Drew Weing's Set to Sea is a book I've encountered before.  Earlier this month, I found the book in a catalogue and decided to pick it up again.  And... well... it's really good.

No, like, REALLY good.

Set to Sea is the story of a poet who has fallen on hard financial times... probably because he's a poet.  He's got no money, he's got no credit, and he's... well, kind of a bum.  He's busy working on his next poetry a book full of nautical themed poems, but the writing's not getting him anywhere.  Then he gets pressganged.

The central theme of the book seems to be about how important it is for a poet/writer to experience life.  Ironically, the poet is only successful at writing poetry when he no longer NEEDS the income from poetry.  On the surface, the theme seems an obvious one:  OF COURSE the poet can't write a good poem about the sea until he actually goes out on the ocean.  That just makes sense!

The truth is, though, that's the type of message that most writers/artists need to hear.  Writing, even when it becomes an occupation, can't be the central aspect of a person's life.  If it does, then what else will they write about?

Set to Sea may very well be on my list of best comics of all time now.  It's a quick read - about ten or fifteen minutes - and it's beautifully illustrated.  Also, Set to Sea is a thought provoking and surprisingly serene book (except for one pretty violent sequence in the middle when our poet's ship gets attacked by pirates).  Well worth the read.

The Secret History of Mickey Mouse

You know, I've never really liked this mouse.

As recognizable as Disney's #1 guy has gotten, Mickey's always struck me as a particularly bland character.  He has almost no defining characteristics of his own beyond those little white-buttoned shorts he always wears.  If I were asked to try to describe his personality, I'd probably come up with a description that falls somewhere between Star Wars' Padme Amidala and a saltine cracker.

Then I checked out this bad boy:

Fantagraphics has been publishing collections of the original Mickey Mouse comic strips that ran in newspapers starting back in the 1930s, around the same time as the earliest Mickey Mouse animated films.  Whereas the films of the day were based mostly on the silly physical gags the characters could pull off, the daily comic strip by Floyd Gottfredson followed more of an adventure strip format, much in the style of Prince Valiant (I assume - I actually don't know anyone who's EVER read Prince Valiant).

I was surprised to discover a Mickey Mouse I had never known existed.  This Mickey was young, impulsive, and adventurous.  Here is a Mickey who isn't afraid to make mistakes.  A Mickey who is capable of throwing a punch, if needed:

 

A Mickey who, um, repeatedly attempts suicide:

A Mickey who is willing to put on blackface and... wait, what?

Clearly, this is NOT your father's Mickey Mouse.  Or your grandfather's.  It's more like your racist great-uncle's Mickey Mouse.

Thing is, unfortunate outdated prejudices aside, I think I like this Mickey much better than the one we've got now. Everything about him - from those goofy pie-eyes to his youthful arrogance - makes him so much more than a bland cardboard mascot. Mickey rose to be the mascot of the world's largest animation studio BECAUSE of his personality, and Gottfredson's comic puts that personality on display.

But, seriously, Disney will publish Blackface Uncle Tom Mickey but not Song of the South? How does THAT make any sense?

Most of the comic images actually come from volume 2 of the Gottfredson collection, Trapped on Treasure Island.  It's a REALLY good read.

Coming Storm

I've been a bit slow in my sketches recently, and I've had almost NO ideas for new sketches. Thankfully, Manelle happens to carry around a sketch generator with her, so I was able to mooch an idea off her.

The keywords I've got were "worried," "woman," and "snow." Turns out I can't draw falling snow.

This is actually the second rendition of the sketch. The first one I botched by trying to draw whirling snow spiralling out from the cloud. Sadly, that didn't quite work out, so I replaced falling snow with lightning. Lightning's easier to draw.

Those Darn Mormons: Tardiness and Entitlement

I don't know what it was - perhaps it's the late hours, the early mornings, or the fact that I had only one person come to my ward choir exercise I prepared. Whatever the cause, Sunday afternoon found me sitting in the church pew all sorts of ticked off.

I sat in church waiting for my 1:00 meeting to start at 1:15, slowly getting more and more annoyed. Anyone who lives in Utah is likely familiar with the term "Mormon Standard Time." Whoever coined the term observed a tendency among members of the LDS church to begin most activities late. Also, that person was probably a sadist.

While I waited, I shared with a friend my frustration that the choir rehearsal I had planned for that morning had been such a failure. My friend - a lovely young lady who is obviously very intelligent - simply shrugged her shoulders and said, "You probably should have offered refreshments."

And THAT just sent me over the edge.

Now, I understand that religion in contemporary culture tends to fill a need usually associated with social clubs in the past, but there IS, unless I'm mistaken, an element of worship and devotion still involved with religious exercises. Am I right in being distressed that the LDS culture gotten so entitled that they feel they can show up twenty or thirty minutes late to everything and expect to be fed?

Or is someone just being Mr. Crankypants?

Braddy's Leisurely Weekend Yields Two New Recipes

Man, it's been a long time since I've had a weekend that relaxing. Definitely not since I started working on lines for Blithe Spirit (opening May 4th at the Empress Theatre). So the fact that I had time to try out not one, but two new recipes makes me feel pretty good.

The first recipe, I'll admit, is a bit of a cheat. This recipe for a peach and yogurt soup comes from Desperation Dinners, a book of quick and easy recipes that all supposedly take less than twenty minutes to prepare. This "soup" is really just a glorified smoothie made from frozen peaches, orange juice, and vanilla yogurt. However, when it's all mixed up, it has the consistency of a soup, and really does deserve to be eaten out of a bowl with some blueberries mixed in as well. I found the soup just a little too tart, but delicious and refreshing nonetheless.

The second recipe took me a great deal more time to prepare. This recipe for tamarind and lemongrass chicken stir fry comes from the Mighty Spice Cookbook and calls for a lot of exotic ingredients I've never used before. The dish didn't turn out quite right - I think I mixed too much water in with the tamarind, so the sauce didn't thicken and stick to the chicken like it was supposed to. Still, it was a pretty tasty dish and one definitely worth revisiting... in another month or so, when I get free time again.

Let Me Tell You About Aldo, The Rockstar

I have the best friends. Anyone tells you different, and they're lying. And jealous. Yes, they're definitely jealous.

My buddy Aldo works for Night Flight Comics, and they played host a couple weeks ago to a Mr. Mike Mignola, who was in town for Horrorcon or some such convention. Now, I've never really been a convention goer, and with the rehearsal schedule for Blithe Spirit I wouldn't have been able to attend anyway. So Aldo was good enough to ask if I wanted anything autographed by Mike Mignola. I thought that was nice and gave Aldo my copy of The Amazing Screw-On Head to have signed. So now I've got this signature, right before my favorite story in the book, "The Magician and the Snake."


That's cool, in and of itself. But Aldo went a step further and also picked up this book, which features some writing from Mignola and great work by Jill Thompson, one of my favorite artists:


Oh, and he got Mignola to sign this thing, too:


(He also gave me the mask up at the top of the post, which is kinda awesome, too.)

So yeah, Aldo's pretty awesome. Any ladies who happen to encounter him on the street should give him a hug. Trust me, he deserves it.

Thanks, Aldo. Stay fly!

Artistic Overload

I've been pretty busy recently - a lot more so than usual. I haven't really discussed everything that's been going on, so I'll give a brief update here:

• I'm still executive director of The Jesters Royale. Due to a recent drop-off in personnel, we're only doing one show a weekend, which SHOULD mean that I have tons more free time, right? Well..
• I've got my resolutions I have to keep up on still, including a half hour of writing on my novel daily (18 chapters into the second draft!) and a daily sketch. Additionally, I've got a really strong desire to start on a SECOND novel and a one-act play, so any free time I have should go to those projects. Except...
• I don't have any free time to even dedicate to extra writing. I've been drafted into The Empress Theatre's production of Blithe Spirit. It's going to be an incredible show... but we only have one month of rehearsal time, so I have to memorize the entire 86-page script by next week. Tuesday, to be precise. So no spare time there.
• And, even if I DID have spare time, I've also just been made the choir director for my church group. We haven't had a choir before, so I'm starting that from the ground up.
  
  Did I mention that I don't actually direct music?

It's a pretty exciting time to be me. I have to be excited, because, if I'm not excited, I might just have to kill myself.

Anybody interested in the artistic exploits of S.R. Braddy is going to have a lot to look forward to in coming months.