taimamahlao na promotion alert
For those who don't already know, B4K is the working title of a comic book that me and my two brothers, Jack and kuri (Jeremy) are working on. The artwork for issue one is almost complete, thanks to Jack's diligence and discipline. The words for the first three issues have already been written, thanks to my inability to pay attention to the professor or discussion in class, and preference to work on my own things instead.
So now, begins the period of shameless free promotion. I post about the comic on my blog and already about half a dozen people have given me their emails and expressed interest in learning more about it and purchasing it. One guy emailed me, excited about it, asking if I could tell him stores in his area where he could find it.
Patience. As we're still in the early stages, our production cycle is ridiculous (months upon months). Plus since we have no publisher except for ourselves (as yet), we make our own deadlines, which is a frightening thought, since I procrastinate over everything, and thus with no deadline to procrastinate towards, I constantly have this ambiguous feeling that I'm not doing my work, but that its okay, since the Onibocho (tinaga') which hovers over my head is being held by myself.
Those of you who receive regular emails from me, might also notice another shameless promotion. Beneath the link where I encourage people to come to my blog ("hoi, check out my blog fan!"), there is now another note, which teases the existence of B4K. Here's the text:
COMING SOON - B4K -
A Pump Fake Nation/ Panopticomix Production
Pictures: Jack Lujan Bevacqua
Words: Michael Lujan Bevacqua
Ankas: Jeremy "kuri" Bevacqua
Its nothing big, but if anything it'll force me to throw together some web presence for the comic, so I can actually put a link there as well, instead of an odd and potentially meaningless "coming soon" notice.
If you are wondering who are these groups doing the producing. Pump Fake Nation is my brother Jack's imprint, while Panopticomix is mine. In reality, neither of these imprints exist in the legal commercial sense, but are just the things we've always wanted to name our imprints if they ever did come into existence.
For those who don't know what the word ankas means, its a Chamorro word which basically means "freeloader." Our mas hoben na che'lu Si Kuri is attached to our project, but as he is still in high school, he is usually too busy being socially disciplined and conditioned to do much. He says he'll make a website for the project, but I'm not so sure that'll ever happen. What I'm hoping to get him to do is something both me and Jack loathe the prospect of doing, lettering.
As I've posted before, as time goes on, we'll be ready to release more details on the comic itself. As for what genre it might be part of, it contains all the creative influences in me and my brothers' lives. So there are elements of white fantasy (European warrior traditions) as well as warrior traditions from the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Latin America and the Pacific. Because of the world that we've cretaed, these different motiffs from across history and across the world can exist together. The framework of the world and characters however isn't traditional comic lore, but is instead based on my readings of psychoanalytical texts by Slavoj Zizek and Jacques Lacan. Therefore pyschosis, madness, the frying of memories, the use of fantasy to cushion trauma, the fundamentally splitness of each subject, these are all parts of the story and the world. But at the same time, the stories are intended to be socially critical, to make political statements about certain issues. Although at times, it might be very difficult to "get" exactly what is being said, that is exactly what I am intending to do, to make those points in a way that's hopefully different then the way they are usually made. Whether or not we can actually pull it off, I don't know, but it is definitely fun to just try it.
So now, begins the period of shameless free promotion. I post about the comic on my blog and already about half a dozen people have given me their emails and expressed interest in learning more about it and purchasing it. One guy emailed me, excited about it, asking if I could tell him stores in his area where he could find it.
Patience. As we're still in the early stages, our production cycle is ridiculous (months upon months). Plus since we have no publisher except for ourselves (as yet), we make our own deadlines, which is a frightening thought, since I procrastinate over everything, and thus with no deadline to procrastinate towards, I constantly have this ambiguous feeling that I'm not doing my work, but that its okay, since the Onibocho (tinaga') which hovers over my head is being held by myself.
Those of you who receive regular emails from me, might also notice another shameless promotion. Beneath the link where I encourage people to come to my blog ("hoi, check out my blog fan!"), there is now another note, which teases the existence of B4K. Here's the text:
COMING SOON - B4K -
A Pump Fake Nation/ Panopticomix Production
Pictures: Jack Lujan Bevacqua
Words: Michael Lujan Bevacqua
Ankas: Jeremy "kuri" Bevacqua
Its nothing big, but if anything it'll force me to throw together some web presence for the comic, so I can actually put a link there as well, instead of an odd and potentially meaningless "coming soon" notice.
If you are wondering who are these groups doing the producing. Pump Fake Nation is my brother Jack's imprint, while Panopticomix is mine. In reality, neither of these imprints exist in the legal commercial sense, but are just the things we've always wanted to name our imprints if they ever did come into existence.
For those who don't know what the word ankas means, its a Chamorro word which basically means "freeloader." Our mas hoben na che'lu Si Kuri is attached to our project, but as he is still in high school, he is usually too busy being socially disciplined and conditioned to do much. He says he'll make a website for the project, but I'm not so sure that'll ever happen. What I'm hoping to get him to do is something both me and Jack loathe the prospect of doing, lettering.
As I've posted before, as time goes on, we'll be ready to release more details on the comic itself. As for what genre it might be part of, it contains all the creative influences in me and my brothers' lives. So there are elements of white fantasy (European warrior traditions) as well as warrior traditions from the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Latin America and the Pacific. Because of the world that we've cretaed, these different motiffs from across history and across the world can exist together. The framework of the world and characters however isn't traditional comic lore, but is instead based on my readings of psychoanalytical texts by Slavoj Zizek and Jacques Lacan. Therefore pyschosis, madness, the frying of memories, the use of fantasy to cushion trauma, the fundamentally splitness of each subject, these are all parts of the story and the world. But at the same time, the stories are intended to be socially critical, to make political statements about certain issues. Although at times, it might be very difficult to "get" exactly what is being said, that is exactly what I am intending to do, to make those points in a way that's hopefully different then the way they are usually made. Whether or not we can actually pull it off, I don't know, but it is definitely fun to just try it.
Comments
Though the words from this Chamoru speaker comes from the opposite side of the world it echos the African words of Rastafari, Emperor Haile Selassie I's 1963 speech to the United Nations and forever immortalized through the song, "WAR" from the modern day prophet, Robert Nesta Marley:
"Until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned...Every where is WAR...That until there are no longer first class and second class citizens of any nation...Until the color of a man's skin is of no more significance than the color of his eyes...Me say WAR...That until the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all with out regard to race, Dis a WAR...That until that day, the dream of lasting peace, world citizenship, the rule of international morality will remain but a fleeting illusion to be pursued but never attained......"
"We cant give up the fight"
VM