Wow, what a lazy, lazy blogger I am. Randi finished this sketch a while ago, and I know all of our two readers (Hi, Sam! Hi, Elizabeth!) have been foaming at the mouth to see it. I’m supposed to do the words on this here blog, and I’ve been remiss. What can I say? I’m a schmuck. But our loyal readers are well aware of that.
About the sketch: If you remember, or if you read the last post, we were restricted to the words bear, aviator, hat. Randi’s been working on building a portfolio of children’s book illustrations of late, and you can definitely tell that this sketch is geared toward that end. My sole contribution is the vehicle—well, I muttered something about a foot and a spring. Then Randi turned it into this much cooler vehicle you see above, which flies much higher than I imagined (what I came up with was something like a huge pogo stick). I think I also suggested something to do with the bear’s teeth and level of scariness. Bravo to me, then, for pretty much nothing!
So, if this were a children’s book, what would the story be? I think you should write it, or at least tell me your idea. Where would a bear and a kid be going in this spring-footed bird thing-a-bob? What would you call such a contraption? (I’m trying to get at least one stranger to post on my blog before I die. A pathetic goal, but it would make me happy. For a moment. Then I would feel weird and go hide).
Fun factoid: the sketch above was supposed to be a quick drawing of a bowler hat. Just a simple hat to tide our two readers over until the real sketch was done. But Randi never stopped working on the temporary sketch. Then she erased the bowler hat (it was on the bear). The real sketch had to do with a weird kid in a bee costume (long story), but the fake sketch took over and became the real one. It happens. Someday maybe we’ll get back to the weird bee-kid drawing.
Next up, we think we’re going to do a short comic book. We aim to post at least a few panels up before the end of the holidays, and we’ll use our usual three-word restriction to come up with the idea. We’ve been reading a bunch of comics of late. Highlights include: Rabbit Head, Optic Nerve, The Umbrella Academy, Kim Deitch’s Midgetville, Anders Nilsen’s Big Questions—and many more. We’re still dilettantes, but we’re going to give it a shot anyway.
In other news, Randi is drawing something to do with a dress made out of leaves, among other projects. And the reason I’ve been remiss in my duties here is that I’m reading for PhD exams. 180 books by the end of May (waa hoo!). A few recent highlights: Crowley’s Little, Big; Coover’s Pricksongs and Descants; Diaz’s Oscar Wao; Faulkner. And a bunch of critical stuff from which I’m supposed to postulate notions about realism, naturalism, modernism, postmodernism, and so on. So, two loyal readers, you won't hear from me again until June, when I’m done postulating. (Kidding).
Seriously, though: The idea behind this blogxperiment—even if we can’t remember why we came up with the idea—is to generate our three words in the weirdest way possible. We’ll use those three words to make our comic. Ideas?
Posts
Bee kids sound like fun--would it just be a costume though, or are they actually bee/kids? And I think darts are always a good answer for finding new words.
ReplyDeleteAnother way to find words could be to take 10 random scrabble tiles and try to come up with as many words as you can. From that list, use Elizabeth's idea! Write out all the words and throw darts at them. As for a children's book idea...still thinking.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to check with my stats professor on some weird ways to generate words. Stats is all about the planned use of chance! Dying to know what inspired this. Anyway,I'm not a stranger, so I hope my posting on your blog won't make you run and hide. As for a story idea...it could be that this bear, so used to lumbering about on the ice, had dreamed nightly of being a bird in sky, near sun. Perhaps it became an obsession. And somehow, after getting kidnapped and sold to a suburban zoo, he met a super-smart kid, the kind that only exist in books, who managed to create the above-depicted bird sproinger to help him fulfill his dream. The bear may learn something predictably moralizing by the end. Like, it's awfully good to be a bear and it's no use dreaming of being something else. (Boo!) Or, don't trust kids to execute airborn-ish vehicles. For they will come to naught, after crashing!
ReplyDeleteSome generators for words.
Blindfold Randi. Put a pen in her hand. Spin her around until she dizzily falls onto a dictionary or newspaper. What did the pen happen to ink? If a word in dictionary or paper, so be it. Otherwise, include whatever object bears ink.
Fill 3 jars. One with nice stones. One with papers marked with numbers. One with titles of books in your apartment or at your local library. Steps: grab stones from the jar. Count and set aside. Pick a number from the second jar. Pick a book title from the third jar. Use the number of stones to determine a page in the book retrieved from the third jar. Use the number from the second jar to determine which word on the page (say, the 57th) to include. If the word is disappointing, like "the", consider reversing the number (to say, the 75th). These sorts of manipulations are of course allowed.
Signed,
M.K.B.
Or
Mansion
Kite
Blizzard
I feel famous now that three people have commented on our weirdo blog, and three wonderful people at that. I’m such an idiot that I don’t even know how to comment on my own blog; this is attempt number I won’t even tell you. Sheesh.
ReplyDeleteSam & Mosamurai: Darts! A super idea that is officially on my wish list. It means that I’ll be wearing a pirate patch next time you see me, but it will be worth the loss of depth perception. Where does one buy darts? Or do I have to steal them from a bar?
MK! (Marigold Kindergarten Butter!): You are stupendous, I love your story, and I think that “Don’t Trust Little Girls in Bird-Sproingers” is maybe my favorite children’s book moral ever. And consider Randi blindfolded, dizzy, with a handful of rocks soon. Brilliant!
(And I, who am no so brilliant, am hoping I can figure out how to darn dang to comment...but I think I've got it this time; I switched to Safari from Firefox...we'll see.)