Gallery – 2019 Daily Sketches 273-302

Here are 30 more of the half hour/daily sketches that I posted in 2019, now in one convenient gallery.

Story Seed #94
Move the Frame, Change the Rhythm

My wife has said that a story can be anything. It’s all in where you place the frame. It’s the lens through which you view the tale. It’s all in how the story is told. Based on modern adaptations most folks would assume that Beowulf’s story ends with him killing Grendel’s mother. His story is longer than that. And it’s a poem. In old English. Basically a foreign language. So most modern audiences experience the story as translations or adaptations or reimaginings.

And that’s fine. That what humans have been doing with stories for as long as we’ve been telling stories. We rewrite them for new audiences. Or because we wanted a different mood than what we got in the orignal. Or we thought the original ending sucked. Hamlet could be a comedy. Joan of Arc’s story is triumphant if you stop writing it before her betrayal the Burgundian Faction. The Hunchback of Notre Dame could be a musical with a happy ending.

Yeah.

It’s easiest to do this with a story that you didn’t like. One that left you unsatisfied. One of the things I enjoy about a story I didn’t like is thinking about how I would rewrite it to fit my tastes. The public domain is full of stories that don’t work.Pick one up. Figure out what bugs you about it. Once you strart moving the pieces around, once you see it from a different angle, it becomes something new.

Have I said this before? Probably. It’s been that kind of week. I write to remind myself as well as to speak to world.

Recommendation

Matt Howarth was one of my inspirations for comics back in the 90s. He’s still producing work and has a huge back catalog available. Check it out!

Local News

Jeez.

The last couple of weeks have been mind numbing. I’ve spent entirely too much time on Facebook, both on my phone and on my desktop. I voted, what, three weeks ago? And then it was all waiting. Last week was my Long Week (six days working in a row) and the weather got cold and rainy. I’d get up in the morning and scroll news sites and FB. While delivering mail I spent a lot time mentally writing political screeds. Once I got home I just wanted to forget about it all. Too tired. And I had art to finish. And plenty of other people had already posted some damned fine screeds.

On Saturday I got to work and discovered that our start time had been changed from 7:30 back to 7 AM. Apparently that had been announced on Friday and I’d missed it. So I was late but no one minded. I’d showed up. Enough other carriers called in that the rest of us were being mandated to work overtime to cover the missing carriers routes. Bleah. It was another long cold rainy day. I’d be finishing it delivering in the dark.

I was loading up my truck when we heard people setting off fireworks. The election was called for Biden and Harris. Relief. It’s amazing how much easier it is to do your work when you don’t feel a sense of impending doom.

Yes, there’s a lot of work to do. Yes, the vote was much closer than it should have been. Yes, there are far more obstructionists still in Congress than there should be. Biden and Harris are conservatives. I’d prefer some radical progressives. They are far far better than the guy who just lost. The people they appoint will mostly be in their positions to do their jobs rather than line their pocketbooks. For now, that’s enough.

My screeds can wait. There’s art to make.

I hope that you are also feeling a little lighter. Able to laugh a little more. Able to plan for a future. Thank you for dropping by.