Lessons in Bad-Assery

The above picture by Fred Bastide suits to the t what I am looking after.

Yes, I am working on one editing a Scifi comic anthology and writing few superhero comicbooks of not my origianl creation. And the King Kong vs Bin Laden. And a few others.

But my wrenched interest in Mythos revealed to us by H.P.Lovecraft still lurks in my arteries, corrupting my heart with it's venomous siren song.

And not just that either. The picture holds raw unabided redneck power in itself.

You see sometime ago I got in a deep conversation about comics and creating them. This happened as my calf was getting tattoo of picture of Hulk and Daredevil by David Finch.

In my life not that uncommon.

Anyways, the discussion went to conclusion that both dig hardboiled fiction, comics, great art and apocalyptic themes. And when it comes to apocalypse there isn't much better source of impending doom than the Old Ones.

You see Cthulhu mythos is fertile ground for any tale, from cosmic to personal, and while it (for very, very reasonably) has been used mainly in horror, there have been adaptations to other genres of storytelling.

But in the original stories of H.P.Lovecraft there was something else. As scary and disturbing as ancient gods beyond good and evil who do not care one bit.

No matter whether in Arkham city or seaport village of Innsmouth there was hints of decadence, a downseeped wrongness.

Lovecraft has been often accused of being racist, but majority of backwatery folks in his tales are wrong because of inbredness and madness almost unheard in comics.

If you disregard Preacher by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon.

Many consider it to be just a vulgar piece set only to reach and break new taboos in OTTness in comics. That's their belief and opinion and they are entitled to it.

It's a free world. Everyone has right to be wrong if they really want to, why should I stop them?

In Preacher Jesse Custer's family and most of Salvation and of course the holy bloodline are stircrazy in same vein as the great book and excellent film adaptation, the Delivarence.

As I write these very words it's nighttime and I am deep in similar ground.

As a kid I saw the next door neighbour of our cottage. Some six months after his failed suicide attempt. Done with shotgun in mouth.

There are far too many pieces of sibling "love" products that have successive birthdefects from inbreeding.

Well, that and moonshine.

And there were relatives chained up in attics and every now and then they escaped and were hunted down and shackled back away from public view.

So Innsmouth sounded very likely to me and Preacher might have as well been a documentary.

but that is only one part of the equation.

the other is tough guy action/crime story.

And with tough guy I mean real tough guys, Clint Eastwood or Chow Yun-Fat

I like the old school violence as action goes. And these actors I mentioned portray it. because they are actors. They have brains as well as brawn. They are heroes with tarnished reputation. Human-sized.

That is a hard act to follow or to do well, but if you don't set to do it well it's better not to do it at all. The mixture needs only frankness, willingness to tell things truthfully, without any sugarcoating.

I have thought of several Cthulhu-related stories, some scripts are under work and as such -off my hands. But here the thing is there is ample opportunity to engulf oneself into almost everything my dark heart craves for:

a detective story of hard knocks with faint air of apocalypse arising. The violently rough edges of noir passing ever so slightly into deep dark waters of occult paranoia. If I go and add a single femme fatale... well...I would read that.

I just hope the artist feels the same.

Gods wear lycra...occasionally

No, it's not next week, it's this week but I am bit like eldritch creatures of H.P.Lovecraft.

No, not unnameably horrific(usually) or driving people to madness(well.. ok, admitted) but to me time has no significance as such.
Yeah, it complicates life more often than not.

But during the boiling hot workday on friday I had revelation of sorts.
As the saying goes writers should write on what they do know.

I actually have already used this.
Working as a tinsmith and doing roofing I can say most acrobatics in Spiderman, daredevil et al are truly supernatural even with parkour.

But the idea I got came from work sweating in the sun under the arc welds searing heat.
There are almost no working class bluecollar superheroes.
Especially metalworkers.

Only one I know is "superhero" from Crazy 8, totally demented superhero-team of freaks in a supporting role in Garth Ennis's and John McCrea's groovy comicbook The Hitman.

The character?

Dogwelder.

Yes, he welds dogs into people.

Quite logical if you think about it.

But I was thinking something more ..realistic. Something with more gritty feel of a modern myth.
That is how I see most superheroes: epic mythical archetypes.
And I heard you in the backrow there! No, they aren't just silly guys wearing underwear on top of colorful fashionwear by Jean Paul Gautier.
And no, making construction worker into a street-level superhero isn't that far fetched.

After all they are the guys who have know-how of building stuff. Propably not a jetpack or a laserrifle but something practical. Something bit more crude then that, something that is designed to hurt and hurt plenty (most likely the operator too...).

Also they are used to physical work, have strenght and endurance and some of them (I have seen) are fairly acrobatic. Even up to afore mentioned parkour-style gymnastics.

so, that gives capabities up to a point, but what is their reason? Did their parents send them to earth with a rocket as their homeplanet Arcton was about to explode or did they witness their parents murdered in front of their very eyes but because that left the orphan dirt-poor he/she actually had to work hard for livelihood?

No, I mean besides working we talk during workdays through this I know that many of the bluecollar workers actually have wealth of knowledge and education. It's just that that kind of work is more of a real work: it has a reason, a meaning.

It gives a feeling that ones work does actually contribute something tangible. Real world solutions to real problems. And corruption and criminal elements are viewed with extreme hostility. The mindset of the Punisher is closer than that of Lee Falks Phantom's in our ranks.

Now as that is somewhat clear lets think powers or costume. After all welders do look like this:

Um.

Well, not quite like that.... Sometimes we work top off...no I mean..like this:

yeah, so we already have a costume.

And powers, well obviously welding and merging metals. This isn't Savage Dragon, one of finest comics(not just superherocomics, but comics, period) where there were supers applying to SOS the goverments superteam:

"So you are woodman, you can turn into wood and kick ass?"
"No, I can turn any kind of wood to any other kind of wood"
"Right....but you then are metalboy. You can turn into metal and kick ass right?"
"Yes I can turn to metal, but after that I can't move and people just hang clothes to me..."

I am not going on that road. Equipment and metalworking instead. Have to refine that a bit later on.

Now, one of main points in stories, the defining factor: the enemy.

These make or break the hero or as my beloved woman often has mentioned: Batman is boring but his villains and supporting cast are great. No, I don't agree with Batman being boring.

But what could be our welding hero's enemies?
Well, to me it's obvious:

The robot mafia.

Loads of mechanical monsters and digital criminal masterminds and one tough metalworking guy that stands in their way.

Oh jeez, where am I going to find the time to write this too?
Oh well, I just have to break the euclidian frame of time and space....again.
Darn.