Using the medium of the graphic novel to its fullest extent:
Perhaps to highlight the difference in defense mechanisms in a less literary-pedantic fashion, I’ll do it visually. This was always a concept I wanted to play around with for Water (stemming, probably, from Anji’s drug escapism?). Originally, the comic was going to be the same story told three times over, each from the perspective of a different main character, and each with a different climax based in that character’s conflict (mind, body, soul, sort of thing). That idea got trashed somewhere along the line but now I think I’m going to take what I liked from it and merge it into the current format of the comic.
There will be a sort of “Anji-vision” (or Vasily/Anjuli-vision) that will strategically pop in and out during the story. Haven’t polished off all the details for this yet, but various parts will be shown through their philosophical lens. The art style might remain the same, might change, but various stylistic things will change depending on how each character views things.
Anji is an escapist. He alienates himself from the others, doesn’t see the others as “human” in the way that he puts no effort into forging friendships or relationships with any of them. The first few pages of the first chapter are a sort of “Anji-vision” in how he melts through the glass and floats out in the open water (and, again later he falls through his bed into the void). Later, people might just melt into shadows, into two-dimensional charicatures, into machines, the scenery, jellyfish, bubbles, etc. There are already some scenes where he merges the Under- and Over-worlds (in the sophonophore polyp colony -> San Francisco park scene…). Need to map out a scene where this happens with humans. Perhaps in a Vasily/Anji ideological showdown (climax?)
Anjuli takes people in, recognizes and familiarizes them. She makes them human, revels in their humanity. At first I was thinking of having her over-sexualize everything, but that may be Vasily’s lens. She talks about sexuality, but in a more detached way, as if being in the Under-world the rules of “nature”/”evolution” that guide us, the “animal reproductive drives”, etc., are seen outside of their paradigm, revealed, and subsequently transcended. Not sure so much what to do with this. Maybe make people morph into her family? That seems like she’s not sublimating her loneliness/detachment, but being consumed by it. More on her later.
That leaves Vasily to the Cronenberg-esque sexualization of things. Fun weird metal-pipe genetalia time? This could be fun with jellyfish. Must remember to not go overboard, and not just pretend to be Cronenberg’s special-effects designer.
Funny thing about this picture, is how Anjuli is the one floating outside of the glass, into the void. I guess that’s Anji-vision for you. Perhaps this reveals something about their relationship… perhaps…
This is the first in the triptych. I spent about an hour on his face and then barfed up the rest of the sketch–his head’s a little disporportionate right now and I need to give more serious thought to the angle of the picture (looking down about forty degrees), and to the angle of his body–it’s supposed to look like he’s forcing himself into that contortion, as opposed to like I don’t understand the constrictions of human anatomy. Anyway, the background idea for this one right now is a series of rooftops at twilight (or maybe dawn) with clouds and birds flying, lots of railings and glass reflections. We’ll see. I’m not set on that idea yet.
The second features two people. And my gasmask fetish. Anyway. Need to fix up his pose a little bit, supposed to be high, tense shoulders and hands in back pockets, about a milimeter of space between his arm and hers. She’s holding the end filter of the gasmask to her heart to help him breathe. Need to also make his expression more tense and awkward and less stoned and exasperated-looking. They’re standing against a chain-link fence with a “danger, biohazard area no trespassing” sight (behind her head), and some silhouetted pre-apocalyptic-esque industrial goodness beyond that.
This photo is craptasmagorical. Anyway. Third and final, two people as one. They’re in an embrace laying down in a field of plants, haven’t decided if they’re going to be dead grass/dirt/rocks, or lush green grass/moss/clover yet, but in back of their head will be a spurt of (not blood) bright flowers (most likely will be red). They’re both holding guns to their mouths and holding the other’s hand over their gun–an indirect kiss. So the flowers will be like their brains blown out behind their heads, but life, not death. Rebirth. Whateverhaveyou. Which makes me think I want the rest of the shit they’re laying in to be more industrial wasteland (dirt, dead grass, shards of detritus, etc.) as opposed to a lush green field, but at the same time, that might be overdoing it a bit. Having them surrounded by life, by verdant green, might make the flowers less awkwardly contrived, more subtle, or beautiful, or something. Or not.
