Author Archives for Jay Babcock

Serpent Science

An unusual breed of Asian snakes can glide long distances in the air, and the Defense Department is funding research at Virginia Tech to find out why.

“Basically . . . they become one long wing,” said John Socha, the Virginia Tech researcher who has traveled extensively in Asia to study the snakes and to film them.

“The snake is very active in the air, and you can kind of envision it as having multiple segments that become multiple wings,” he said. “The leading edge becomes the trailer, and then the trailer become the leading edge.”

It gets stranger. During a technique not yet understood, some of the snakes can actually turn in air. What’s more, they all take a flying leap off their perch to get airborne, then drop for a while to pick up speed before starting the motion that keeps them aloft much longer than they would otherwise.

Socha’s initial research was sponsored by the National Geographic Society, but his most recent work and paper were funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The agency is involved in advanced military technologies of all kinds, and Socha said the physical dynamics of snake flight (and how other creatures stay in the air) is of great interest to the agency. (Washington Post)

Serpent Science: DARPA Wants to Know Flying Snakes’ Secret | Popular Science

Pentagon seeks flying snakes’ secret

FROM A HIGHER PLACE IN THE UNIVERSE

Linda Perhacs, interviewed by Daiana Feuer at LAWeekly:

“Young people in their exploratory years are making choices. It’s the choice between following the good energy in the universe or choosing to forsake that and follow the opposite. Follow the opposite, the problems are going to be maximum.

“[Some people that I knew] were experimenting with things that did not allow their lives to go full-term. I didn’t participate in that. I don’t need it! But, yes, it was everywhere and we lost a few that we loved. … I’m sorry, it makes me cry to think about this. … One died from an overdose, another, I don’t know if he’s still on the physical plane. Of these two people that I thought were so strong, I am the one that ended up being the strong one.

“We are all in this together. It’s not new versus old. Artists are going to approach the same questions of the old world with the tools of the new world. Just hopefully they keep their balance with the organic. We have to remember that these technologies require a power source. Without that they go down instantly. That power source is not man-made. It comes from a higher place in the universe.”

"WHEN REALITY IS THE WASTE LAND, WE MUST SAY NO TO REALITY": The Surre(gion)alist Manifesto

Came across this document in Issue No. 15 of the “Upriver/Downriver” newsletter, published sometime in the early ’90s, at that time edited by Freeman House and Seth Zuckerman. Sez there, “The manifesto was originally published in Mesechabe, the bioregional journal of the Mississippi Delta region.”

THE SURRE(GION)ALIST MANIFESTO
by Max Cafard

Dedication

Here we cast anchor in rich earth.
— Tristan Tzara, Dada Manifesto (1918)

“Just as the turtle cannot separate itself from its shell, neither can we separate ourselves from what we do to the earth.” —Ted Andrews

For our Mother the Earth, we set sail on Celestial Ships. Anchored in Erda, we ride the wind. For Gaia, we take flight, spreading terrifying Cafardic wings. No longer trembling at the emasculating, defeminizing sound: the Name of the Father. We re-member Mama. Papa dismembered Mama. We now re-call the suppressed Names of the Mother. Anamnesis for anonymous Inanna. A surre(gion)al celebration, a Manifestival for Mama Earth. This is dedicated to the One we love. For the One Big Mother, in her thousand forms, here it is: the Mama Manifesto (1989).

Principia Logica

Breton said “we are still living under the reign of logic.” Today this is true more than ever. Indeed, we are now living under the Acid Rain of Logic.

There are Logics and there are Logics. Eco-Logics, Geo-Logics, Psycho-Logics, Mytho-Logics, Ethno-Logics, Socio-Logics, Astro-Logics, Cosmo-Logics, Onto-Logics, Physio-Logics, Bio-Logics, Zoö-Logics, et cetera.

Yet all of these are transformed into subsets of the one universal Techno-Logic. Techno-Logic, the death of Truth. Techno-Logic, the enshrinement of Truth. The burying of Truth under a crushing burden—under a Wealth of Knowledge.

Authentic knowing requires the “search for Truth,” the pursuit of Truth, the chasing after Truth, the hunger and thirst for Truth, the following of Truth along all her devious paths of Logic, through her labyrinths of the Logics. It means climbing logical mountains, plunging to logical ocean bottoms, traversing an infinitude of unparalleled planes. The search for Truth means always allowing her escape.

Scrambling the Cosmic Egg

“The Region regions” said Heidegger the Egg-Hider, hiding his eggs. Edelweiss und Eselscheisse! Scion of a Scheisse-ridden race! Shyster Lawyer of Being! The “Region” does not “region.” It’s exactly the reverse. (For the Time Being).

Where is the Region, anyway? For every Logic there is a Region. To mention some of particular importance to us, the Surre(gion)alists: Ecoregions, Georegions, Psychoregions, Mythoregions, Ethnoregions, Socioregions, and Bioregions.

This is no joke! We are Bioregionalists only if we are Regionalists. And once we begin to think Regions, we discover a vast multiplicity. Of Regionalisms and Regions, of Regions within Regions, and Regionalisms within Regionalisms. Thus, Surre(gion)alism.

Regions are inclusive. They have no borders, no boundaries, no frontiers, no State Lines. Though Regionalists are marginal, Regions have no margins. Regions are traversed by a multitude of lines, folds, ridges, seams, pleats. But all lines are included, none exclude. Regions are bodies. Interpenetrating bodies. Interpenetrating bodies in semi¬simultaneous spaces. (Like Strangers in the Night).

Region is origin. It is our place of origin. Where all continues to originate. Origination is perpetual motion. Reinhabitation means reorigination. We return to our roots for nourishment. Without that return, we wither and die. We follow our roots and find them to extend ever deeper, and ever outward. They form an infinite web, so all-encompassing that uprooting becomes impossible and unthinkable, deracination irrational.

Regions are multiple and arbitrary. Techno-regionalism says, in a Techno-Rational rage for definition, that when less than 90% of the species of one defined area are present in another defined area, then each is a separate Bioregion. How Techno-Logical! How Scientific! Or so it sounds. For such a definition is entirely self-annihilating, and absurd in its very technicality. This is, of course, its beauty. It is entirely valid, if taken as part of the Science and Logic of the Absurd. An infinite number of Regions can be defined by such criteria. Occasionally the Region will run after a stray organism (calculator in hand). This is a hallucinogenic Logic. (Though it is seldom taken in this way—even in small doses).

The Region always suffers the danger of capture by Techno-Logic. But Science can also be captured by the Aesthetic. Thales, the first metaphysician and scientist, said “All is Water,” and thus became the first humorist, also. And Technics can also be captured by Erotics. (Fourier proposed a “New Amorous Order” in his Phalansteries, based on tactics of Utopian Technique.)

Off Center

The Region is the end of Centrism. Centrism is an obsession. Perhaps there’s nothing wrong with obsessions, as long as we know that we’re obsessed. Take, for example, Mr. Alan Fairweather, whose entire life revolves around his obsession with, study of, and consumption of potatoes. In Mr. Fairweather’s words:”I suppose you could say I have a potato-centric view of the world.” (Newsweek, 5/30/88.) But centrists are seldom so healthy.

Anthropo-centrism has been our world-champion Centrism. It’s come close to K.O.ing the Earth (a T.K.O.—a Technical Knock-Out). But it’s long been on the ropes. Astro-Logic knocked Anthropos off Cosmic center. Bio-Logic knocked him off Planetary center. Psycho-Logic even knocked him off Ego center. And Techno-Logic itself melts him into air. We hardly need any post-structuralist Post-Logic to “de-center” the vapor that remains.

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MOORCOCK ON 1967, ROCK N ROLL, SCIENCE FICTION, MONEY AND SO ON

Author Michael Moorcock, interviewed by Ben Graham at The Quietus…

“I’m actually very anti-nostalgia, but I am interested in the past… I’m nostalgic for 1967, because that was when I was young and having a wickedly good time, but that’s about it. I knew that the 60s weren’t going to last, and so I decided that this is a golden age, and that it’s probably got about another 10 years, and I’m going to get everything I can out of it! And I had a great time. When people say, this didn’t happen or that didn’t happen, well, you weren’t there mate, you know! So yeah, that’s the only nostalgia I have, and even that, you know… I was also doing bad things as well, just bad things that everybody does, as it were.

“The thing was, everyone was in Ladbroke Grove or Notting Hill at that time; there were bands everywhere, and you felt that there was something wrong with you if you didn’t play some sort of fretted instrument! Almost everybody did, and I’d been in bands before that; right from the 50s; I’d been in a skiffle group, and I made that transition to blues, R&B, the way a lot of people did. And then I’d kind of given it up because I found it was more comfortable to sit there working in a chair than sitting in the back of an old van, and then being screwed when you got to a gig, the usual sort of crap. So I just stopped doing it. I’ve said this a lot of times but I think it’s actually worth saying: a lot of us did this, we went for rock & roll and science fiction because they weren’t respectable, and there was no criticism at all. There were no magazines that dealt with it; there was no body of criticism. There was nothing. Melody Maker, if you were lucky, you got a cartoon of Elvis Presley in the back, and they didn’t think it was going to last.

“But it was something that you could make of it what you wanted. So you went into the studio – when you went into the studio – not really knowing what you were going to do. And sometimes it was better than you thought it was going to be. Sometimes it was bloody awful. But again, it was just that sense of having something that was your own. I think that gaming [role-playing games, such as Dungeons and Dragons and Runequest, which frequently drew on Moorcock’s work] became that for another generation, and there’s other stuff that goes on. I think if you’re 18, you’re always going to be looking for something where there isn’t your dad telling you, you know, how it should be or how it used to be. You’d rather somebody said ‘what the hell are you doing, wasting your time?’ Now it’s a respectable career. ‘Dad, I want to be a rock & roll musician!’ ‘Okay, we’ll send you to rock & roll school!’ And it’s just not, you know, who wants to do that?

“I think the 60s were really about ’63 to about ‘75; I mean what people call the 60s. I see it as finally ending with Stiff’s last tour. That was for me the kind of end of it all, the last record company that had come up from nothing, that was really going after new talent, that was really wide open to pretty much anything, a very broad spectrum of popular music. And classical music, if anybody had gone to see it. I know [Stiff label boss] Jake Riviera, if somebody had said to Jake, come on Jake, let’s get Birtwhistle, he’d probably have said yeah, alright, great, let’s try it. And that was in a sense what the so-called sixties were all about. But it also happened because there were huge amounts of money, and we were the richest kids that had ever been, and have ever been. That went as well. I think the tricks that Margaret Thatcher played on us all put the money into the hands of the powerful people who were interested in money. But for a short while the money was in the hands of people who were actually interested in doing something with the money.”

"Untranslated" by Rosaire Appel

Rosaire makes lovely experimental comics written in abstract languages for the brain to decipher.

“untranslated” is an abstract comic with asemic writing.

It’s true I’m more interested in possibilities than conclusions. Is this a fault? Refining a possibility to the brink of resolution, keeping it in a state of suspension… The infinite combinations of writing and images make for a continual renewal of language.

http://rosaireappel.blogspot.com

Brian Chippendale interview / Book tour with C.F. this weekend

Brian Chippendale and C.F. are hitting the road this weekend to do a book signing tour along the west coast for their new works, If ‘n Oof and Powr Mastrs 3.  Chippendale and CF will present slide shows about their work, answer questions, and sign books.  At their Portland stop here at Floating World Comics, we are also honored to welcome local writer, Matt Fraction, who will interview the artists about their work.  I’m anticipating the comics crossover of the century.

I read both of the new books multiple times this past week. Powr Mastrs 3 sees C.F. taking his incredible artwork to the next level. It’s a science fiction adventure comic, but I’d probably compare it to interpretive dance before comparing it to Jack Kirby. Papa don’t take no mess.

If ‘n Oof is an 800 page! chunk of comic, literally a Picturebox. But it reads fast with lots of humor and surprises. The first time through is a visceral experience. The book almost animates itself as you turn the pages. Multiple readings reveal that the surreal story actually ties together with lots of layers and backstory.

Chippendale has had a busy weekend, getting ready for the tour, but he had time to do a quick interview with me about his new book.

Jason Leivian: I want to start with some questions about the characters and world of If ‘n Oof.  Does this land have a name?

Brian Chippendale: If ‘n Oof takes place in and above a giant crater. Inside the crater is called “The C.” A mountain range separates The C from the city of Grain (now called Grave), the setting for my Ninja book and also my new comic Puke Force.

JL: There’s a huge cast of characters in the book. Many characters you only meet once and each reveals new information about the world they live in. Doctor Payne has apparently created a lot of the lifeforms in this story through his experiments. Does he have much power and influence in this world, or is he just more of a mad scientist?

BC: Doctor Payne is a major player in this book, but he is also a victim. There are more major players than him, specifically The Nine, who are actually a shattered god divided into nine pieces. Worshipped by nine different cults. This is barely, possibly not at all recognizably, referenced in the book. The Nine are also mentioned in Ninja. Doctor Payne does research for the Nine but was also wronged by them and craves vengeance. He has been populating The C with his failed creations but doesn’t have much power over these creatures after that. He’s really just a semi-successful businessman/scientist with a host of issues. But he does have power for sure.

JL: At the beginning he refers to something called Operation Dreamworld.  At the end of the story, we hear about Operation Bloodworld.  Are these two outcomes related?

BC: Operation Dreamworld is Doctor Payne’s plan to put all the citizens of The C and surrounding areas to sleep and use them as human batteries. Operation Bloodworld refers to a feud Payne has with a being who lives under The C, in The Ancient City. These Operations are separate, but are rooted in a greater scramble for the natural resources of The C.

JL:  Is If some sort of artificial life-form?

BC: Good question. Aren’t we all?

JL:  Good answer. After reading the book I started thinking that all human beings are almost clones of each other. Most of our genetic material is so similar with just slight variations here and there.

BC: Interesting train of thought. Are we all clones of Adam and Eve? I like how tech terms like “hardwired” are creeping into descriptions of people. That we are “hardwired” to be act a certain way. Will there be a discovery that we have been super advanced organic machines the whole time? At some point as technology gets smaller and crazier, will there be a difference between sentient and not?

JL:  They refer to If as I-6/B and also mention that he may have a twin brother I-6/A, the failed creation from the opening scene.  There’s also some other relatives like Uncle Ouch and Cousin Eek. I couldn’t quite keep it all straight. Do you have these backstories and relationships worked out in your notes?

BC: There are several “I” models in development on the SciCitadel. Uncle Ouch has a story but Eek is not really developed. There is also an Auntie Em, short for Auntie Empathy.

JL:  Maybe it’s some sort of Wizard of Oz fantasy inspired by the 16 Assassins comic book, where If has a dreamlike adventure in the crater. Oof could be like his Toto?

BC: Hmmm. If Oof is Toto, perhaps If is Journey? Where is Styx? Yes. This is the kind of shit I root my stories in. Funny reference. Now just to set the record straight, there are absolutely no dream sequences in the book. It is all hard, cold reality.

JL:  Good, I like that better. The pacing of the book is a lot of fun. Almost every page is a single rectangular panel and the book almost seems to animate itself as you turn the pages. These are punctuated with incredibly detailed, double spread, full bleed splash pages that are as surprising as they are fun to look at. Did you get to experience the timing of these punchlines as you drew the book?

BC: I made physical mock-ups of each chapter as I went. It took a lot of time to make each one and then I would change the chapter and have to make a whole new mock-up. I have a large pile of glue-sticked together chapter books. It had to be done so I could see if it would read correctly and really flow.

JL:  Someone told me that you drew Maggots kind of like a steady drum beat. I imagine that would be a bunch of 1/16th or 1/32nd notes. If ‘n Oof definitely has a nice rhythm to it. Can you imagine a soundtrack or what kind of music would go with the chapters?

BC: I had some soundtrack ideas. In chapter 1 when IF is in the bathroom and the room next door talking to the robot guys I was listening to a lot of Raymond Scott. So it would be Soothing Sounds for Babies for that part. When the Benjo-Men show up it would like a more evil Tibetan chant. It’s mentioned that they sing a spooky song. There would be a series of ice cream truck songs for some of the boy scenes. I had some more music ideas but I have forgotten them. I would play certain stuff when drawing certain scenes to get the mood right.

JL:  Did you draw the pages basically in the same order they appear in the book, from start to finish?  Was it improvised or scripted out?

BC: It began utterly improvised, and some of those improvised pages landed in the second half of the book. The scenes where the Boys start appearing. After that I worked backwards to get the characters to that point and finally did the closing chapter and some additional middle scenes. Maybe halfway through I began scripting/penciling and inking much of it so I could steer the mess I had made to some sort of logical conclusion. I like brainstorming a ton of crap with no rules or plan and then quickly jumping in before I can get a grip on it. Then after a while I try to sculpt what I have started into a more recognizable form but due to the senselessness of it’s beginning it retains some elements based in what might be bad idea.

JL:  Is this possibly an all-ages book?  I imagined giving it to my younger self and I’m guessing it’s something I would not have understood, but would have wanted to enjoy anyway. It seems to be a cartoon adventure at heart. Oh wait nevermind, I see there’s some language in the book. I guess it would be like coming across a Bakshi cartoon as a kid.

BC: I thought about cleaning it up as I got near its finish really because it was so close to being a kid’s book. There is some violence that’s over the top I could have removed or softened, but I decided to leave it in and then add even more for chapter 8. So it’s not for kids, but it is a bit schizo in terms of it’s audience. Because it also is for kids. Kid’s these days have seen way crazier shit than what’s in If ‘n Oof. Well, teens have. I would like to make a less gruesome kid book someday. Kids will find it. You cannot stop the children.


JL:  That would be great if kids found this at their public library. I think kids like finding stuff above their reading level anyway. I started reading Stephen King in 4th grade and my favorite comics were the gory ones, Tales From the Crypt and Fist of the North Star. Did you get into comics as a kid? Even before music?

BC: I got into comics I think around age 10. Before that I was probably looking at AD&D books my older sister had to see weird stuff. The comics where G.I. Joe and Marvel stuff. Nothing too gory. It was probably not until high school or late junior high that my friends and I got into watching horror movies all the time. I can’t remember my first encounter with truly shocking imagery. The Faces of Death movies? And when I was buying G.I. Joe I was listening to Van Halen. I was middle of the road all the way till 9th grade, and then my hair started getting long. I discovered Metal Edge magazine and South Street in Philadelphia.

JL:  Are Master of Boys and Doctor Payne related?  What about that hippie character at the end?  They all seem to look similar and have moustaches or beards.

BC: No relation that I know of. Other than being gross half-poisoned adults. Don’t all adults have mustaches?