Alex de Campi: Gojira!

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WHO

FILM & TV

COMICS & BOOKS

21.1.05 The Six Temptations

1) The conscious desire for acclaim
2) The desire to resort to technical cunning
3) The desire to display one's skills
4) The desire to overawe the reader
5) The desire to play a passive role
6) The desire to rid oneself of any of the above

Number six is the bitch, isn't it? From the seventeenth-century osho Yagyu Tajima no Kami; originally written about swordfighting. Found in Richard Cohen's By The Sword, a book I am enjoying immensely. I adjusted the temptations slightly for the writing life (replacing victory with acclaim, and opponent with reader).

It has been a long and unpleasant week. To console myself, I daydream of convincing Glenn Barr to paint comic covers for me. Barr's art is like what happens when Jet Girl and Foxy Brown go for a night on the Mai Tais, and I love it more every day. But for the near future* it looks like this is the closest I will get: his (and others') Lowbrow Art skins for iPods. I covet these to a degree I probably shouldn't disclose in public.

*Although you never know. Anything can happen on Planet Alex, and usually does.

( 10:02 PM ) (0) comments

17.1.05 Unique Forms of Continuity in Space

This week, I'm all about Italian Futurism and typography. I now desperately want to write a war comic, in which all the sound effects are lettered in the style of FT Marinetti's "free language" evocations of noise and battle:

Ah, to find someone crazy enough to draw (and letter) such a beastie.

( 4:01 PM ) (0) comments

13.1.05 You Can Never Go Wrong With Gorillas

The below image from a conversation Dino and I were having last week about stupid comics we love:

I love that the secret to world domination can be discovered via two Robert Louis Stevenson books and a Melville novel. "Ha! I laugh at your ICBMs, puny human! Using the mystic force of Pulp Sea Fiction I will vanquish you!" Next issue: the man-ape discovers Patrick O'Brien, and the universe is his! Eat shit, Da Vinci Code.

Still, it's made me think what three books I'd want if I were taking over the world. I reckon: Livy's HISTORY OF EARLY ROME (says everything there is to say about government); Machiavelli's THE PRINCE (takes up where Livy left off); and Campbell's HERO OF A THOUSAND FACES (nothing like being able to justify mass conquest via the heady mix of divine right and Freudian psychology).

Meanwhile, it's that convention-planning time of year again. My pass just arrived for Angouleme, and I've had to book my hotel for SDCC today (I'll be at the Hilton). Bristol preparations are also in full swing. Kieron Gillen and I are planning to do another COMMERCIAL SUICIDE anthology for May, and we'll be opening submissions in February.

I'm also doing a self-published digest-sized anthology, DEFECTIVE COMIX. So far the plans are for a 40-page surrealist murder mystery, "The Wild Swan", with Arthur Goodman, and I'll be putting in the "6 Characters" short horror story I did with Rob Croonenborghs. Hopefully Matthew Craig will be contributing a bittersweet romance story. Anyone else who has an offbeat black and white story for which they want to find a home, let me know. I'll organise a nice colour cover and proper binding, like we do with COMMERCIAL SUICIDE, and flog it via Lulu and this site after the con.

For the artistically inclined, Adrian Brown is doing a third Just One Page charity comic (warning: seriously ugly website) for Bristol, with the theme of Great Team-Ups. This year, he's raising money for Childline. I'm drawing a WONDER WOMAN vs TANK GIRL page.

( 11:54 AM ) (1) comments

11.1.05 Artemis Films: Nice People

Simon Ruben of Artemis Films says nice things about me in today's ShootingPeople email:

"To anyone [director/producer] looking for a writer to work with: I just finished working with Alex de Campi. I picked her from a bunch of writers that replied to a posting and thought I should indulge in some shameless promotion for Alex. She worked quickly and efficiently and, importantly for the timeframe we had, was very quick on the uptake with how I wanted things changing. If anyone is looking for a top notch writer I recommend her without hesitation."

I worked for Simon script-doctoring Artemis Films' short psychological thriller, SISTER. Principal photography on it begins next month.

If you are interested in becoming involved in independent film in the UK or in New York City, you really should subscribe to the ShootingPeople daily emails for directors, producers, animators, writers and more. I've gotten three gigs from their network, including my feature commission - all this without an agent.

( 11:04 AM ) (0) comments

10.1.05 As Idleness Descends On Primrose Hill...

I have finished the rough draft of SMOKE book 3. My short film producer is happy with the final re-write of SISTER. I've tidied up Issue 1 of my urban teen superteam thingy and it's with the artist. I've sent off a synopsis of THE WILD SWAN (a weird, absurdist manga short) to the other artist and am waiting to hear back if he'll draw it. My feature film producers are not back in the UK until next week.

I have nothing to do. It feels... strange. I think I'll take my sketchbook and go to the British Museum tomorrow.

( 9:08 PM ) (0) comments

7.1.05 Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr Raymond Chandler:

To his editor at Atlantic Monthly - "Would you convey my compliments to the purist who reads your proofs and tell him or her that I write in a sort of broken-down patois, which is something like the way a Swiss waiter talks, and that when I split an infinitive, God damn it, I split it so it will remain split, and when I interrupt the velvety smoothness of my more-or-less literate syntax with a few dozen words of bar-room vernacular, this is done with the eyes wide open and the mind relaxed but attentive. The method may not be perfect, but it is all I have. I think your proofreader is kindly attempting to steady me on my feet, but much as I appreciate the solicitude, I am really able to steer a pretty clear course, provided I get both sidewalks and the street in between."

To a journalist friend, advice on the friend's upcoming marriage - "Above all, never forget that a marriage is in one way very much like a newspaper. It has to be made fresh every damn day of every damn year."

( 7:16 PM ) (0) comments

5.1.05 The Idea vs The Page

I'm on about page 41 of SMOKE book 3. We had done so much that felt interesting, in terms of formal innovation, in book 2 that I had been afraid to sit down to book 3. The more you get used to the muse coming whenever you snap your fingers, the more the fear grows that one day she won't show up at all.

I grit my teeth and started to write. (The only way to begin is, well, to begin.) The book came faster and better than I expected, and I think we'll at least match the visual spark of book 2. And then I came to a screeching halt in the late 30s. This was one of the climactic scenes, and contained a good bit of the dialogue and concepts on which I conceived SMOKE. Theoretically, it should have been easy. After all, most of it was already written, had been so from my earliest ragbag of story notes and outlines.

Over the course of long walks, I faced that frequent but never comfortable moment of writing: the moment when you admit something you love must be killed for the greater good. All the dialogue I had written for the scene, all the clever turns of phrase, all those great images: delete. In the context of the flesh and blood book that had been written (as opposed to the insubstantial vision for which that dialogue had been sketched out) they now looked heavy and out of place. Just this afternoon I rewrote the scene. I'm finally happy with it. Well, as happy as I am with anything, and considering that works of art are never finished, only abandoned.

Meanwhile, a page from book 2:

( 7:42 PM ) (0) comments

3.1.05 Aargh.

For avoidance of doubt: I had absolutely zero knowledge of or input into this week's Lying In The Gutters. Everything supposedly said by me was made up by Rich Johnston. Rich, I AM NOT INTERESTING OR NEWSWORTHY! Go find someone else to write about! Also, *grumble* I haven't actually pitched anything in six months, as I'm too busy dealing with existing stuff.

( 1:45 PM ) (0) comments

State Of The Alex

Several of you have emailed me to say you're happy I've started doing Dispatches again. Thank you - feedback means a lot. I just chuck these stories out into the aether, with very little idea if anyone reads them or not. I've rearranged the Amphigory section to reflect the two most recent Dispatches (29 and 30). I won't go back to writing Dispatches weekly, but they will continue to appear intermittently. I've also added a Bad Satirical Poetry section to Amphigory, as I intend to ruin more great poems over the coming months. Writing rhyming satire is fun.

News in the Film section, too. When my Marvel deal went south, I filled the gap in my schedule doing a script doctoring assignment on a short psychological thriller, Sister, for Artemis Films. Principal photography begins next month.

( 1:19 PM ) (0) comments