Kangaroo Lapinicus
Nov. 25th, 2002 02:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jakebe
Hey there, all...
Read the first little bit of The Last Unicorn today. If a book can make you cry in the *first five pages*, you've either got something really special in your hands or you're a grade-A sentimental yahoo. I'm guessing I'm a little bit of both.
This weekend was kind of fun, actually; I got to spend a lot of time at home and I did absolutely nothing but slack off. It left me in a much better position to attack the mountains of work at the Bookshop and brainstorm about various projects writing-wise. I visualized pretty much all of Issue 0 of "Bird" in my head -- "Bird" is an idea for an actual comic book that I've had in my head for, oh, maybe a year now...another one of those slice-of-life tales of self-discovery I seem to be so fond of.
Basically, the story goes like this: a celestial event that is supposed to spell the death of all life on Earth (but 'more importantly' mankind) doesn't, but instead alters things to allow furries to exist. I actually have a pretty exact explanation of how this happens, blending little bits of quasi-science, New Age and Christian mysticism, but I'll hold off on spazzing about that until I have it down concretely, in notes.
Anyway, the transformation of humans into furries (of course) takes place around puberty or shortly thereafter, and it's *never* pretty. In fact, the farther removed the animal you eventually become is from the human race, the worse the transformation is. There are even rumors of tree-men running around, but anyone who's survived a transformation into say, a lizard, without going insane would tell you that it would be next to impossible.
Anywho, our hero is a fellow who's just undergoing the transformation into a bird of some sort. I'd love to make the TF happen over a *long* period of time, with as much graphicness as possible...teeth coming out, bones breaking and resetting, the body rejecting bone marrow...for some reason, that type of strung-out, hyper-realistic transformation really gets to me. Anywho, the social climate between humans and these newbies isn't too keen, so you have all sorts of culture clashes...humans are notorious for not taking changes too well. :)
Part of the inspiration for this idea came from the "New X-Men" under Grant Morrisson. Morrisson has highlighted all of the issues and problems that I love about the X-Men; not the super-fancy God-like powers, but the psychological and emotional traumas that come with being so outcast, as well as the constant pressure of having to save the world and getting no thanks for it. Cyclops is already having a pretty rough time of it, and now we're seeing more about how the Beast is becoming disgruntled with being viewed as more animal than man all the time. I really love that idea; god-like physically, but all too human mentally.
My *favourite* thing about X-Men are those rare glimpses into the mutants whose bodies have forsaken them. They didn't get cool healing factors or psychic powers, they got turned inside out, or extra faces. How do you deal with *that*? Not only outcast from regular society, but dealt a hand which renders you a step below even those fellow rejects you've joined? That sort of hyper-alienation, not fitting in *anywhere* strikes a pretty big chord with me. Maybe that's why I like Changeling: the Dreaming so much.
Where was I? Oh yeah...
So, I have to write "Bird" at some point, but there's also stuff to do for ??Salvation??, as well as short stories I was supposed to have written ages ago. Once I get rolling on those, I'd like to submit a story for "Anthrolations" set in the "Bird" universe; maybe a fur visiting an old human who's too scared to come out of his house because of the way the world's changed so *drastically*. I can certainly relate, some days.
I'm in an OK mood. I'm not too worried about not fitting in, even though that feeling is like, this ever-present *thing* that I can't shake.
Read the first little bit of The Last Unicorn today. If a book can make you cry in the *first five pages*, you've either got something really special in your hands or you're a grade-A sentimental yahoo. I'm guessing I'm a little bit of both.
This weekend was kind of fun, actually; I got to spend a lot of time at home and I did absolutely nothing but slack off. It left me in a much better position to attack the mountains of work at the Bookshop and brainstorm about various projects writing-wise. I visualized pretty much all of Issue 0 of "Bird" in my head -- "Bird" is an idea for an actual comic book that I've had in my head for, oh, maybe a year now...another one of those slice-of-life tales of self-discovery I seem to be so fond of.
Basically, the story goes like this: a celestial event that is supposed to spell the death of all life on Earth (but 'more importantly' mankind) doesn't, but instead alters things to allow furries to exist. I actually have a pretty exact explanation of how this happens, blending little bits of quasi-science, New Age and Christian mysticism, but I'll hold off on spazzing about that until I have it down concretely, in notes.
Anyway, the transformation of humans into furries (of course) takes place around puberty or shortly thereafter, and it's *never* pretty. In fact, the farther removed the animal you eventually become is from the human race, the worse the transformation is. There are even rumors of tree-men running around, but anyone who's survived a transformation into say, a lizard, without going insane would tell you that it would be next to impossible.
Anywho, our hero is a fellow who's just undergoing the transformation into a bird of some sort. I'd love to make the TF happen over a *long* period of time, with as much graphicness as possible...teeth coming out, bones breaking and resetting, the body rejecting bone marrow...for some reason, that type of strung-out, hyper-realistic transformation really gets to me. Anywho, the social climate between humans and these newbies isn't too keen, so you have all sorts of culture clashes...humans are notorious for not taking changes too well. :)
Part of the inspiration for this idea came from the "New X-Men" under Grant Morrisson. Morrisson has highlighted all of the issues and problems that I love about the X-Men; not the super-fancy God-like powers, but the psychological and emotional traumas that come with being so outcast, as well as the constant pressure of having to save the world and getting no thanks for it. Cyclops is already having a pretty rough time of it, and now we're seeing more about how the Beast is becoming disgruntled with being viewed as more animal than man all the time. I really love that idea; god-like physically, but all too human mentally.
My *favourite* thing about X-Men are those rare glimpses into the mutants whose bodies have forsaken them. They didn't get cool healing factors or psychic powers, they got turned inside out, or extra faces. How do you deal with *that*? Not only outcast from regular society, but dealt a hand which renders you a step below even those fellow rejects you've joined? That sort of hyper-alienation, not fitting in *anywhere* strikes a pretty big chord with me. Maybe that's why I like Changeling: the Dreaming so much.
Where was I? Oh yeah...
So, I have to write "Bird" at some point, but there's also stuff to do for ??Salvation??, as well as short stories I was supposed to have written ages ago. Once I get rolling on those, I'd like to submit a story for "Anthrolations" set in the "Bird" universe; maybe a fur visiting an old human who's too scared to come out of his house because of the way the world's changed so *drastically*. I can certainly relate, some days.
I'm in an OK mood. I'm not too worried about not fitting in, even though that feeling is like, this ever-present *thing* that I can't shake.
