Black Lives Matter

It’s unlikely anyone will see this post, and the post is even less likely to be of influence to very many.

It’s been two and a half weeks since the cold blooded murder of George Floyd in the streets of Minneapolis, just one from a frequent pattern of many acts of violence against persons of color by police.  In that time, I’ve educated myself somewhat about the history of racism in the United States.  I found a video of Jane Elliot’s blue vs brown eyes experiment very enlightening.  I’ve signed a few petitions, though not nearly as many as I should, and made a donation to an organization that provides bail funds to disadvantaged arrestees.

I’m out of steam at the moment, and I hope I can revisit this fervor regularly. Now that I am, once again, employed, I can finally take on some commissions if I have time (unemployment snafu, long story), and perhaps donate that to charities that benefit social justice.

I’ve taken to social justice warrioring, mostly with retweets on Twitter (admittedly not an ideal form of activism), and I’ve resolved myself to recognize unfair advantages offered to me as a white man and reject them.  Seeing as I’ve mostly been passive and timid all my life, I’m worried I may not keep up with vigilance.

In any case, here are some things I’ve made during this time, related either directly or indirectly to the crisis highlighted in these past few weeks:

New inspiration for Wolfram and the upcoming debut of Clive and Staples

I was recently reminded of an idea that my brother +Martin Muntz, his roommate +Jacob Davis, and I came up with, called Clive and Staples for which the first two initials of C.S. Lewis stand.  Staples would be a rich Schnauzer, Scottish Terrier, or a similar-looking breed of dog, and Clive would be his butler.  Seems rather Lewisian, does it not?  Anyway, I might try to come up with a one-page comic or two later on this year... after I've finished with +Wolfram: A Gothic Parable Chapter 1: "Kesling."

Also, I'll be trying to get back into the reading of prose.  It's been a long time.  I'll be working on reading The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova.  Jacob praises its apparently well-informed interpretation of Draculean legend, so I figure it's got to be worth reading, and hopefully, it will inform my writing for Wolfram.  Also of note, it was a #1 bestseller, as you can see from its cover.

A sad story.

Some of my readers may have noticed an unusually obsessive "fan" on my Google+ page for  +Wolfram: A Gothic Parable.  He posted a lot of My Little Pony-related crossovers on my Ordnung von Wolfram community, and it seems like I was the only one who interacted with him.

So it's confession time:  I was experimenting with an alternate persona called "Sparky 3. 1337" so that I could be a fan of My Little Pony and not show it to those who might laugh at me in person.  It all blew up in my face when some of the people I added to my circles (well, actually just two) sent me private messages that I would never have gotten from people I actually know.  That's all I'll say about it.

I've kept some of the fan art I made under that persona, and I'm posting it here because however much of a mistake it may have been to try to split my persona, the art I made was actually not so terrible.

And by the way, I've deleted Sparky 3. 1337 and pretty much given up MLP for as long as I still have the presence of mind to remember why I left that fandom.

Latest Wolfram Illustrations

Sorry for not blogging this Sunday and for blogging late today.  I've been busy trying to fill out online applications and checking in with Fun 4 All on the status of my resumé.  As it is, it appears that I am not to be hired.  However, I will persist, build a relationship with the staff, and try again at a later date if all doesn't go as I'd like.

Last panel in the "Prologue sequence" of
Wolfram: A Gothic Parable, Vol. 1
with mild gore obscured for blog.

In any case, that's enough about the job hunt...  If you want to know anything definitive about my progress, the best place to look is at Wolfram: A Gothic Parable, Vol. 1, Ch. 1.  I'm not sure as to what the first novel in the series should be called, but I have a name for the first chapter of the novel:  "Wolfram's Lifeblood."

An illustrated comics page

from Wolfram: A Gothic Parable,

Vol. 1, Ch.1 - "Wolfram's Lifeblood"

Picking up after the "prologue" sequence, the latest  illustrated page is shown above.  Anime and manga fans will notice a slight influence from Japan's "whimsical pictures" ("whimsical pictures" being a direct translation of "manga").  It might do with some touching up, but I have all I need for that, too.

Update

To those willing to listen...

The Wild Acorn LLC is an art consignment store in Manchester, MI, which is consigning pet portraits from me...so far, no bites.  Today, however, I just handed in a few (very few) greeting cards with comics on them.  If all goes well, they should sell out in a short time and I can submit larger quantities.  So much fun.

Fun 4 All Comics and Games is, of course, a comic books, cards, and games store in Ann Arbor on Washtenaw Avenue somewhere between Eastern Michigan University and the ArborLand Plaza.

I'm having a couple days to myself, so today, I decided to hand in a resume and show the attendant a PDF of my comic book-in-progress, Wolfram: A Gothic Parable.  After all, this is the kind of thing I want to go into and I need a job to support my drawing and other necessities.

The attendant seemed to like the book and offered to pass the file on for the company to look at.  Also, he told me that any callbacks would be made the following week.

Sweet fortuity, I thought to myself, it looks like I put my resume in just in the nick of time!

No promises yet...but hope seems feasible.


So anyway, to those willing to listen,

God has really been good to me!

Why my blog has been dormant:

I'm sorry to those who follow this blog for not updating.  The truth is that, for nearly a month and a half, I hadn't drawn any comics.

My father passed away on the 21. March.  I've been helping my mother cope and finishing up the winter semester at school, so I haven't had time for newspaper comics until now.

I would like to thank to those who supported our family with cards, flowers, and other forms of support during this time.