The Origins and Histories of How to be Bulletproof
August 12th, 2008
Part One: The Planting of the Seed to Sprout Forth a Mighty Tree
Hello Dear reader, I am the author of this fantastic story that you are in the process of viewing with your wary eyes. Some part lying deep within your subconscious might be passively pondering how a story such as this comes into fruition. One thing is for sure it takes a lot of hard, earnest work. That’s mental work along with physical, kid.
Truth be told I can’t really answer how something is created, you either do it or you don’t. You do it the best way you can with the options presented before you. I can’t say anything more than that. It’s real easy to start spouting off techniques I prefer to use and how the majority of comics/webcomics/graphic novels are done this or that way. It’s easy to throw out a bunch of rules and say your adherence to these principles makes or breaks you as a professional. But to me, that’s all bullshit, excuse my French.
You either enjoy doing it or you don’t and whether that enjoyment translates to the audience or not is secondary. For me, trying to make something that people will enjoy takes the love out of what I’m doing. That’s because first and foremost I want to make something I will like, something I will love till the end of days. If I wasn’t in it for the love I’d be an Accountant. Hell and high Heaven knows I don’t get any money for doing this book, and as long I get this fucking project done I don’t care. I got it planned out to be 8 wonderful issues of pure pulp bliss. There will be romance, adventure and unforgivable acts of bestial carnage the likes of which have yet to be seen (in my book). It is a story for all ages, yet primarily meant for those older than twenty-odd years.
The origins of how I came across this tale is unimpressive. It began when I was working as a Key Frame Animator for a local Animation house in the Bay Area. It was a terrible project that didn’t make itself to print due to some miscommunication between our studio and the overseas studio. The final product looked terrible, nothing was on model, key frames were off, and the production was bad. This eventually led to the folding of the company and my source of employment. Anyways, that’s not the point, the point is I was working on a Beatrix Potter cartoon and during it I thought, “if I was the restless dead I’d possess an animal to seek out vengeance against those who wronged me.”
Around the same time I read an article in The SF Chronicle about Boz Scaggs’ son dying in a ratty crack hotel on Valencia street, The Hotel Royan. At the time I was living in a Crisis Residential Program; not for drugs but for crazy, so the story hit me in a straight sort of way. Hotel Royan is the hotel where Joe Blue overdoses in our harrowing and beloved story “How to be Bulletproof”.
That is how it began, a down an out kid from privilege dies from a heroin overdose and then possess’ a vicious dog to hunt down those who got him hooked. Next I needed to get an owner for Mr. Blue, who would be better than someone with senility? I’ll answer that question kids, NOBODY! If you were a hungry ghost walking the earth who decided to possess a dog, you would want an Alzheimer’s patient as an owner.
My experience with those afflicted with Alzheimer’s is limited. I’ve met two poor individuals with the disease. The first was a man who came walking through the door of my Dad’s Town House when I was in High School. The second was an elderly woman who entered the room I was staying in when I was at Monterey Hospital. Both thought I was someone else invading their space, violating them in someway. The hospital had a nursing staff that took care of the woman fairly rapidly, calming her down and what not. But when the old man entered my Dad’s condo through the front door I was by myself and had to talk to the guy all by my lonesome until his son came and got him. He was threatening to call the cops, and nearly got violent, and the only thing I could think was how sad the entire situation was. It’s a tough disease, no matter how you look at it.
From these experiences, my fascination with tattoo legend Jerry Collins, and by mixing my Mother’s racism with my Father’s constant negativity Joe Blue’s owner, Sailor Mick, was born. At that point my other phobias and fantasies bled into the work creating the rest of the cast. Before I knew it the plot formed like a delicious broth of soup.
