Fear and Loathing in San Diego: The San Diego Comic Convention Day 3 Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells Santa Claus is dead. GI Joe and Eskimos shot him in the head. Barbie Doll, Barbie Doll Tried to save his life. GI Joe and Eskimos killed her with a knife. I heard a five year old girl singing this at the bus stop on the way to the con. Barb Rausch had best beware. GI Joe may look like a nice guy, but he still kills people for no apparent reason other than dressing funny. And they die off- panel, consigned to a thousand deaths by Scott McCloud. The Eskimos are the only culture in the world that don't use any recreational drugs. Nature forgot the snowy wastes. No alcohol, no Siberian mushrooms, no coffee beans, or poppies. It's one place you can't get high on snow. And a signed, specially doodled copy of Scott's Understanding Comics went for $30 at the art auction. GI Joe? Eskimos? Lobo? Somebody's head is going to fall. Barks & Rosa The Calisota Handbook on the Works of Barks & Rosa is here. It claims to be 36 pages of indexes and charts listing all the Barks and Rosa stories, and where to find them in reprints. You can find it at your local comic shop, or by mail from Calisota, 5601 20th Avenue N.W., Naples, FL 33999. Send $3.50 and ".50 cents Postage and Handling if ordering alone." PRIME Does anyone want a Prime trading card? I picked up issue 2 on the recommendation of Steve Gerber (as reported on Day 1). I probably wouldn't have if I'd realized that inside the standard comic bag was another sealed bag. Just another piece of plastic for the dump. It does include a trading card that's really an advertisement for the real trading cards. The story itself, though is good. Some very interesting themes running through it. Black Diamond Studios Talent Search I don't know who these guys are. I don't want to talk to your lawyer. They'll be releasing their first title, OGRE, in late 1993, and are looking for professional artists and writers for four new comics to be released in 1994. Artists should send 8 1/2 by 11 photocopies of pencils/inks. They need to see examples of storytelling, panel to panel, including backgrounds. Writers should send a sample of a full script. Colorists are accepted if experienced and published only. I guess colorists have it even worse than writers. All submissions must include a cover letter with name, address, phone number, age, current occupation, genre interest, and list of any published works to date. Include return postage if you want samples returned. Mail to Black Diamond Studios, 1813 N. Euclid, Suite #363, Fullerton, CA 92635. There's a sample cover copied on the flier, showing a generic monster with iron wristbands holding a scantily clad, though possible slightly muscled, woman. Xenophobe I haven't had a chance to look closely at it, but Xenophobe Art Comix actually looks somewhat interesting. It's free, and there's no indication of any price for future issues. But it also states that "all submissions become property of this magazine." Don't look for much in the way of new stuff, I think. Kardz Keith O'Brien is publishing a set of funny animal Tarot cards. They've already got parts by Roberta Gregory, Ben Dunn, Dave Sim, and Jim Groat. "All issues can be obtained for $0.60 each, or you can get a complete 15 issue subscription for $8.00. Send your orders to: Keith O'Brien, 1333 N. Hillcrest Circle, Mesa, AZ 85201." I've seen the Kardz, and they look pretty fun, if you're into that black magic stuff. Can't we all just get along? Well, if Iron Man can rise from Vietnam, I suppose Phoenix can rise from Los Angeles. Spelling and grammatical errors are theirs. "From the ashes of last Spring's civil unrest rises the Phoenix, symbolic of the healing process Los Angeles is going through. He travels through out the city spreading good will, showing people how to get along and teaching individuals ways to start rebuilding." BLACK RIOTER: You heard the verdict... I'm just taking what they owe me! WHITE RIOTER: Hey look, what's that coming down out of the sky? It's headed straight for us! THE PHOENIX: STOP put it back, you're only hurting yourselves! BLACK RIOTER: WHY SHOULD WE? THE PHOENIX: Because your actions will cause jobs to vanish & people to suffer. Think about your families and your example to the next generation. BLACK RIOTER: WHAT ABOUT THE INJUSTICE! THE PHOENIX: I realize the legal system has disappointed you, however, more violence and distruction will not solve the problem. KID SIDEKICK: THEY'RE LISTENING TO YOU! ASIAN RIOTER: HE'S RIGHT BLACK RIOTER: YEAH, IT'S JUST NOT WORTH IT. This was written for "The L.A. Arts Recovery Fund", by David G. Brown. It doesn't even compare to that underground classic, "Captain Internet and CERF Boy." A New Comic Book There's a new comic book coming out called Humor on the Cutting... Edge. Or, perhaps just Edge. The sample is a strip called S.M.O.G., by Bruce David. Wasn't that the Hulk after the TV series? They laughed at me when I sat down at the editing machine... Learn the secrets of animation in 4 weeks! Kewl! It's a four week course in the 'art of Classical Animation,' at the Kuenster Brothers Animation Studio. Call (310) 452-5726 for enrollment. It's a mere $1,100, and requires only "Basic Drawing Skills." Holy Hanna, Batman! Comics are not Literature! We've been complaining about it for quite a while, and it looks like the California tax authority feels the same: comics are being ruled 'commodities' and not 'literature.' This is brought to our attention in a flier from the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. "Although according to California tax regulation 1543, authors of 'original manuscripts' are not required to charge a sales tax when selling the rights to their work, the BOE claims that San Francisco cartoonist Paul Mavrides owes back taxes for several years worth of publishing royalties... A co-creator with Gilbert Shelton of The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, Mavrides contends, 'If I lose this case, all US comic creators will face chilling repercussions. It will severely damage or perhaps even destroy the alternative comics scene in California and, in keeping with the truism as goes California, so goes the nation, other states may well decide to enact similar legislation.'" "In order to uphold this alarming tax assessment, the BOE has decided that comic book original pages do not have the literary status of an author's manuscript, and are instead merely commercial illustrations." "If the implications of California's tax board -- that comics are not literature but simply a commodity -- are allowed to stand, I guess I'll have to send back my National Book Critics Circle nominations... as well as my Pulitzer." -- Art Spiegelman, Maus Gay Comics is Back! Andy Mangels is pushing both Gay Comics and himself. He's writing such things as Jason Goes to Hell for Topps, Elfquest: Blood of the Ten Chiefs, a Quantum Leap story, and three stories for Justice League Quarterly. Calling All Cartoonists! Cartoonists Against Crime is "the hippest cartoon club in the United States and Beyond!" Cartoonists Against Crime (TM)91 "is an artistic & creative opportunity for you to express your concern about the growing crime problem" and gain exposure by doing free work. You also get a free decoder ring and wrist radio. Electronic Publishing Bradley Parker, Janet Tait, and Peter Glaskowski decided to show up in person; Matthew Costello and the rest were presumably there in virtual versions. Peter, who once worked for SuperMac, likes to use words like 'disublimation.' Brad is an artist. He's done work for computer games, as well as standalone fantasy art. He uses Photoshop, and prints out at Nash Editions, owned by Graham Nash of Crosby, Stills, and Nash. They did their printouts at 300 dpi. He'd done the drawing at 72. Gosh, it's 11 by 17 on the computer screen. Why's it turn out to be 3 by 5 on the printout? Doing art on the computer to sell brings interesting points. He did a limited run of 50 copies of the pieces on display. But, "there is no original. The original is a bunch of electrons." It's a completely new area, says Janet. It changes the definition, and even the usefulness of the concept, of 'originals.' The Macintosh has been involved with color printing and color pre-press for a lot longer than the PC has. This makes it, according to Peter, better suited for the problems of converting screen art to printed art. Specialized programs to match the two mediums exist, currently, only there. Computer color is different than 'real' color. Computer screens produce color; in the 'real world,' color is reflected. "What you can't do on a computer is mimic the way your printout will look under a different light source." For hard copies, printers will bring you outside to check if the color is correct. "Sunlight," says Bradley, "is still the truest light." Things are beginning to move to electronic versions. Project Gutenberg has moved thousands of non-copyrighted works to electronic format, and has millions more in plans. A Hard Day's Night is available in QuickTime format on CD-ROM, in 8- bit gray scale. There's a video backbone on the net, though it's expensive. Text is easier, of course, Peter points out: we don't need to worry about resolutions. If we change formats, all we need to do is re-read them into the new format. For graphics, if we read it into a format that becomes obsolete, we need to re-scan from the original if we want to gain advantage of the higher technology. We don't know what we'll have on our desks in the future, but we know what we won't have. We won't be able to predict the weather. We won't have artificial intelligence. "The concept of electronic publishing is that we won't read printouts," says Peter, but the "best monitors are 150 dpi. Linotronics are 2,500." Most monitors are 28 to 40 dpi. Adobe has come out with Adobe Acrobat, which allows us to look at a document regardless of what application produced it. It's currently available on Windows and the Macintosh. Soon, it'll be available for DOS and Unix. Mark Evanier on Writing Comics "There are not a lot of rules in writing anything." Mark Evanier has a personal crusade in the comics industry: popularizing lots of different ways to do comics. "How much time do we have? An hour? Whatever it is won't be enough." "There's no place to learn comics in general. If you go up to Marvel, they'll teach you how to do what they need this month. They'll talk about style, shading, lines. What they're really saying is draw like John Byrne. At DC, you'll get the same thing, only they want you to draw like George Perez." Where do you get your ideas? All the good ideas come from inside. Write what you care about, what you're passionate about. Do not be a comic book writer. Be a writer that writes comic books. "Right now there's about eleven people who, if they don't like your work, you won't get a job." And, don't shoehorn your stories into comic books if they won't fit. If they're short stories, write them as short stories. If they'll fit best as a novel, write a novel. Write plays, poetry, or whatever other format works best for the story. The Basics of the Field: Scripting The Two-Column Method: In the beginning, this is the format that was used. In the left column, the panel was described. In the right column, the dialogue was given. For example: PANEL 1. Winnie-the-Pooh crushes BEES: ARRGH! TELL SUZY I DIED the bees in his hand. WITH MY BOOTS ON! WINNIE: I'M SHORT, FAT, PROUD OF THAT. PANEL 1. Winnie-the-Pooh eats BEES: NO! HELP ME! the bees with a look of extreme. WINNIE: TASTES LIKE CHICKEN! pleasure. SFX: CRUNCH The Screenplay Method: This is probably the second most popular comic book writing method. It's very similar to scriptwriting for the screen. You describe each panel in a row, with the dialogue beneath each panel. For example: PAGE 1. PANEL 1. WINNIE-THE-POOH sees PRIME punch PIGLET right out of the comic panel. POOH is horrified, PRIME is pissed, and PIGLET is gone. PRIME: TAKE THAT, YOU LUMP OF CARBONOUS TEXTILE! PIGLET: AAAAAAAAAH! WINNIE-THE-POOH: OH DEAR! WHAT IS THAT MUSCLE-BOUND CRETIN DOING TO POOR LITTLE PIGLET? PANEL 2. WINNIE-THE-POOH ducks behind a telephone pole. You can see his fat butt sticking out on either side. WINNIE-THE-POOH: THIS LOOKS LIKE A JOB FOR... The Funny-Animal Method: This is probably the most commonly used method, since it's used for most funny-animal comics. Carl Barks wrote this way. Disney uses it, Archie uses it, and Harvey uses it. The writer draws the panels on an 8.5 by 11 page, and sketches the characters in, then draws the balloons and puts the dialogue in the balloons. The penciller is not going to follow your layout. But it will give you an idea of what fits. It forces you to think in terms of simple pictures. "If you are writing something to be spoken, you would read it aloud. If you can't read something you wrote aloud, a professional actor can't. If you can't sketch your own script out, a professional penciller can't." The Marvel Method: This goes back to the forties. Writers at Marvel would get behind. The artists would call them up, needing the money, asking, "where's my script?!" They'd talk about the idea. The penciller would draw it, and the writer would dialogue it. In the sixties, this was standard practice between Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, and Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. Stan would tell Jack what was going to happen that issue, Jack would draw it, put notes in the margins about possible dialogue, and then Stan would write the dialogue. The Modified Marvel Method I: In this version, the writer writes a full script, telling the penciller the full plot. The writer tries to give the artist as much input as possible. The artist then chooses what to draw, and the writer writes dialogue for it. Mark doesn't like this method, though, and most writers he knows don't like it. You end up with a co-writer. If your penciller is Jack Kirby or Steve Ditko, a great comic can result. But it's still not your story. The Modified Marvel Method II: Mark didn't talk about this one, but it came up at one of the previous panels on a previous day. Marv Wolfman prefers to write the dialogue along with the script, but some pencillers simply won't work from a panel by panel breakdown. So, for a while, he tried this: writing the plot for the comic page at the top of the script page, and putting the dialogue on the bottom, and telling the artist to draw what's necessary, and to make sure that the penciling allows the dialogue. In general, Marv doesn't like this any more than Mark likes Method I, but it does overcome some of the problems with that method. The Modified Funny Animal Method: Back when he was working in funny animals, he was writing the Bugs Bunny comic, using the Funny Animal Method. He was way ahead with the scripts and Bugs was popular, so they went from eight times a year to monthly without telling him. "We were way ahead of schedule, I thought." Then he got a call telling him they were out of scripts, and needed more. This combines the Screenwriting method with the funny animal method. Rule the page out, like normal for the funny animal method. Usually in funny animals it's a four-tier page, with eight panels and one double panel. Script in the action instead of sketching it. If the action is difficult to describe, sketch it. This forces economical panel descriptions. You can't talk more than there is space in the panel. Which method should you use? He recommends the screenwriter method. If you're going to be the writer, instead of a collaborator, this makes it your comic. "There are writers who try to impress editors by making their panel descriptions poetic." Give the artist your basics. What's happening. Who are the people. How are they dressed. Remind the penciller about continuity, if you feel it necessary. If Batman's cape is ripped, for example, the penciller might need to be reminded. Don't tell them too much, but if you have to make a choice, tell them too much. Make things easy on letterers. "I've had letterers get all the dialogue for page 7 on page 6." Double space the dialogue. If they can miss something, they will. They're in a hurry and underpaid. Comic books are one of the only two mediums that use thought balloons. Musicals are the other. Don't be too reliant on them. Save them for when you need them. While people may lecture themselves in their thoughts, or scold themselves, they don't generally tell themselves facts they already know just to bring readers up to par. Mark worked on Welcome Back, Kotter, and some variety shows. These teach you to deal with deadlines. "They'll come up to you and say, 'We're going on in twenty minutes. We need the monologue re-written.' This isn't a time for writer's block." Topical jokes are a great idea, but you have to be careful. Sometimes you've got a four to five month delay. It's good to take chances and try to predict what's going to happen. With Mighty Magnor, they're doing better. He handed Sergio the script today, and it'll go to the printer in a week. Doing Your Story "I was looking at the comics I was writing, and I wasn't in them." He and Sergio Aragones write Groo, and it's fun. But he also has some stories all his own he wants to tell. How do you choose these stories? Ask yourself what you have an opinion about. What makes you happy, angry, or passionate? When he was working on Blackhawk, the sales were so low nobody knew it was being published. Even DC didn't know they were publishing it. Back then, DC was much more security conscious. He was out to dinner with one of the head honchos and Marv Wolfman, and played a joke: "The secret is out," he said. "The secret is out." "What? What is it?" asked the DC staffer. "They know you're publishing Blackhawk." "Marv Wolfman passed an entire diet 7-Up through his nose." Before his comics were so personal, he got his ideas from looking at other comics. "Bugs Bunny hasn't been in Istanbul recently. Let's send him to Istanbul." He cautions us "never" to write autobiographically. Use the feelings, the emotions, and the energy, but don't write your life story into comic books. Don't try to put your voice into other people's characters. Control your own characters, and use them. He believes that "in five or ten years, going out to write Superman or Batman will be the lowest jobs available. The hot jobs will be doing your own stuff." The best comics are made by people who are friends. Find some friends to work with, to do your art. This is how Mike Baron and Steve Rude started. There are two ways to break into Marvel: have a friend on the Marvel staff, or come in via small publishers. Since coming to this convention, he's "been invited to work for five new universes that haven't been announced yet." This is a case of art imitating life, as anyone who's seen issue 3 of Magnor will recognize. You cannot be the Batman or Superman writer for DC. Five people are writing Batman at any time. He has these recommendations for books: A book called Auditioning by Michael somebody, for actors. It talks a lot about stuff that's applicable to our dialogue. The Season by William Goldman, in which he examines why certain Broadway plays during a single season failed, and others succeeded. He also recommends as much Carl Barks and Harvey Kurtzmann as you can find. Look for the Silver and Golden Age reprints, and the Dr. Strange reprint. "Understanding Comics I disagree with greatly, but it's fascinating to read. We have so little in this field." "I don't think you'll learn a lot about writing by reading recent comics." Don't try to replicate Sandman! Swamp Thing was Alan Moore's best work at DC. Mark's not a big Watchmen fan, and feels The Killing Joke was the worst comic in twenty years. Read anybody you like: they'll inspire you. A Century of Women Cartoonists There may be hope yet. On the way to A Century of Women Cartoonists, I saw a kid wearing a t-shirt that said, "He who dies with the most toys... still dies." Unfortunately, it's one of those No Fear pieces. Kitchen Sink is publishing Trina Robbins' A Century of Women Cartoonists. She focused on American female cartoonists. There's not enough room in the book for the whole world. She also focused on the older ones. "My responsibility is to let you know about all the ones that are forgotten." This is a wonderful book. If you're at all interested in the history of comics, I recommend it. Rose O'Neill was a 13 year old who won a cartoonists' contest. When the judges saw who they'd chosen, they sat her down and made her draw something to prove that she'd done it. later, she drew a series called The Kewpies. She was also an illustrator for magazines such as Ladies Home Journal. Many of the women cartoonists were also illustrators. Fanny T. Cory started her career as an illustrator, doing marvelous pieces for magazines. She married, moved to wild west, and slowly moved out of illustrating. Her husband carried her works by horseback to the post office to send them out. Her diary describes walking to the chicken house to get eggs, and carrying a rifle to shoot rattlesnakes. She must've been a good shot. When their last kid left home, she got back into drawing, but this time into comics. She's most famous for Little Miss Muffet, one of many little orphan girl comics. Nell Brintley is the "queen of flapper comics." Her work is gorgeous, very similar in quality to Windsor McCabe's. Edwina Dunn, in 1915, was possibly the first woman editorial cartoonist. During the forties, many of the male comic book professionals were drafted, and women, like in other jobs, moved to take their places during the war. So we had lots of adventurous women comics. "Maybe it's silly being a fashion model detective, but it's really no sillier than been a reporter superhero. Miss Fury wore a panther skin, much like Catwoman does now. "There's a curse on the panther skin. They never say what the curse is, but it appears to be having nine years of fabulous adventures." Hilda Terry was responsible for breaking the sex barrier in the National Cartoonists' Society. Her husband recommended her, but she was voted down. Some established cartoonists, such as Milt Caniff and Al Capp objected strongly to this rejection, and the next year, when she was recommended, she was accepted. She then went on to nominate many of her friends, who were also generally accepted. Marie Severin, younger sister of John Severin, worked as a colorist, first for EC and then, when EC ran into troubles because of the Comics Code, for Marvel. When Marvel comics started being read by college students, Esquire ran a story on them. They wanted some art for the article, but the regular artists were too busy. So Marie volunteered to do some art. The publisher read the article, saw the art, and told Stan Lee that she should be doing art. She started on Doctor Strange. Gays in Comics: Dealing With Intimacy The panel overflowed, consisting of Brad Rader, Roberta Gregory, Andy Mangels, P. Craig Russell, Tim Barela, and the token straight, Nancy Collins. Brad, while he was 'out' in other industries, such as animation, came out for the comics industry on this panel. "Queer is my definition of choice nowadays. I'm sure most of you are familiar with my work. If you're not, you should be." -- Roberta Gregory P. Craig Russell is adapting the fairy tales of Oscar Wilde to comic book format. Tim Barela is the creator of the Leonard and Larry strip. Andy Mangels was moderator. In past versions of this panel, one of the questions he asked was, "what do you want to see more of?" The answer was "gay and lesbian couples." That's now beginning to happen. So now the question is, why have we gone from singles to couples? Part of it, Nancy feels, is that the readership is getting older. Does it reflect our late concerns with safe sex? "Being a couple doesn't mean monogamy," Brad replied. He and his lover have a "negotiated conditional monogamy." Safe sex, no mutual friends, and nobody more than three times. When showing homosexuals in comics, how far is too far? Andy edits Gay Comics. Retailers and customs agents seem to think that 'gay' means sex. So he's made a deliberate effort that sexual relations should be PG-13 or less. This has caused some problems, but he feels it's necessary to reach the audience he wants. Sex in general in comics, according to Brad, is specific and fairly boring. Roberta Gregory tones down Bitchy Bitch stories for Gay Comics, compared to her stories for Naughty Bits. "Leonard and Larry," says Tim, "has never been a sex strip." He doesn't show much more than the two together in bed or in the shower. "As far as I'm concerned, what they do in their private time is their concern, not mine." In mainstream comics, such as Swamp Thing for Vertigo, Nancy says there are rules. "No real full frontal nudity. You can have a certain amount, but not below the waste." This makes for an intriguing use of shadow. When she showed Carl and Troy together in bed in Swamp Thing, they received letters, both pro and con. "Some of them were actually surprised to see two guys in bed together. Oh, that's right. I forgot my audience." They also used the term fudge-packer in one of the stories. "We had to run it past legal to see if it was okay. Basically, because he [the person calling the name] was supposed to be an idiot, it was all right." She never had time to deal with Liz. Liz was originally a nothing character. "So I decided to have her get some spine, become a lesbian, and gave her a ticket to Oregon." Craig feels that mores have changed for the worse since the eighties. When First Comics reprinted Elric, they shaded out the genitalia of a demon, something people hadn't had trouble with in the original run. Even heterosexual heroes don't really touch each other. Brad is hoping to write some superhero stuff. "It'll be interesting to have a mainstream superhero team, where the heterosexual characters touch themselves in a companionable way." Power Man and Iron Fist never touched each other, never patted each other on the back. "How repressed can you get?" Brad feels that a lot of times, it's the internal censor. "Who knows what I could get away with if I tried?" He plans to try more often. What has NorthStar's coming out meant for gay comics in general? "NorthStar meant we were ignored all the more," says Andy. Nothing happened. They were ignored by straight and gay press. Has the adult explosion made it more possible for people to accept sexual intimacy more? "I have no idea what straight people accept," replied Brad. Andy feels that "it hasn't allowed things to become more open." And as far as the adult explosion, while there are lots of lesbian sex scenes, "rarely have lesbian sex scenes been done by women." Can straight writers write about the gay culture? "I don't write about the gay culture," replied Nancy, "I write about gay characters." And she tries to make sure she knows what she's talking about. "I personally only write stuff that I researched enough not to look like an idiot. I know that doesn't stop some people." There's a view, says Andy, that "black writers can only write black characters effectively. Women writers can only write women characters effectively. Gay writers can only write gay characters effectively. While heterosexual white males can write everyone perfectly." Does it help that Lynn Johnston introduced a gay character? "It all helps," says Brad. The Advocate has dropped comics altogether. Andy feels that they think "comics are for morons." Brad said, "I know a few people who used to work for the Advocate. They'd say that the Advocate is for morons." While she's getting off the Swamp Thing, Nancy has just signed a deal with Vertigo to write a book called Wick, about a female occult detective. Leonard and Larry will be on display in spring in San Francisco. Elizabeth Holden has a Legion Penknife How many Microsoft programmers does it take to change a light bulb? None. They just redefine the standard to include darkness. New movies! Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Flintstones! Both will be coming out in the summer of '94, with Alec Baldwin and John Goodman playing the leading roles, respectively. From Troma, there'll be the Toxic Crusaders, A Nymphoid Barbarian in Dinosaur Hell ("The Prehistoric meets the Prepubescent"), Sgt. Kabukiman, N.Y.P.D. ("I'm the Bogeyman."), and My Neighbor Totoro Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas, a stop motion story from Disney. Robocop 3, which actually might be decent. They did bribe me with a button, however. "You called for backup?" The Demolition Man, with Sylvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes, on October 8th. Stephen King's Needful Things, with Annie Bates, on August 27th. SeaQuest, this fall on NBC, with Roy Scheider. Secret Squirrel and Morocco? It was either a short to keep us from taking the stage or a preview of things to come. And Hanna-Barbera seems to be trying to cash in on the Ren & Stimpy craze. I've got a button here titled "2 STUPID dogs(tm)." GI Joe and Lobo Team-Up Jeanette Kahn, Jeanette Kahn Superman is dead. GI Joe and Lobo Shot him in the head. Joe Shuster, Joe Shuster Tried to save his life. GI Joe and Lobo Killed him with a knife. Sometimes even bad art imitates life.