Following Barney Banks, Chapter 3

Continuing notes and sketches from
Barney Banks, Extra Life.

Aug 1, 2009,


Finished page 17 - the first page of part 3 (in some numbering system) which was begun yesterday. Now concerned it's getting mundane, and where it isn't mundane, it's dumb. Video games? As a motif? Really? I realized today- at some point, if SHE plays the game (being an outlayer at first), it's a betrayal.

The original ideas, young adults, being emo and wearing real bear suits and stuff, is now becoming more about video games? I have to make sure that is not the case. But it does give Banks something to rail about, something to be RIGHT about, and angry about, especially when he can't even model a better behavior. Is living “emo” (protected, harmless, gentle) and in video games better than fucking up time after time like Banks? This might be a governing question...



Aug 2, 2009:

Drew page 18. 3 panels, but a weird sort of agony. It's always about the decisions. What would the characters be saying here? Eventually I found it, after a break to go to the farmer's market. Needed to get to the “I was in a war” stuff, to connect her working with his working, also to make her verbose. I'm finding that's important, believe her being wordy and alternately silent will drive Banks crazy, and puts her into a rambunctious range of character drives that I think makes sense.

Frustrated at this point that what seems to be happening is that the alternating “formal” bits will probably be imagined sections. I don't want this to be the case, but think that's where we're leading. Thinking I have to merge reality with imagination or vice versa at some point. Gary Panter says make it ricochet like pool balls to get you there. Or something. Next, the next sequence of dialogue is easy- something about trading war stories, interrupted by game playing, maybe he follows, or watches her go to the main building, the store...