myeverpresentpast

I did it, I purchased my first official graphic novel. Comic Book Tattoo, the coffee table sized collection of graphic novel stories inspired by Tori Amos songs. My best buddy Gregorio would be so proud of me, he would probably say, "It's a about fucking time!" Gregorio is the one who got me to appreciate the art of the graphic novel. He was always the comic book geek. Greg would be the one who would take the bus from San Antonio to Comic Con before it became "the" convention to go to every year. He was at Comic Con back in the day.

I loved comics growing up. The one's I loved the most were the Star Wars themed comics. I would have to say my favorite were the Han Solo themed issues. I so wanted to be like Han Solo, tough, acid tongued, brave, egocentric and someone who was unafraid. He was the prototype of the anti-hero that I always wanted to be kind of like Indiana Jones. After Raiders of the Lost Ark came out. I wanted to be Jones. He was a more bookish Han Solo with a degree and someone who got into trouble but always found away to get out of it.

Comics and I parted ways for a few years, until I met my future buddy Greg. He was the graphic novel nerd and I was the music geek. We had the movie geek in common. So we took turns introducing each other to different forms of art, I would share music with me and he tried to get me into graphic novels.

Greg and I went to go see Unbreakable and if you haven't seen this very underrated film by M. Night Shamalayan, it's an homage to all of those dreams who love comic books. Walking away from the film I understood why Greg and so many others adore comic books. This was when G introduced me to Neil Gaiman and how I first discovered his book Little Omens written with Terry Pratchett.

Greg and I, as I've written about before had two things in common, our admiration for Tarantino films and Tori Amos. Greg was the one who informed me about the Neil Gaiman references in Tori's song, "Tear in yr Hand."

"if you need me, me and neil'll be
hangin' out with the DREAM KING
neil says hi by the way"

I sent Greg an e-mail a week ago, informing him of my resurrected Tori obsession and asking him if he knew about the new Amos inspired Comic Book Tattoo? "Hello!!" he screamed in his written reply. I should have know because Greg is the king of graphic novel's, he already had his own copy on order.

So yesterday, I was having a particularly shitty day at work. I had a bad case of the blues and I couldn't shake this cloud over my head. On my lunch break I went and picked up a copy of Comic Book Tattoo and while I was reading it I started singing the lyrics to "Girl" from Little Earthquakes.

"and in the doorway they stay
and laugh as violins fill with water
screams from the BLUEBELLS
can't make them go away"

Those lyrics reflected how I felt. Those blues that had been hovering over me began to go away. Then I read Neil's incredible introduction to Comic Book Tattoo.

"Even before I met Tori Amos I loved her voice and her attitude and her craft, but what I loved most of all was simply this: the songs were stories.

They were stories packed dense and twisted tight, all gears and curls and knots and fragments. I would listen to her songs and I would want to imagine. She made me dream. I listened to her songs and I created stories.

I'm glad I'm not the only person who heard the songs and felt a hundred hundred stories waiting to be told.

The mythologies, Tori said. The mythologies are with you.

The stories are ours."

And what stories they are. This is how I've always felt about Tori's music. Tori's storied songs and Comic Book Tattoo lifted me up and helped me get through another hectic night at work. Now, I own a copy of Comic Book Tattoo. As I hold the pages, I sing the songs and dream inside these stories. Within color, black, white, gray, blue and red, all these stories contain pieces of me and you.