Sune #5 - Blood: Page 07
rainingbells on April 21, 2007
Obviously, by the last page, something skewed. Somewhere in the 1990s Sune's timeline diverged from our own.
Honestly, that's because when I originally created this timeline it was for the prose I was writing at the time. That time being in 1992. Well, that's when it started, at least. But as the point of divergence came and went, I decided to keep it as is. Especially as certain events happened in our own world. Sune's is a universe that has experienced its own catastrophes, such as this “Virus” and the “Crash” mentioned in issue 1, but has missed out on many of our own defining traumas from recent history. No Columbine. No 9/11. No second Iraq War. No Va Tech.
slimredninja at 10:14AM, April 26, 2007
the dream started with hansen? but their music sucks
Wazoo at 3:03PM, April 23, 2007
Thanks for the thoughtful answer, I really appreciated it! I never really realised that it caused such a reaction in the US, in particularly against goth and punk cultures, to us (in Europe) the blaming of Mariyln Manson was seen as almost a rather quaint joke! That it was only a few religous extremists and didn't think that it actually resonated within US society. That is probably because in Europe, especially northen Europe, there is no large movement of Religous extremism, we mostly just laugh at the pope when he condemms the pancreas or other glands for producing adrenaline which is a part of sex... In Europe I don't think there is that kind of irrational fear of people in black or leather, sure people give punks and goths weird looks, but not of fear, except some are scared of the punks maybe being criminals. Thanks for the reply and the description of the chages that the Columbine killings brought about...
rainingbells at 9:06PM, April 22, 2007
Yes, I am from the US. Much like Stephen King's material frequently takes place in Maine, much of my initial, Earth-based material took place in the States because it is the setting with which I am most familiar. If I spent any extensive amount of time outside of the states, I probably would set more stories elsewhere. I'd like to travel more, my wanderlust is strong, and I was speaking with my partner tonight about that, but with having a family, one child in school and another on the way, it makes it difficult. As a friend of mine in the UK recently put it, the events at Va Tech are "dog bites man" to the rest of the world, and I agree with him. This isn't the first time this has happened and it won't be the last. I don't find it particularly surprising, though it does touch a little, just around the edges, being from Virginia and having had friends early on who went to Va Tech, and who I visited there. But people here react to it, knee-jerk-like, and it heavily populates the news stories over here, more this last week than anything going on elsewhere in the world. It shapes us, this happening, even if just for a couple of months. It leaves something. Just as, say, the serial killings in England a couple months back, or the school attack in Russia, or in Japan, Nevada Girl, the subway gassing, or the teacher buried in sand in the bathtub. So if things like the Virus hadn't happened, those things would have, and because the foundation of this universe (at least for some of the characters) does, primarily, take place in the US, the characters would have had their "world" changed, if only for a bit. I'd wager, mostly Columbine didn't touch many people aside from the aforementioned knee-jerk reactionaries and people looking to use it as an in for their causes (against certain music, movies, video games, guns, etc) so they could get all self-righteous. As an aside, though, it affected me because I've flitted around the punk and goth communities for more than half of my life. I like the music, the visuals, and some of the outlooks that have developed -- I think that comes through in my work. But because of my choice of clothes and music, I got shit after Columbine, as did friends. Just walking down the street was risky at times. More than a couple of people I knew got jumped and beat down by rednecks listening to the skewed or outright false news reports trying to sensationalize the events. I got into more than my fair share of arguments afterwards. Even a couple of scrapes. Children like the purple hair, they like to stare and point and laugh and I play along, let them touch it if they want, to see that it doesn't come off, to see I'm not the big scary guy in boots, but I had parents trying to get their kids away from me, yelling at their kids for just looking at me, because of the way I was dressed. And sure, the easy answer is, "just don't dress like that, then", but people dress the way they do for a reason. They wear the clothes they wear and style their hair a certain way, because it makes them feel more comfortable in their own skin. The news was spinning the Columbine shooters as goths or punks, talking about the community as if it was filled with Satanists and serial killers, obsessed with worshipping and causing death, populated by drug addicts and cutters, and yes, while there are elements of that in the community, they exist in all communities. The cheerleaders are popping pills and cutting as much as anyone else. There's a band named The Cruxshadows. I like them a great deal, and they're quite nice people. They have a song titled "Leave me Alone", and there's a remix (the "20/20 remix", I think) of it that has soundbytes from news reports surrounding the time of Columbine. Some of them are so far fetched, if you're familiar with the community at all, as to almost be outright surreal. The masses are scary when they get a belly full of fire. As for my work, what's on DD is pretty much what I still have online. I've done other work over the years, but I'm not happy with the quality anymore, so those things only really exist on my shelves. I wish I had more to offer, but it's difficult to do it all single-handedly around full-time work and family. Glad you enjoy the material, though. I'm working on pages, primarily on Sune, then Endless Winter, as fast as I can get them out.
Wazoo at 6:04PM, April 22, 2007
It's interesting that you as (I assume, I may be wrong) a US American puts the Columbine killings in the same situation of historic turning points as September 11 and the second gulf war but in Europe (and probably other parts of the world but I can't speak for them) we only really think about it in context of a film by Micheal Moore. It's funny how people see things differently and lend different importance to different things beause of their culture or history... Not that I am saying that it is unimportant or that it didn't play an important role in US society, but that it didn'treally affect things in Europe except that they helped strenghen the supportive views towards weapon restrictions. It is hard to say what only effects a country or a region and what effects the whole world. Even the so called world wars didn't effect (directly that is, the economic effects were probably worldwide) the world as such. The only really world wide turning point that I can think of off the top of my head is the September 11th attack and the subsequent "war on terror". Its hard and possibly rather scary to imagine the scope of an event that would shape an entire galaxy... I don't have any real point with this longwinded comment other that to point out the differences in perspective between people and to ask what were the effects of the columbine killings in the US? Also I would like to say that I really like all of your work, I have just finnished reading everything you have up on Drunk duck! Are there more comics available online? Cool stuff, keep it up!