So Many Files Thumbnails
on March 15, 2015
at 12:01 am
Shaenon: On the plus side, Jeff wrote me a couple of strips that were all black panels. On the minus side, robot fights and yoga. It’s been a roller coaster of a couple of months.
Channing: My original draft actually had even more all-black panels. I was all like, “Oh. My. Gosh. This will totally make up for all that other crap I pulled.” I guess I was right! Now I just need a legitimate, in-character reason for an entire storyline to be 100% in the dark. It will be all about looking for the light switch or something.
(TUNE: “Paint It Black”, The Rolling Stones)
Jeff wrote a comic strip, the panels all were black!
The lights got all turned off, they try to get them back!
The power company has pulled their plug, it’s true,
“Cause their electric bill was ninety days past due!
There’s only conversation going forth and back …
Just draw some white balloons and letter them in black …
Now Shaenon doesn’t have to draw a thing today,
Like yoga, pedicures, or robot MMA!
If Jeff should follow through and write a strip, all black,
We’d likely kick him in the sa-cro-il-i-ac!
The readers want their colors bright and cheerier!
Jeff, you’d best be protecting your posterior!
Don’t make the panels black!
Let’s get the strip on track!
We want our colors back!
Or you’ll get such a smack!
Don’t wanna see our panels, panels, panels, panels black …
Don’t wanna see our panels, panels, panels, panels black …
Don’t wanna see our panels, panels, panels, panels black …
There isn’t anything there in the dark that’s not there in the light. But I bet it’s easier to draw.
Except, as Nick noted, there are grues.
A relevant quote from a sidebar of the Nobilis RPG:
“Perception is not a passive process. It is part of the work that creates reality. I will demonstrate. In my hand, I hold an apple. At least, with the lights turned on, it is an apple. Now, if you will turn off the lights and tell me what I hold in my hand?”
“…four-armed Shiva the Destroyer dances in a wheel of fire. He stands upon the corpses of his enemies. Never-created, never-dying, ignorance-crushing, life-giving, death-giving, thousand-faced, thousand-named, the
wearer of serpents and the tiger’s skin…”
“Turn the light on.”
“An apple.”
“We prefer to leave the lights on at this Centre.”
—from Ringing, by K.C. Danine
–Dave, will spread vignettes for food
Come to think of it, most of the characters are close to one hundred percent in the dark.
I’ve seen a few comics made up of all black panels. The one I can remember right now was from the perspective of a blind person.
Coming soon from the desk of Jeffrey C. Wells: Ray Charles In Space: The First-Person Experience.