Stinky, Stinky Little Pig - Space and Time Magazine issue #132

Stinky, Stinky Little Pig

 

Recently I was fortunate to illustrate a story for issue #132 of Space and Time Magazine.

Space and Time has been a creative institution since the 60s, featuring a broad spectrum of short stories, poetry, and artwork in genres from science fiction, fantasy, horror, and weird fiction. It was an honor to provide an illustration and a particular joy being inspired by this story. I especially owe thanks to art director (and fellow Lafferty fan), Diane Weinstein for making this possible.

[Warning: Spoilers]

Stinky, Stinky Little Pig is a tale by author David Sandner about a taxing encounter between an aged Lewis Carroll, a grownup Alice Liddell, and one of her young sons.

In an odd coincidence, I have always been drawn to the lives surrounding the "real" Alice in Wonderland. In the mid-1980s there was a movie titled Dreamchild which focused on the relationship between Charles Dodgson and Alice Liddell. It's been a while and I cannot speak to the quality of the film now, but the movie left a profound impression and throughout my life I've read several books specifically about Dodson and the Liddell family. Many of those books are still in my personal library.

So then, as I flipped through the story pages provided by the magazine and it is revealed this is, in fact, a story about Dodgson and Alice, I unexpectedly found myself gasping and tossing the manuscript across the room. It was frighteningly fortuitous that my first experience professionally illustrating a story should be on this subject.

I couldn't finish reading the story immediately. Instead, I Googled the author. David Sandner is a professor of English and scholar of Romanticism and children's literature. I remembered from school that Romanticism encompassed art and illustration as well as prose and poetry and I started looking for something in those works to inspire my illustration for this story. 

I found that inspiration in The Sleep of Reason  Produces Monsters by Francisco Goya.

The image of the dreary artist haunted by woes embodied by wildlife guided my own concept. One difference of note: Goya's monsters are focused upon the man, whereas mine are hidden and dismissive; as if the character is haunted not by their leering eyes but the lack thereof, the exception, of course, being the dodo.

I drew upon a number of references and interspersed as many clues as I could fit, from Dodgson's home at Oxford to Tenniel's original illustrations for Through The Looking-Glass; from portraits of Dodgson to photographs of Alice's children; adapting them as best I could to my cartoonish style.

In total it was a fulfilling experience and in so many ways a dream realized. 

Click image to enlarge

Ike's Chili on the Guna Slopes

Upon my first reading of the R. A. Lafferty story “Old Halloweens on the Guna Slopes” I missed this; a reference to Ike's Chili Parlour. Ike's Chili has been a Tulsa staple since just about forever. It's the oldest restaurant in Tulsa and it has long held legendary status in my family. This September they celebrate 110 years of business.

It was the custom of my grandfather to take the family to Ike's Chili, gorge themselves, and follow the meal with a spoonful of vinegar taken from a glass bottle off the table. The vinegar, grandfather argued, broke down the grease and helped cleanse the palate. Of course, it's no coincidence that only the men in the family engaged in this sour tradition. And what men they were.

Gray Ghost - A Reminiscence

I rolled a three. Dead man Captain John said that he had a seven. I put a dollar bill in his bony hand when it came up. I shivered when I touched its bones. I was never meant to play games with a dead man.
--  R. A. Lafferty, “Gray Ghost: A Reminiscence”

A personal note about the first part of the story:

Growing up in Tulsa, I lived close enough to the Arkansas river that I was regularly warned from playing on the islands of sand that formed when the water ran low. The river ran low often because it was choked by the Keystone Dam. The islands that appeared were full of air pockets and loose sand and were wholly unstable. The street runs close to the river in several spots and you'd occasionally see someone doing something foolish out there in the middle of the water. I had never heard of anyone digging into the sand as they do in the story, but the threat of the environment was very real as a part of my childhood.

The Rod and The Ring

In truth, it is the game that destroys the world every time it is played correctly, and thus it may be played correctly a maximum of one time.
   --R. A. Lafferty, “The Rod and the Ring”

Over the last few years there have been no small number of achievements made by the Lafferty fans who organize and make up the Ktistec Press. One of the most notable of these being the negotiating for and inclusion of the previously unpublished R.A. Lafferty story The Rod and The Ring.

Feast of Laughter 4 (featuring The Rod & The Ring)

The Rod and The Ring was the first new Lafferty story to be published in nearly 15 years. [Those interested can download a free pdf of the book from the Ktistec website or purchase a physical copy print-on-demand via Amazon.] As a member of the Ktistec team, I had access to the story prior to publication. What kind of fool would I have been to pass up the opportunity to be the first person to illustrate a new Lafferty?

Over the crust of the story is draped clear references to role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons. I drew upon this heavily, combining designs from the D&D board games and the iconic red cover from the 1983 starter kit players manual. I'll admit that I took far too much pleasure in replacing the TSR logo with my own signature. For a good 15 minutes I actually thought I was a genius. Not so much after. But I'm still very happy with the idea.

If I had known at the time that our friend Lissanne Lake, a professional artist and longtime Lafferty associate who frequently illustrates his worlds, had been a regular illustrator for Dragon Magazine and other fantasy periodicals and books, I would have begged her for an illustration to accompany this publication. I'm sure it would have been perfect. Unfortunately, I wouldn't discover this until years later.

Pilgrim Felt Dizzy – NTMC

He cleaned himself a little in one of the ornamental fountains that were on the edge of the commodity arrival floor. Then he went into the board meeting room.
- R. A. Lafferty, “Not To Mention Camels”

Shortly after LAFFCON2 ended we artists involved (Lissanne Lake, Yakov Varganov, Bill Rogers, and I) thought it would be fun to pick a Lafferty story and each of us complete an illustration in time for next year's conference. We agreed upon the book Not To Mention Camels (NTMC) and inadvertently changed the shape of the event in the process.

When organizers sat down to pick the year's themes and presentations they looked to the artwork for inspiration. Talks on Snuffles and Not To Mention Camels became two of a handful of hours dedicated to R A Lafferty that day.

And it was fun. I loved being part of our own little semi-secret creative pact. Lissanne's artwork is always dynamic and Yakov produced what I though was some of his best work.

For my part, I had barely finished this illustration before hitting print and shutting down my computer only to quickly pack a carryon bag for my flight to New Jersey the next morning.

NTMC is a book full of grotesque action. I had been looking forward to finding a balance between gore and cartoonish humor. There were three moments that stuck out from the first half of the book, and I produced a sketch for each. But as often happens one image persisted beyond the others.

The character Pilgrim, who the book follows, a powerful and cultish figurehead, has just gotten the shit kicked out of him (and a pint or so of blood) and returns disheveled and light-headed to his boardroom meeting. He's both confused and somewhat impressed with his assailant. And as he licks his wounds and contemplates his next move the board members at the table seem completely oblivious to his distress. That isolated moment of complicated and contradictory emotions became my favorite image. And eventually I found a way to put it on paper.

Regarding the illustration I wanted to make the background the true character of the piece. Which looking back was probably a good call, as what is more boring than a corporate board meeting? I tried to play into the cultish aspects of Pilgrim, with clear church elements in the board room, but also a tribal, shamanistic shape in the structure at the center of the frame, it's arms reaching up toward the ceiling and it's legs running down the center of the table. The ceiling is also a portal of sorts, branching off in many directions and giving access to multiple dimension of reality.

The bottled water is just water, a common staple in today's corporate meetings and I felt somehow brings an element of humor to the piece.

Pilgrim Felt Dizzy (NTMC) sketch

LAFFCON3

The third annual R A Lafferty conference took place June 9, 2018. Once again I had the honor of illustrating the official poster for the event. A little known snippet of trivia is what influence artwork had in shaping this year's focus. It turns out a great deal (more on this in a later post.) Part of that influence was my choice to illustrate the short story Snuffles which then later became the subject of an hour long Podcast during the day.

Posters for the previous years had featured the author, in one fashion or another, and I had the feeling that it was time to move beyond portraits and into wilder content that might appeal to new readers and attendees.

I chose Snuffles because it was one of the most loved Lafferty stories, because I'd just finished another illustration which I knew could make a good back cover for the program booklet, and because Lafferty himself admitted that he was probably Snuffles, if he was any character in his writings. Thus, as a transition away from Lafferty portraits, this subject matter made the most sense.

The initial image from the reading was of two figures walking through a field of strange fruit while a large teddy bear like creature observed from rocks above the horizon.

I struggled with this illustration. And even now I feel uncomfortable looking at it, though I'm thrilled with the compliments people have offered. It's not that I'm displeased with the results, it's just that I can still feel the bruises where I wrestled with it.

Elements of the short story I tried to incorporate include the sense that Snuffles (the bear-like creature) was the center of all things and tied to all things, that the world was mercurial and wavering in a psychedelic fashion. The red flowers among the yellow grass are poppies. And there are blue representations of both barley and cannabis in the lower corners.