Comments on: Guest Blog: Julie Ditrich on Unlocking and Accessing the Darkness Within: 7 Keys for Comics Creators

By: Colleen

Colleen — Mon, 18 May 2009 18:03:35 +0000

Zuvembies?

You are kidding me.

BTW, is the reference to the pseudo-split personality another term for compartmentalizing?

By: VT

VT — Mon, 18 May 2009 15:54:21 +0000

Julie, that’s a great essay; I really dug the links to the works on archetypes. I agree that acting is a great way to begin to dig into oneself, and enriches our art.

By: JKCarrier

JKCarrier — Mon, 18 May 2009 04:01:38 +0000

Laurie: Ha, I remember the heyday of “black blood”! It’s funny how some things could just slide right by the Comics Code. Like Marvel using “zuvembies” instead of “zombies”, or Invisible Kid cussing in French…

By: Colleen

Colleen — Mon, 18 May 2009 02:38:05 +0000

I’ve never had any cause for concern that writing about an evil character was a reflection on me, and was quite surprised to learn that other people associated fictional acts with the personal character of the author. If anything, I am more surprised when the author IS like their work than when they are not.

I love the story of the frog and the scorpion. When I’ve had to deal with evil people, sometimes I have had others try to tell me that perhaps the person who did The Bad was really just in pain or misguided. That may very well be true.

Or they might be a scorpion.

I could choose to sit around and ponder whether or not someone is just displaying scorpion-like traits, or I could get the heck out of stinging range.

Life is short, and scorpions make it shorter.

By: Julie

Julie — Mon, 18 May 2009 01:02:38 +0000

Scribblerworks – that LoTR quote is priceless and probably encapsulates the entire internal debate we have with ourselves. Thanks for drawing it to our attention. I think we can make peace with our creative selves in light of Tolkien’s perceptiveness.

I’ve always believed that a lack of introspection and self-awareness is the beginning point for evil, but then you have a new breed of characters such as Dexter, Jack Bauer (24) and Sayeed (Lost) who we love but who also perpetuate acts of torture and brutality on others (sometimes the “goodies” and sometimes the “baddies” in the old-fashion lexicon) in order to reach their objectives and to save the world or at the very least their city. These characters are struggling with their conscience, their darkness, their training, their obsessions and their essential nature. The writers/producers are not letting the characters get away with these acts either – they’re exploring the darkness from all angles which is interesting. It brings to mind the story of the frog and the scorpion crossing the river.

Colleen I agree with you. Not everyone has had a dysfunctional upbringing – some people just commit evil acts because they’re a bundle of nastiness and are driven by narcissism, ambition, revenge and so on. When Jozef and I were blocking out the story for the first Elf~Fin book we spent a long time discussing the villains. We decided to do two takes on villainy – that which can be partly explained and that which is inherently bad and has no explanation.

Laurie, that is an interesting piece of comics history. Thank you.