Sunday, February 6, 2011

Jim Morrison



At four years old, Jim witnessed an accident on the highway. A truckload of Indians had flipped and Native Americans lay scattered across the road, bleeding. One of them had been crushed and was dead. the man's son stood over him, weeping, just a boy the same age as Jim. Jim believed he saw the spirits of the Indians as represented by a Black Shadow Man that day. The year was 1947.

Eighteen years later while living in Venice Beach, Miami, Jim was tripping on psychedelics when he encountered a woman from the Porposi, a race of amphibious mammals descended from the early dolphins. The encounter was his first glimpse at the multiverse and he wrote about the experience in a song entitled "Moonlight Drive".

Jim went on to form the highly successful band The Doors with a group of friends. It only took the band a few years to rise to superstar status, with Jim playing every part of the role of unpredictable rock star. While attending a party in New York he was introduced to a strange man named Archie. Archie gave him a book entitled The Fiction of Reality by Abraxas Ro. The book spoke about magic and the ability to bring fictional characters to life, as well as hide secrets and disappear into your own myths and stories. Jim was fascinated by the book; he had believed he'd created a fictional character, the Lizard King, an image he now wished to shed.

During a 1969 concert at the Dinner Key Auditorium in Miami, Morrison attempted to use the mystical lessons of the book. He incited the crowd, taunting them to riot, weakening their will with anger and outbursts of violence. He had written the words "PENIS" on a piece of paper and at the right moment, he pretended to expose himself by removing the word from his pocket and flashing it to the crowd in the place where his genitals would be. The band finished the concert and boarded a plane for a vacation in Jamaica. Little did Morrison know that his spell worked better than he could have expected. Word began to spread that he had exposed himself at the concert, the story grew and grew until reaching the Dade County Police Department who filed an arrest warrant for indecent exposure. The controversy continued and Jim grew tired of it all. The band made music and did a few shows but everyone could feel that something had changed. Eventually Jim ended up in Paris, where everything would change. He recorded Orange County Suite with a few friends, feeling as if it was a goodbye song to his friends and family.

At the Rock & Roll Circus Nightclub in Paris Jim encountered the black shadow man, a mystical hero with strange abilities. He told Jim of the nature of magic and what the future held for him. Faced with the prospect of his own death, Jim Morrison chose to leave his life behind. One of the drug dealers in the club who was found dead in the bathroom was mystically changed to appear as a duplicate of Jim. They carried this man back to the Paris apartment Jim shared with Pamela Courson and as she slept, they placed the duplicate in the bathtub and Jim gave Pam a final kiss goodbye. The Crusader told Jim about Abraxas Ro, how the Mage had sealed magic away from the world until for 100 years at that in the 21st century, the spell would crumble and the world would change. Jim became the first of the New Scholars, men and women who studied the books of the past to find out the true nature of the universe. The doors of perception needed to be cleaned so that man could finally glimpse the infinite.

Saturday, February 5, 2011

K-West



Without a doubt, K-West, (pronounced "quest") is the most popular painter of all time. Elton John said recently "I ran into Kanye in Honolulu last January. He’s a stone-cold genius. He’s like Ernie Barnes meets Salvador Dali."

A graduate of the American Academy of Art in Chicago, K-West followed in the footsteps of fellow AAA graduate Gil Elvgren and painted pin-up girls of African descent. The paintings were selling well but it was the portraits of rap stars that put him in the public eye. His TUPAC LAZARUS painting, as well as his self-portrait as a white man entitled WHITE ME, both sold for over $250,000 dollars, making him one of the most successful living painters of all time. His first brush with notoriety was during a fashion show in France. When a French reporter referred to him as "The Black Andy Warhol", Kanye shoved the reporter to the ground and said "Fuck Warhol." To follow up his distaste for Warhol's work, he created a piece called "Eight Biggies", featuring dead rapper Christoper Wallace, a silk screen printing that was merchandised on almost every product imaginable. It recently sold at auction for $25 million dollars. K-West has painted the walls of his mansion himself, with religious paintings that often depict him as Jesus or other popular Christian figures, including a reproduction of the Sistine Chapel on the roof of his living room, with God and Adam depicted as African Americans. His most recent controversy arose when he interrupted singer Taylor Swift at an awards show in order to promote his latest painting "Beyonce", a nude portrait of the famous singer.

Michael?

Canadian Legion Graphic Novel (FEB11 0725) $14.95 126 pgs

The World of the Legion

One of the things I wanted to do with the Legion was create a world that is much like our own, but different. Not just with superpowers, magic, and strange science, but also in the way pop culture developed. So I will begin with the King of Pop himself:

Michael Jackson



During a press tour for the release of OFF THE WALL, Michael ended up meeting a female singer named Tina Turner. Although she was 20 years older than Michael, he was fascinated with her. As their romance began to blossom over the next two months, Michael began to work on his THRILLER album. Unknown to Michael, Tina's former husband Ike was on the set, armed and looking for a confrontation. Even though Michael and Tina had met after her divorce to Ike, Ike still believed it was Michael Jackson's fault. While taking a break from filming on the set of the Thriller video, Ike cornered Michael in his trailer with a snub nosed revolver. While berating him verbally, Ike picked up a wooden stick in the trailer and began beating Michael with it. At that moment, Michael remembered his whippings from his father, Joe. He remembered all the abuse from his brothers over the years, the teasing and taunting. Something in him snapped and Michael roared like a lion, charging Ike and taking him down. Their fistfight spilled unto the lot of the Thriller video, with Michael and Ike wrestling each other back and throwing punches. There were only two lighting technicians that were present to what happened next and their story has always remained 'unofficial'. Ike went down behind a fake tree with Michael standing over him. They told police that Michael had lifted a tombstone prop and struck Ike repeatedly with it. Police arrived but defended Michael's actions as self-defense when they found the handgun.

Michael Jackson released the best selling album of all time, surrounded by controversy and with an older woman on his arm who was a bestselling singer in her own right. Suddenly the quiet, shy boy named Michael had a street reputation as a badboy, which sent the sales of an already spectacular album into the stratosphere.
Famed Rolling Stone reporter Michael Hastings was quoted as saying "His balls grew three sizes that day."

Michael and Tina eventually married and although scandal surrounded them on occasion, including his 1992 affair with Lisa Marie Presley, they remain happily married to this day. Jackson officially retired after his 2009 THIS IS IT tour, on which he suffered a mild heart attack. Many critics said it was due to the extra weight he had gained over the years, but Michael said afterwards "Somehow I believe it could have been much worse, I am lucky to be alive."