raven mad

First of all - if you’re reading this chronologically and going through the book in sequence, which I sort of can’t believe but might actually be physically possible - I just want to say well done. This really is top class garbage and I admire you for sticking with it. Secondly - this is assuming you’re going to stick with it till the end of the book and not just bail after a page or two like most sensible people would - you might want to brace yourself, because the garbage is going to get a lot rubbisher from now on. Not forever - there are Topic books after this which show moments of creative flair and clear evidence of me having put some effort in. But for most of the rest of this particular book, there’s a general sense of me just scribbling down whatever came into my head, no matter how lazy or mindless. It’s a mess is what I’m saying, so strap yourself in. This page is a halfway house between the two approaches. It’s one of my own characters - we met him briefly a few pages back when I invited you to meet the Yellyog Gang - so that’s something I suppose. We also learn that Yellyog is actually a comic - presumably one I drew at home - so that probably means the ‘gang’ we met weren’t necessarily the kind of gang who knocked around together, but were more like different characters who had their own individual strips in the comic. I wish I had a copy to show you but I don’t. For all I know there was never even any such thing. But that’s where any attempt at creativity ends. Instead we get a full page of school paper wasted with a scrappy picture of a bird being whacked in the back of the head by what looks like Thor’s hammer. He groans “Uuh… I’ve been battered!” like it’s a catchphrase or a pun, when in fact it’s neither, then presumably drops down dead, which sadly we don’t see. Yes, there are a few feathers flying off him, in a tiny concession to some kind of work ethic, but they’re so badly drawn, they may as well be leaves, sweat, oil - Christ, maybe I even just slipped with my pencil. But that’s about the only defence I can muster for this horrible, violent eyesore. A question that occurs to me, now that I’m here: what’s actually ‘mad’ about Raven Mad? Is he mad because he’s been hit on the head with a hammer? Has he been hit with a hammer because he’s mad? Or is it just that mad things happen around him, so he’s just some kind of signifier of violent chaos? Something to ponder there as we descend into the general disarray of the next twenty pages…