What does it mean when you find yourself conjugating the grammar of shapes? It seems that the formally inscrutable scrawls of physical reality have made themselves legible to me.
I come to realize that writing is like physical exercise. What counts is how much you can do after you think you are done.
-Kabuki
The last 3 weeks in brief: visited family, wee one got head cold, got head cold from wee one, unexpected house guest. But among all the turmoil I managed to buy myself a pretty pretty. It was one of those things where really, price is irrelevant. I didn’t look. Didn’t care. Too breathtaking not to own.
How to explain Kabuki? On the surface, a comic about a former secret operative in a future Japan who seeks vengeance for her murdered mother, the reclamation of her past, and the freedom to forge her own identity. The story, now spanning seven volumes, is told cyclically through groundbreaking art techniques, in particular the masterful use of collage. This most current collected volume, The Alchemy, is about the power of narrative. In my mind the heart of The Alchemy is a conversation between David Mack, who uses the mask of Kabuki as the writer, and you, the Dear Reader. You, the Fellow Artist. Masks are a running theme in Kabuki. But maybe I’m making it too complex. Perhaps I should let a few of the images speak for themselves.
- Kabuki, The Alchemy Hardcover
As Kabuki says on the fourth page,
All you need to know is that there is a scar on my face, I’m starting a new life, and I have a friend who is helping me.
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