“Hey man, this is badass.” Or Maybe it was something like “yo this was awesome.”
Never knew what a prostitute was until playing this.
The actual quote escapes me. So does the specifics of the actual comic. It was definitely Punisher and I'm guessing a War Journal because I later recall seeing weapons drawn out like in the back of those issues had but it could have very well been the instruction manual to the MS dos game.
What I do remember though is that feeling. Jamie, was the 16 year old neighbor of my buddy Adam, and he was handing him something in collected bound paper form and saying that roundabout quote. And when you're 13 years old and a 16 year old says something is cool, it becomes the coolest thing in the world.
Instantly my mind created this underground world with gangs and guns, all those things I was afraid of, and a hero opposing all of it. This thing he was passing down to us was a secret underground movement, some form of raw energy, and I've been chasing that feeling ever since.
Whenever I've share a drawing/a page/a comic, it's this sort of review I strive for. It's Jamie’s short surmise of that book I seek. I want an older kid to hand a younger kid my stuff and say the same thing.
The buddy I mentioned, Adam, played a much larger role getting me into comics so it's weird to think so highly of this exchange with a stranger. Much like the exact words he spoke, I wouldn't be able to recall Jamie’s face in a line up. I don't even know his last name or really anything else about him other than that fateful interaction. In the thousands of times I was at Adam's house, it was the only time Jamie and I shared a space in time that I can recall. But I never forgot these 10 seconds.
Years later when I later asked if Jamie was still his neighbor, Adam told me Jamie was no longer with us. That young person cancer that crushes families and friends had taken him. I probably saw him only a handful of times really. In fact, it was a chance occurrence our patches crossed at all. I was definitely unknown to him and he was to me. But I think about Jamie and that feeling he filled me with every time I sit down to create something on a page.
As I am finishing M.I.A., I am thinking of this moment and how a little bit of Jamie maybe lives on.
Despite thinking it was cool in my youth, I've still never shot a weapon in my life.
5/30/16
Currently working on:
M.I.A. #1 Page 15
