In 1987, comics journalist Kim Thompson conducted an in depth interview with French comics legend Jean “Moebius” Giraud; in his introduction he wrote, “No cartoonist since Robert Crumb has had an impact greater than Jean (Moebius) Giraud. Like Crumb, Giraud is a liberating force: where many great cartoonists have offered one more possibility, Giraud has provided the opposite: an infinity of possibilities. In that, he is surely the most generous cartoonist of his generation.” I can’t think of a better statement to make about Jean Giraud, who passed away on Saturday at the age of 73, than this.

Jean Giraud was one of those rare people, like Picasso and Jimi Hendrix, that came along and completely revolutionized the art form within which they worked. Think I’m exaggerating? You know Heavy Metal magazine? It wouldn’t exist without him. Have you ever seen Alien, Tron, or the Fifth Element? He was a key reason as to why those movies looked the way they did. Even Marvel Comics belatedly celebrated his work with a slew of graphic novels starting in the late 80s and continuing into the mid 90s. He was also responsible for giving the world characters such as Lieutenant Blueberry, France’s biggest selling western character, Arzach, the silent pterodactyl riding warrior that appeared in a series of ground breaking stories in 1975, Major Grubert, the star of The Airtight Garage, Jean’s space opera masterpiece, and the list goes on and on. His characters and stories revolutionized comics in France and in the rest of the world as well. His influence on the global comics industry is wide ranging and profound.

I first discovered Moebius’ work when I was 15 years old. Like many other people, my view of what comics art could be was forever changed by his work. His virtuosity, his range of styles, and his imagination caused a true epiphany for my 15 year old mind; his work and the person that he was were both object and lesson for me. I could go on and on about what a great example he was but I remember a moment that makes that more clear than any amount of verbiage ever could.

I remember going to the San Diego Comic-Con in 1989 because I wanted show my work to publishers and because I wanted to meet Moebius. I remember that day very clearly; my friend Kenny Goodacre and I were standing in line in front of Moebius’ booth along with a very large group of other admirers. I was looking around and saw Jack Kirby at another booth just a few feet away and felt surprised by the contrast in the number of people that were there to see Moebius and the lack of people at Jack’s booth. And Jack Kirby was an important man in the comics industry. I remember that as we were getting closer to the front of the line there was a guy who had walked up and was insisting on being allowed to go to the front of the line. I remember Randy Lofficier, half of the husband and wife team that represented Moebius at the time, telling the guy that everyone in line had been waiting patiently and that he would also have to do the same. “Come on, all I want is an autograph and I’ll leave,” he said. Randy, once again, patiently told him that he was going to have to wait like everyone else. “Fuck you, bitch,” was his response. All along as this was going on in front of him, Moebius was doing a drawing in my friend’s book. I remember him looking up, completely unfazed by the negativity in front of him, then looking back down and continuing with my friend’s sketch. This moment showed me the kind of person that Moebius truly was. It’s something that I’ve never forgotten.

In closing, I think that the best thing that I can do is to encourage fans old and new to continue searching out Moebius’ work and exposing as many others to it as possible. When he passed away on Saturday, the world lost a brilliant man; thankfully, the body of work that he left behind is so vast that there is no doubt that many, many future generations will continue to be exposed to the brilliant and vivid imagination of Jean Giraud. Thank you, Jean.

 Here are some links that will provide you with more information about Jean and his body of work: for general information: Wikipedia, The Comics Journal; for images: Quenched Consciousness; for merchandise and books: his official website and Humanoids Publishing.

Today, I decided to get out and draw my favorite subject, unsuspecting victims. They aren’t very hard to find; they’re easy to spot and they’re everywhere you can imagine. Luckily for me, the ones I like to draw like to live in coffeehouses and similar places. I started this page yesterday, as we were having lunch at a place called Vito’s in Modesto, California. The food was pretty good and, best of all, they had a good clientele. Unfortunately, I was only able to get in a quick sketch of one of the cooks. I wish I could have stayed longer at Vito’s; there were quite a few people I would liked to have drawn, including our waitress. Oh well…. This morning, I got up and walked over to my local Starbucks. It was a little quiet with just a few people there. I, nonetheless, ensconced myself at my favorite table over near the window and near the outlet. When you spend hours, like I do, drawing in coffeehouses, an outlet to plug your iPod in is of utmost importance. I need my music as I draw, you know? The lady that I ended up drawing at Starbucks seemed suspicious of me and kept glancing over my way as I was drawing her. I pride myself on having perfected my public drawing technique – the majority of unsuspecting victims never suspect that they’re being immortalized in the pages of my sketchbook and if they do realize that I’m drawing them, it’s already too late, the deed has been done. I, still, managed to draw her, despite that fact that she kept glancing over at me as I was drawing. Ha, take that! Later on in the day, I went out again – this time to a busier Starbucks. I’ve been to this Starbucks many times before and for some reason it seems as if there’s always people there that are peddling pyramid schemes to customers. Most of these people are young, in their 20′s, Asian males; they’re usually dressed all in black and are well coiffed. Today, two of them were sitting right next to me – one was the leader and the other was the lackey. Sure enough, they had quite a few people who seemed to have appointments to get indoctrinated into their get rich quick scheme. The guy who was the lackey was seated closest to me; man, he was the perfect unsuspecting victim – he hardly moved at all. He had very distinct features that made him easy to draw. I spent about 45 minutes from start to finish and the guy barely flinched. Feeling satisfied with my drawing, I packed up my satchel and left. After all these years, I still enjoy going out and drawing people;each person is a story unto himself or herself and that’s what makes it interesting for me. Anyway, that’s how I spent my day today.   

Ah yes, those questions; those incessant and insanely stupid questions that people have asked me over and over for what seems like forever. So, what’s to be done about it? Write and draw a comics story, that’s what. You see, through the use of words and pictures you are able to be perfectly blunt and to the point; no beatin’ around the bush here, mister! 

As written about in my previous post, this idea will form what I’m guessing will be a series of stories based on these ridiculous and and annoying questions answered by the one and only Picasso.  I’m starting with this preliminary top ten and building from there. It amazes me that anyone could ask such questions and expect to be taken seriously by the artist. I often wonder people would ask such asinine questions of me if I were a doctor or a lawyer? Do they ask Joe Blow that works at Home Depot these questions or are they so totally in the dark when it comes to art and artists? In some ways, you want to think that most people don’t mean any harm when they ask these questions but, unfortunately, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. For twenty years (probably longer) I’ve smiled and nodded politely as these questions have been lobbed at me but ya know, the party has to come to an end at some point. Give most people an inch and they’ll take as many miles as they can. Yes, it sounds harsh but it’s the truth. So, are you wondering if I’m a tad bitter about this? If you are then my answer is NO. Life is precious and too short to waste on this kind of bullshit. Those who ask stupid questions are the ones who feel most entitled to do so; they’re also the ones who act most offended when you call them out on their motives. Funny how that works, isn’t it?

I’ll be doing a few more character study pages before actually starting my story so you’ll be seeing lots more of good ol’ Picasso in my next few posts. Once I get things the way I want them for my story I’ll start looking for reference material and whatnot and then it’s time to start laying out the actual story pages. Once I’ve penciled the all the panels and I’ve done all the lettering then it will be time to start inking everything. I’m slow and picky when it comes to drawing so this project will keep me busy for quite some time. I’m really enjoying doing this and I hope that you will follow my progress. You can view more detailed information regarding the progress of this project over on the Graphic Stories part of this site.

Recently, I read a great article on dailymail.co.uk, “I wish I hadn’t worked so hard, and other great regrets of the dying… as revealed by former nursing home carer.” Overall, I think this article is a must read for anyone despite their age or level of ambition. Of the five regrets listed, the two that struck me the most were the first, “I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me,” and the third, “I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.” It brought to mind Mark Twain’s quote, “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do…” Most of us know when we are not happy with our lives; we know when we’re not being true to ourselves. I believe that it boils down to this: all of us are given the same two choices in regards to this: you either do something about it or you don’t. It’s that simple. These things, along with others, have helped me make decisions that I had put off for far too long. It was this that led me to…

The image that accompanies this post is the beginning of a new project. For many years, I’ve wanted to write a comics story about the stupid questions that people ask artists; one day I asked myself, “What would Picasso say about this?” And thus, an idea was born. I’ve decided to tackle the ten most stupid questions using Picasso as my voice. Having read my fair share of books on Picasso, I feel that I have a decent understanding of how he would have reacted to these incessant and annoying questions. What you see pictured here is the first page of character studies that I’ve done for my project. I will do more studies before deciding on a final version of what he will look like in my story. It’s exciting to be writing about something that truly says something about me. This makes all the difference in the world. You can stay tuned to the progress of this project via the Graphic Stories section of this website. In the coming weeks I will post all my work, from start to finish, that I will do on this project in the Graphic Stories section of the site.    

And so it begins… a new year and a new start. This image might not be such a surprise for those that know me well, but for others, it might come as a bit of a surprise. For me, this image represents a truth that I’ve come to realize and accept after a very long time: my style is made up of many styles. I cannot adhere to a single defined style. For a long time I mistakenly assumed that I needed to have a certain “look” to what I did. Because of this erroneous belief, I spent many years feeling very frustrated with whatever I did. Every time I found myself feeling like I’d finally discovered the look that I thought I wanted ,I would feel that, once again, it wasn’t it. It seemed as if no style was my style and I started to feel very frustrated because of this. Believe me, it wasn’t something I enjoyed; in all honesty, I hated it. Almost all of the artists that I had grown up admiring had a signature style and I assumed that it was supposed to be that way. That assumption was a huge mistake on my behalf. Because of it, I spent years looking for something that didn’t exist: a defined style. I led my own self on a wild goose chase. Starting out as an artist and dealing with the public and their strange ideas about art can be frustrating enough; add to this a feeling of having no visual identity and you can start to understand how I was feeling. After a long period of nearly no activity, I started thinking about this; I’d be lying if I said that I made any immediate progress towards resolving this personal dilemma. It took another two years to finally come to grips with this idea. During that time period I began my first blog, Cubist Comix, and I began to get myself back into a daily routine of drawing which helped a lot. Eventually, all these things helped me realize that mine was a multi-style approach. Realizing that was a great thing, but accepting it was even better. Another great thing was realizing that my different approaches were tied to my different emotions. It all makes perfect sense to me now. Now, that realization is also enriched by the fact that I no longer seek approval from anyone in regards to what I produce, nor do I feel the need to have to explain myself to anyone either. The only thing that I seek now is total freedom; if there are any restrictions placed upon my work, they are ones that I have placed myself. The above image may not be something totally new for me but that’s the least of my concerns because, more importantly, it says something about where I am in the evolution of my own work: this is who I am and this is where I set off on my own.

I therefore  go forward along my chosen path; I proudly acknowledge all those influences, obvious and less obvious, that form a part of who I am. One must start somewhere and eventually come to a point where one veers onto a lone and unique path. Let the adventure begin.

Well, here we are at the beginning of another year; what exciting things do you have planned for yourselves, my dear readers? Did you make a resolution? Did you a break a resolution? Or, is it all the same to you? I hope that it’s not all the same to you; I hope that you can see endless possibilities for yourself in this new year. I certainly do.

The new year brings a change to my point of view in general. In recent months I found myself falling into a terrible and repetitive pattern that left me feeling very empty on the inside. It was horrible; it was like I was becoming one of the crowd. Now, I find that my tolerance for plebeian banalities is gone. There was a time when such things didn’t bother me; it was easy to overlook them – not anymore. I’ve reached a point in my life where I want more and not less from life. I see lots of people that are my age who seem to have lost their curiosity and sense of adventure; they’ve settled for a Walmart-level lifestyle and are cruising on down to retirement age. What a fucking nightmare! I can’t imagine anything worse than this. Seriously, imagine yourself waking up one day at 75 and realizing that the most thrilling memories you have are from going to Walmart patio furniture sales! I’d rather be shot dead, thank you. All joking aside, I honestly couldn’t continue sitting around listening to these types of things and acting like it’s OK. I’m sure that this will not bode well for some people that know me; I’m sure that someone will lob the “Elitist,” label my way and that’s fine with me. It doesn’t matter to me any more, it really doesn’t.

“It’s all possible if you really want it.” Yes indeed, I couldn’t agree more. The new year has begun and it is different for me. The recent events that I speak of have also had an effect on my work as as well; just like everything else, I want more and not less from it. The only concrete possibility that exists in regards to my work is a multifaceted one. I cannot continue down a road where I only see things one way. They say that life is short, but I imagine that it must be even shorter if you waste it indulging in banalities.

Here we are at the end of another year, and I look forward with much anticipation to the New Year that awaits us. I have lots of new ideas that have been put away in storage for far too long and I want to start working on them. I, of course, have new ideas as well; between new and old I will have more than enough work to do. We’ll see how things go – some of these projects are pretty involved and realistically I’m not sure exactly how much I’ll get done on these projects. Some of the projects are in need of attention much more than others, but at this point I just want to try and get as many of these completed as I can. Stay tuned! The last few years have been frustratingly slow at times in terms of creativity for me, but that’s now in the past and I can begin to concentrate on the many ideas that I have in mind. Establishing this site has helped a lot in terms of having a place to shed light on these ideas and that, in of itself, is a strong motivating factor. 

Along with the desire to create new things I am also filled with the desire to grow and expand within my given “style.” There’s always room for growth and sometimes the best way to achieve that is by just taking a big leap of faith and doing things differently. Styles have a lifetime and eventually run their course – you have to move on. This goes for the context of whatever it is that you’re trying to express. Sometimes, that can be a real challenge for some of us; after all, speaking your mind and not holding back can be a very uncomfortable thing to do. In the end, you have to do it; you either do it or you continue living a lie. Not exactly something I want to do.

This coming new year is one that promises a lot for me; it’s been a very long time since I’ve looked forward to the beginning of a new year with this much anticipation. I look forward to sharing all of this with you, my dear readers. Thank you very much much for your support. Happy Holidays to all of you!

              My sketchbook page from the rest of this week.

This past week has been filled with lots of activity and I find myself somewhat reflective about it and other things. Things started last Saturday when I participated in Let’s Draw Davis!! A Sketchcrawl. I arrived about half an hour late but was surprised to see that a good amount of people had shown up – there were about a dozen of us. The first person I encountered was my friend and fellow artist Pete Scully who was already well into his first drawing of Davis Community Park. I greeted him and his wife and then wandered off to scout out a place to ensconce myself. I normally draw unsuspecting victims who are hunched over their laptops or sprawled out on couches at cafés so being at a community park was a little different for me. I sat next to a couple of ladies who were caught up in talk about pens and brands of sketchbooks; I thought about joining in but what would I say? I’m not on the lookout for different varieties of pens nor am I curious about other brands of sketchbooks. I know what I like and it works just fine for me, so I decided to keep quiet and just draw. After about forty-five minutes Pete and a few others had joined our little group to look at each others’ drawings. I didn’t have much to show; I had barely sketched the tree and scenery on the first image above – not a whole hell of a lot. Still, there was someone who seemed impressed by my tortoise like speed; “Oh, look at you. Wow, that’s really good,” bellowed a woman’s voice over my head. I didn’t respond as I felt that what I’d done wasn’t all that impressive. “Hey guy, I’m talking to you. Hey,” she said in a somewhat irritated voice. “Oh, thanks,” I said in  most unenthusiastic manner. By this point it had gotten too cold for us to stay outside so we decided to move into the Davis Public Library.

As we walked over, my friend Marlene Lee and I spoke about earning a living as an artist and being successful. At one point in our conversation Marlene turned to me and asked, “Do you feel that you’re successful, Salvador? After a brief moment of thought I said, “I used to work at a job where I spent lots of time in a cubicle and now I spend my days drawing. If success is measured by happiness then I would say I’m pretty successful.” It wasn’t the first time that I’d been asked that question and I suspect it won’t be the last. For me “Success” is nothing more than a process. If you keep at it eventually you’ll get what you want. The end result depends on what your goals are to begin with. You have to be honest with yourself in the beginning so that you can be prepared for the road ahead. My main priority is and always will be to be free and to enjoy my work. Whatever else comes after that isn’t something that I worry about too much. As we neared the library entrance I said to Marlene, “In the end you have to believe that it can happen. If you don’t then there’s no point in going forward.”

Today was Thanksgiving; today I saw lots of postings on Facebook about what different people were grateful for and that’s good. I too am grateful for all that I have: my health, my wife, and the fact that I get to do what I most love on a daily basis. Gratitude is something that should be shown on a daily basis and not set aside for some specific date or time. I believe it’s important to begin every day by acknowledging this most important thing. Aside from this you should endeavor to be yourself and live your life as you wish without worrying about what others may think.

]]> http://salvadorcastio.com/success-priorities-and-getting-on-with-things/feed/ 2 http://salvadorcastio.com/decisions-and-changes/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=decisions-and-changes http://salvadorcastio.com/decisions-and-changes/#comments Mon, 07 Nov 2011 05:11:05 +0000 Salvador Castío http://salvadorcastio.com/?p=789  

This past week has been good, really good. Future plans were laid, I spent a day with someone that inspires me to live my life on my own terms, and had a good time in general. Life is good. It’s easy to overlook such things and take them for granted; lots of people do it all the time.

My week started in the company of my dear friend Kay; Kay is nearly eighty years old but you’d never know it based on her attitude towards life. I’ve only known her for less than a year but during that time I have watched, listened, and learned a lot from her. I don’t think it’s a fluke that she’s come into my life. Change is in the air for me and meeting someone like Kay only serves to precipitate that. Last Monday I had the pleasure of spending the day with this wonderful lady and, as you might imagine, talking about everything under the sun. During our conversation, she talked about how her life had changed when she was my age and how she had taken that opportunity to basically start anew and get out and explore life. Since that time she has gone back to school and completed a Master’s degree, taught in Vietnam, lived in Thailand, and traveled to lots of interesting places. At her age most people have fallen into a routine and have no interest in future goals. My friend is not that type of person. She continues to have a desire to explore and learn, and travel. How can you be around such a person and not feel compelled to go forward and aspire to everything that life has to offer? Thank you Ms. Kay for being who you are.

It’s hard for me to imagine continuing in the same way that I was prior to meeting my dear friend. You see things differently when you meet someone that’s done many of the things that you yourself want to do. None of this is new, It’s been on my mind for quite some time, but it wasn’t until now that I saw what needed to be done. There’s a lot to be done and there’s places and people to see and meet. I am ready; I’ve been ready. Making the decision to live life on your own terms can be the hardest decision that you’ll ever make, but in the end, you have to do it if you truly wish to live.

Recently, I was confronted with the hated and much asked question, “How do you make money?” This question was asked in regards to being an artist. Even after all these years this question still leaves me totally and completely perplexed. I’ve often wondered why people are so worried about my economic state of being. How are they affected by it? Strange. I often wonder what Picasso would say in situations like this? I’m sure that his response would’ve been, “Of course I make money you idiot. I am Picasso, fuck off!” Picasso had sizable cojones (Spanish for testes) when it came to expressing his opinions about art and there is a valuable lesson to be learned from his blatant candor. I believe that Picasso’s attitude in general was deeply rooted in his belief that what he did was as valuable as anything done by anyone else. In fact, I’m sure that he probably thought that what he did was infinitely superior to what others did. I’m also sure that anyone that ever came into contact with him most likely  thought that he was totally arrogant and full of himself. Maybe he was, but in the end who cares, right? There’s a fine line between arrogance and self belief; it’s so fine that most people can’t distinguish it. Even I have been have been accused of being arrogant because of my determination. Do I somehow feel guilty for being accused of this? Not really. I’ve actually been asked, “Do you think that you’re a great artist?” What am I supposed to say to that question other than, “Of course I’m a great artist.” These types of questions are laughable at best. The fact is, there are people who will never understand what I do nor do they care to; on the other hand, there are those who will understand my efforts without any explanation at all. It is those people that make it all worthwhile.  I guess this is how it’s always going to be and that’s fine. The fact is that there’s always going to be people who somehow feel entitled for whatever reason. These are the ones that will matter-of-factly ask you blatant and ignorant questions such as the aforementioned money question. Not only do they ask you stupid questions but in the process they think that they’re also doing you a favor by showing interest in your work. Oh, and let’s not forget that expect a Goddamned discount to boot! A good set of cojones comes in handy when dealing with these people; a healthy dose of sarcasm doesn’t hurt either.

After years of running into this bullshit I’ve come to the conclusion that these schmucks deserve nothing but the best: high prices and sarcasm. You get to a point where enough is enough, you know. Life is too short and I’ve got better things to do than deal with these types of people. If you’re a creative person in any way shape or form take this as an example to learn from. Stand your ground and don’t give in to the ignorance of these people. And if they don’t like it then tell them what Picasso would have told them, “I am Picasso, fuck off!”