The Mariner

I grad­u­ated with a bachelor’s degree in art, but in the art world, that degree is only worth as much as the paper it’s printed on after you draw some­thing on it. There are no guarantees.

That twisted cliché is what runs through my head as I put .5mm mechan­i­cal pen­cil to Can­son brand comic book art board. Page 1, panel 3, of my first issue of the Tales of the Mariner series, The Demon Purse. Wait…panel 3, that’s a bit of an odd place to start?

Nope. It aint. Not at all.

The Mariner sits at the bar, cradling a shot of rum. Nobody sits near him, his slouched pos­ture, his rat­ted gray mane, his odd dress. His shabby exte­rior does not invite guests in this crowded estab­lish­ment. He does not belong. The bar buzzes with tales from the mun­dane to the mag­nif­i­cent and he merely lis­tens. A wit­ness, an observer, a con­sumer from his bar stool as the crowd around him con­tin­ues their enter­tain­ing chat­ter. They tell their tales. Tales of humor, tales of vio­lence, tales of debauch­ery. Tales of tri­umph. Tales of fail­ure. Tales of the shared human expe­ri­ence. Tales that invite oth­ers to lis­ten. Tales that engage. Tales that repulse. Tales to enter­tain any who would listen.

And he does, he lis­tens. There are count­less sto­ries to be told. Each offers its own van­tage point. Each offers its own per­spec­tive. Each has merit, but not nec­es­sar­ily an audi­ence. Tell the right tale to the wrong indi­vid­ual and it falls on deaf ears. Tell the wrong tale to the right indi­vid­ual and inter­est fades. It’s a roll of the dice, but sto­ries are made to be told.

And in the next panel, the Mariner takes his shot.

And in the next, he stands to find his audience.

That is how it begins.

Pen­cil to paper. Page 1 panel 3.

And rightly so…

–chris

Tales of the Mariner: An Overhead View: Part 1

When the idea of the Mariner was first described to me by Chris (Co-President…try to keep up), I almost instantly thought of a mem­ory from when I was first able to drink legally. Before I get to that I need to explain a lit­tle bit about what drink­ing meant to me in when I turned 21. See, like most at that age, I got rather excited about drink­ing, but what I feel set me apart was the excite­ment was usu­ally for the set­ting not the ine­bri­a­tion. Of course the result was the same, but some­how dif­fer­ent intent gave me an extremely unearned sense of self-worth. I didn’t drink to get drunk, oh no, I drank to expe­ri­ence the live action equiv­a­lence of all that music, movies and comics had taught me; in the right set­ting, booze = tales for the ages.

The mem­ory that par­tic­u­larly stood out hap­pened while in this phase. I asked to help move a fam­ily mem­ber to South Dakota, then an image of me sit­ting at a run­down bar lis­ten­ing to an old run­down man tell some amaz­ing tale flashed into my head. I declared that I would only help if such a scene would be a pos­si­bil­ity along the way. I received a semi-confident con­fir­ma­tion that it was a pos­si­bil­ity, so we were off. For 5 hours I pon­dered what tales I would hear. Maybe he was a FBI agent from the 50s who could shed con­fi­den­tial secrets about the gangs of old. Or pos­si­bly he was a retired jewel thief wait­ing decades to dig up hid­den scores. Would it be pos­si­ble that he was a fuck­ing cos­mo­naut? I don’t know! Shit, I even thought maybe he could be all three!

That evening, after the move was com­plete, I found myself walk­ing into a run­down bar located in a town com­prised of a grain mill and a 2 story apart­ment build­ing. There at the bar sat an old run­down man. I had my set­ting and if I played this right I would have a tale for the ages. I walked up to him and sat down. When I looked over to him I saw some­thing I couldn’t comprehend…a sign that said “Incred­i­ble Hulk Shots $2.” I turned to the Bar­tender and ordered two, then got shit faced drunk with my brother while try­ing to play $5 worth of darts. Word to the wise…$5 in darts takes forever.

So, how does this relate to the new comic Alba­tross Comics is putting out called “Tales of the Mariner”? For me this book is gonna be every story that man would have said had I not been tempted by Comic Book themed shots. The only dif­fer­ence is there will be far fewer slurred words and way less disappointment.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Halloween

Happy Hal­loween from the Hulk

Minnesota Comic Book Association Fallcon

Alba­tross was out in force at the MN Fall­con. Sales were had, smiles were cre­ated, and mem­o­ries were made. It was great to get out and meet some new folks as well as see some old friends. Thank you to every­one who made it out, and please come see us next year at MN Spring Con to pick up some new issues!

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Road Trip

Alba­tross went on the road to increase awareness…and to get out of MN for a spell. Our adven­tures took us down the Mis­sis­sippi through St. Louis and end­ing in Mem­phis. The return trip saw us hit Mil­wau­kee before get­ting back to our home base. Check out the pics below for a small glimpse of the shenani­gans we got into and the new Alba­tross friends we made. If you want more of a “play by play,” go to our Face­book page where we doc­u­mented each move on the trip.

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The Albatross crew will be at MCBA’s Fallcon!

Come on by and meet us in per­son! We will be sell­ing copies of Guilty Con­science, Alba­tross shirts, long embraces, and Comic prints! If com­mis­sions are your thing we do that too! Add to all that a draw­ing for those who come by our booth and sign up for our mail­ing list…the def­i­n­i­tion of a no lose scenario.

See you all there!

My First Blog

My First Blog