While I understand that was supposed to be done by the end of the weekend, I seemed to be incapable of sitting down and writing my proposal.  I knew that I wanted to do more remixing of UBIK into the X-Men comics, but after listening to everyone else’s projects, I knew that I needed to do more.  How could I make this a more meaningful project?  How does this relate to the Society of Control?  On what other levels do science fiction and comics relate?  On what other levels do UBIK and X-Men relate?  I know my project needs to be the result of much reflection and “digging” so to speak, which is great being as I want to be an archaeologist.

Recently, I have started reading Scout McCloud’s book “Understanding Comics.”  (Upon Mobius’ suggestion)  The book is all about how to read comics, what comics are, how use different parts of comics, etc, etc.  The best part of the book is that is entirely composed of comics.  McCloud uses the techniques he is describing to physically demonstrate his points.  The first chapter is about the “history” of comics and he mentions a couple of times that there are pieces of art that could be referred to as comics according to a definition he develops in his book.  Yet, these pieces were not called comics because that was disgraceful and common.  There was no sophistication in the practice behind making comics.  As I was reading this I thought, “Where have I heard someone saying something like this before?”  Then I remembered Arpeggi’s posting of Philip K. Dick’s interview and his thoughts about science fiction and the reputation the genre endured.  Suddenly, I had another level to work with.  In the “exegesis” of this production I will discuss how these two pieces, both separately and combined, defy the “common” and low art labels attached to them.  I will discuss how the society controls the development of these two genres and what that means in terms of what is then produced.

I have been trying to find better correlations between the actual stories but they are a bit more difficult.  I do want to illustrate the idea of “who is speaking to whom.”  I am not sure if I currently have access to the particular issues, but I know I have read ones where Prof. X was “unconscious” and swimming around in his own thoughts and dreams while still hearing Jean Grey or Scott Summers trying to communicate with him.  On the flip side, Prof. X is always in his students’ heads when they are not directly by his side.  That is how he gathers them or gives them instruction from far away.  He uses his super telekinetic brain to communicate with the others.  While this isn’t exactly the same as Runciter placing matchboxes and the like, I feel that I should try to combine the two. 

Another aspect of the book I would really like to illustrate is the concept of having to be together.  Whether the creators of the X-Men simply wanted kids to learn to work as a team or what, I am not sure, but often we see in the comics that they try to defeat enemies one-by-one and usually look pretty pathetic, but then someone always shouts (sometimes it is Prof. X in their heads), “Work together! Work as a team!” and then they beat the snot out of whoever they are fighting.  In order to survive in this unknown realm and to defeat Jory, the inertials had to stay together, and when they were together they were able to figure things out and survive for some time.  The only one who defied this fate was Joe Chip because Ella found him and gave him UBIK.  This is going to be a tricky merger, but in my gut it must be attempted.

With all this said, I am simply going to do some more intense remixing of UBIK and X-Men but focusing on some slightly more complex issues rather that putting them together and they looking cool.  My wiki production will be pages interspersed with commentary as I did with the other assignment, but then I am going to attempt to print out the pages and bind them to actually look like a comic book.  If anyone has any suggestions in how this can be achieved I would appreciate it.

I guess I described my purpose and goals with this project, but why would others like it?  BECAUSE IT IS COMICS DUH!  Who wouldn’t like to read a comic version of the scenes of UBIK?  The combination of childhood memories and pleasures combined with intellectual thinking, isn’t that the purpose of college? (Especially as liberal arts majors?)  Maybe that’s just me...

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