I am viewing comic book pages that I
have drawn. I notice a preponderance of long vertical panels and
long horizontal pages. All of the pages exhibit a fine line contour
work with lots of detail. Most of the pages are various states of
completion ranging from pencils only to full color digital. They are
from many different stories ranging from the mundane to the taboo. I
am going to show them to several old female friends but I am fearful
of their reaction to one of the taboo stories it involves something
sexual? Something dark about my beliefs?
We all move into a large auditorium.
It is dark. There are many people in seats already. They are
viewing a slideshow? A movie? All of the people there are older and
moneyed. My friends and I are all cramped on one side of the theatre
just beyond the seats. I have my pages with me. We are all younger
versions of ourselves. We are waiting for our turn to sit? I try to
change into a better shirt , a sweater but there isn't much room and
it is difficult. My friends get seats before I do.
Everyone is waiting for the show to
begin. There is some kind of delay with the projector? Someone
asked me if I will display my work in the interim. My friends are gone. I mention
that I only have these pages with me and most of them are incomplete.
They do not mind. As they begin setting up a specific projector for
what I have with me I begin to explain my work to the lady who asked
me to show my work. Not having a “real” statement prepared, I
rattle off some bullshit about trying to connect fine art and
sequential art. I don't believe it, why should she? She is shadowy
and nearly incorporeal, not really a person at all. I struggle to
get my pages in order.
I standing on a bridge leading into a
castle. An old male friend is dressed as a pirate. He is surrounded
by constabulary. He is being judged for a crime, Thievery? Piracy?
They judged him and move on. He is to be hanged? Incarcerated? As
he is judged another friend's Chihuahua runs out of the castle and
across the fountain pool / moat and out. I step out of the entryway
and the castle becomes a suburban house with a well kept sloping
front yard. I follow my old male friend down and around to the side
of the house.
He and a handsome african american man
are building a barrel and a wooden crate from slated pieces of wood. I am attracted to the african american man. They are both
still dressed as pirates. They are planning an escape. I am not
exactly sure of their plans, but I know it involves their
constructions. One of them is going to hide in the barrel? The african american man goes around to the front of
the house again. I fly up to the height of the building to see if I
can follow him.
I am distracted as I am telling my
older friend about a powerful story from medieval times? called “The
Power and The Glory”? It is a tragedy of taboo acts and dark
obsession. In the story, a queen is having incestuous relations with
her son, the king, who is in turn having incestuous homosexual
relations with a cousin? younger brother? and they all die in the
end. I recommend to my friend that all first semester college
students should read the book for its profundity. I feel that the
story is relevant to their age and will “prepare” them.
I follow my older male friend around to
the front of the house. He is now wearing a fetish gear police
uniform, all black with a shiny metal badge. He is preparing for
travel. I see the african american man again. He is with his
children, a young boy and a young girl. They are happy and
smiling. I am trying to delay my old male friend. He is preparing
to leave without his wife. I feel desperate and clingy. There is
something in the landscaping that is very distracting.
I wake.
NOTE: When I had this dream I was not aware of Graham Greene's novel The Power and the Glory.
