September 6, 2011
Dear New and Regular Readers,
Welcome! This week brings us to Page 24. You will find a transcript at the end of this letter. Next Tuesday, I post page 25 and I will also be addressing a couple of questions.
In the meantime, I want to further expand on a question that I addressed briefly weeks ago, here. Here's Part 2. Read the answer to Part 1 to this question, beneath Page 20.
How did I come up with the idea for Goatwater? Part 2
The idea to write and paint a graphic novel, called Goatwater, came from a short story I wrote last Fall, called, The Cracked Figurine. The Goatwater version of cracked figurine first appears on Page 10, when Sister begins telling the story of how she found a cracked figurine on top of the altar at Maman’s funeral. In the original story, I describe an altar on which, among other items, rests a small bowl of goat water. Prior to this brief description that I included in the story, I hadn’t eaten goat water or even thought about it for years. This small bowl of food left on an altar in my imagination, however, opened up a door into my own personal and historical relationship to memory, joy, freedom, spirituality, loss and grief.
Not only did describing this small, imaginary meal make me recall some of my childhood memories of goat water being served at parties and family gatherings among people who are still living today and many who have since passed on, it led me far beyond that, to ask the question, how is it we were there in the first place, and whatever happened, I mean really happened or at least could have happened, if it were possible, to all those beautiful people I long for, and why many years later would I think of goat water as an offering on an altar to include in a work of fiction? So, I decided to chase the wild goat – like I’ve got a monkey that just won’t get off my back – to Sister’s first greeting and question: “Evening Reverend, where can I get a cup of Goatwater?”
Remember that you can now link to the Table of Contents on every page. I will post Page 25, next Tuesday, September, 13th. Click here to start at the beginning of this webcomic. Have a great week and remember that Goatwater is updated every Tuesday. Email any questions or comments to bassacards(at) yahoo.com.
If this is your first time visiting this site, or you are a regular reader, email me at the address above if you want me to add you to my mailing list so that I can send you an email reminder, every Tuesday, when I’ve added the new page. No spam, and I will not share your email with anybody else, just the link to the new page and some update information, if I have any. And feel free to let me know, at any time, if you want to stop receiving the weekly emails. Thank you for your support!
PAGE 24 - TRANSCRIPT
Missus (1st panel)
The name of this sermon is, “Rooms To Let, Maybe.” And I did not write it, it wrote itself. Okay, I wrote it.
Missus (2nd Panel)
A man walks into a room carrying a loaf of bread and a pistol – STOP! I can’t do this.
Octaroon
But you were raised in this church.
Horny
Now, Missus, tell me where Maman’s run off to and I will attach your head back onto your body. If you don’t, I will turn it over to the Headmaster, over there, he’ll know what to do with it.
Missus
Maman, fell through a crack in the floor at Hotel La Fete. I feel just terrible about it.
Headmaster
OH! Her head, it’s so beautiful and brown. I wonder about the quality of the thoughts in it.
Dear New and Regular Readers,
Welcome! This week brings us to Page 24. You will find a transcript at the end of this letter. Next Tuesday, I post page 25 and I will also be addressing a couple of questions.
In the meantime, I want to further expand on a question that I addressed briefly weeks ago, here. Here's Part 2. Read the answer to Part 1 to this question, beneath Page 20.
How did I come up with the idea for Goatwater? Part 2
The idea to write and paint a graphic novel, called Goatwater, came from a short story I wrote last Fall, called, The Cracked Figurine. The Goatwater version of cracked figurine first appears on Page 10, when Sister begins telling the story of how she found a cracked figurine on top of the altar at Maman’s funeral. In the original story, I describe an altar on which, among other items, rests a small bowl of goat water. Prior to this brief description that I included in the story, I hadn’t eaten goat water or even thought about it for years. This small bowl of food left on an altar in my imagination, however, opened up a door into my own personal and historical relationship to memory, joy, freedom, spirituality, loss and grief.
Not only did describing this small, imaginary meal make me recall some of my childhood memories of goat water being served at parties and family gatherings among people who are still living today and many who have since passed on, it led me far beyond that, to ask the question, how is it we were there in the first place, and whatever happened, I mean really happened or at least could have happened, if it were possible, to all those beautiful people I long for, and why many years later would I think of goat water as an offering on an altar to include in a work of fiction? So, I decided to chase the wild goat – like I’ve got a monkey that just won’t get off my back – to Sister’s first greeting and question: “Evening Reverend, where can I get a cup of Goatwater?”
Remember that you can now link to the Table of Contents on every page. I will post Page 25, next Tuesday, September, 13th. Click here to start at the beginning of this webcomic. Have a great week and remember that Goatwater is updated every Tuesday. Email any questions or comments to bassacards(at) yahoo.com.
If this is your first time visiting this site, or you are a regular reader, email me at the address above if you want me to add you to my mailing list so that I can send you an email reminder, every Tuesday, when I’ve added the new page. No spam, and I will not share your email with anybody else, just the link to the new page and some update information, if I have any. And feel free to let me know, at any time, if you want to stop receiving the weekly emails. Thank you for your support!
PAGE 24 - TRANSCRIPT
Missus (1st panel)
The name of this sermon is, “Rooms To Let, Maybe.” And I did not write it, it wrote itself. Okay, I wrote it.
Missus (2nd Panel)
A man walks into a room carrying a loaf of bread and a pistol – STOP! I can’t do this.
Octaroon
But you were raised in this church.
Horny
Now, Missus, tell me where Maman’s run off to and I will attach your head back onto your body. If you don’t, I will turn it over to the Headmaster, over there, he’ll know what to do with it.
Missus
Maman, fell through a crack in the floor at Hotel La Fete. I feel just terrible about it.
Headmaster
OH! Her head, it’s so beautiful and brown. I wonder about the quality of the thoughts in it.
Goatwater
Copyright 2011
words and images by:
Tiffany Osedra Miller
all rights reserved.
Copyright 2011
words and images by:
Tiffany Osedra Miller
all rights reserved.
