Friday, June 18, 2010

Kabuki

Kestin introduced me to the series about two months ago after our conversation about the "quarter-life crisis." Sometimes I am very melodramatic, but no matter. The first volume was published in 1994, so I'm a bit late on this but it came at the most relevant time. I read the most recent volume, The Alchemy (2009), first. The author described this volume as "specifically designed to be Kabuki’s new life. And it is essentially an instruction manual on creating a NEW life, creating the life of YOUR OWN PERSONAL DREAMS AND INTERESTS that should be practical and applicable to anyone who reads it. It is a recipe and blueprint for creating your own reality, your own career, and your own fresh start. It is a spell for creating your own magic. Taking the baggage of your life and turning it into something positive and useful; turning your garbage into gold."

Okay, reading that back to myself, I feel like Scarlett Johansson in Lost in Translation when Bill Murray finds her Meaning of Life tapes. I admit that there were many instances in this book that were really fortune cookie-ish and completely self-serving and indulgent for the author himself. But, that being said, I agreed with many of his ideas about internal transformation as a form of coping and growing, the necessity of self-reflexivity in order to get to that point, drawing inspiration from your childhood, the importance of creating and keeping your mind active, and just the realization that nothing is stable. I think perhaps even more inspirational than the verbal messages was the form and layout of the graphic novel ("The medium as the message!"). Mack used a lot of different media to illustrate his story and convey his messages. The whole thing kind of just looks like a big collage, although some of the volumes (the ones in which he collaborated with other artists) utilized the traditional graphic novel form. Anyway, I totally dug it and can see it becoming a regular source of inspiration to me. If you get a chance, I would highly recommend you take a look at it.


(click to enlarge)
(you won't regret it!)

1 comment:

nana said...

i once read a volume of kabuki - long enough ago that i can't actually remember what it was about - but i really fell in love with david mack's art work. he's incredible!