Re: question for the pimp mack daddy.
MON, 2/26/01, 2:07 p.m. - In Response To: question for the pimp mack daddy. (brian monroe)

david,

when i do sketches at the cons i prefer to ink with those brush pens.sadly i can't find the ones i like around here. i forget the name of them but it's not tombo or micron.i know they're black and of japanese origin.jim o'barr and drew hayes turned me on to them.do you have any idea which kind i mean,and if so,any idea where i can order some?thanks and have fun at megacon! maybe with a lot of luck i'll be there. oh yeah,andy lee smells. [:)]

-brian monroe

I got most of them in Japan. BUt I think I might have also picked some up in Little Tokyo in LA or in Japan Town in San Fran.

All the type on the packaging is in Kanji, so I don't know if that will help you, but there is a little square on the package that has a picture of a PANDA and the initials WWF below it.

Thi Tran

Doesn't Shonen mean "boy" in Japanese. If so, why is the female Kenzo agent introduced in Kabuki #3 named that way. If it's important to the story, than don't tell me, for I have yet to read issues 4-9?

Thankyou.

"Shonen" is the sort of the nick name or trade name for her. I sort of like that they call her that. Plus for a girl who was on rollor blades and was introduced to us as "Shonen Blade" (for other blade reasons), I thought it was a funny play on the popular Japanese female music group called "Shonen Knife". Sort of a funny pop cult nick name for her.

having read a couple of interviews with you where you quoted Frank Miller as one of your main influences, do you think that there is some influence in your work.

Well, I would not have mentioned him as an early influence unless I though that he was an early influence. I read my first Miller DD when I was nine years old. And I had not considered doing storytelling in comics until I was enamored by those early DD stories.

Warmest regards as always,

David

In the Image Comic #1, there's one part that I don't really understand, can someone help me out?

It's the part where Kabuki says she believed in the Noh's cause until she found out that the emporer has no clothes. I didn't quite understand that, can someone enlighten me? Thanks!

In case you are unfamiliar with this story, the Emporer gets some new clothes. But this new outfit is fashioned by a witty tayor, who proclaims that only people who are not "fools" can actually see the clothes. The emporer is given a handful of nothing. Not wanting people to think he is a fool, the emporer acts like he sees the clothes, proclaims them beautiful and puts them on. Of course he is naked. But the rest of the people in his kingdom do not want others to think they are fools, so they also remark at the beauty of the emporer's new outfit, even though all they see is a naked emporer. No one will state the obvious for fear of bucking the "common wisdon" of the land.

Kabuki mentioned this as a metaphore for her own society's "group mentality" in Circle of Blood. Finally she could not play along anymore, and she spoke out about the absurdity of the system that she was obvious to her, even though it bucked the trend of ettiquette.