This was taken at a spectacularly-numbered parking lot at a mostly-abandoned office building over by the Medical Mall. It’s also a holla for PrettyFakes favorite gclark, creator of the nigh-legendary catoptric. Gclark gave people like me and Sally a giant sandbox in which to thrash about, finding our way. I owe a gigantic debt to the man, much in the same way any artist benefits from a gallery that doesn’t just believe in the work, but supports it and creates a system of emotional (if not always financial) patronage.
For those of you who never read it, imagine that any day’s offerings at catoptric likely included a missive by Sally about freaks in her junior-high class in Texas, a cartoon by me about throwing up Red Vines (this was pre-Polaroid), a detailed analysis of tropical storm formation in the Gulf of Mexico, and a mixtape loaded heavily with R.E.M. Christmas singles. On any given day.
In its own way, it was like a band, with each of us providing valuable components to an overall whole. Much like bands that reach a certain status, there were tensions of a sort, and things tended to fall apart, possibly aided by the fact that one of the catoptricians—who may very well draw ridiculous cartoons—generally wanted everything to go exactly his way, all of the time.
Despite all of this, I like to believe we’ve remained good friends, and if Lorne Michaels called us up one day and offered us a measly few hundred bucks to get together and “jam,” well, if we were in the neighborhood we’d likely take him up on it. Unless we were too drunk.
Edit/Update: I must point out this excellent essay by Girl Wonder Karen Healey on fighting anti-feminist sentiment in comics. She uses logic and humor to devastate anti-feminist propaganda over why comics can’t change and shouldn’t change; it must be read.
I loved, loved, loved Catoptric.
Catoptric reunion tour! w00t!
(C has the non-distinction of being the first blog that I ever read on a daily basis.)
i still remember the night when jaxxie told me about catoptric. she couldn’t spell it* on a bar napkin, so she said to just google around. i found it, and over the course of the next 5 or so hours (hello, productivity!) i felt like I was reading a secret history of the kids that i would have been friends with, had I chosen state over southern (or vice versa). i do miss it sometimes. but gorj, i’m glad you found ol’ prof.
*due to all the dranky dranks, not inferior intelligence.
Yeah, I really loved the community aspect of it, if for no other reason than there was no pressure to post because someone else always did. And it may not have been obvious, but I did a lot of re-reading and re-writing every word to make sure those words were decent enough to post on a website that represented a lot of folks.
Now, I just talk about my cat and what I ate for lunch. It’s all downhill from here. Soon, I’m going to start writing things like “Paid bills. Read a Cathy comic. Didn’t laugh.”
i was telling one of my classes about the posies YESTERDAY. no lie. the timing of this is a hoot.
catoptric was a damn fine blog. i’m glad i was a part of it, and i’m also really happy that the blogs that have popped up in its wake are doing so well.
http://www.catoptric.com/rss/
at least i think they’re doing well. looks to me like they are.
Yea verily, Catoptric was the greatness, and one of the reasons this whole “blog” concept seemed like such a good idea.