Thursday, November 10, 2011

Guest Author: Carl Ray


Fiction is another word for escape.


It can take the reader to another world, providing the imagination with the tools to paint a picture of exquisite beauty, nightmarish horror or anything in between.


It's almost magic, really.  Within a few pages, a good author can make characters seem like people you've known for ages.  In just a few chapters, decades of time can pass and yet you feel as though you've been with them through all of it.


Yes, I just mentioned pages and chapters.  I did it because, to me, books are the ultimate "delivery system" for storytelling.  Just like smoking is the delivery system for nicotine, books are the delivery system (and a much healthier one, at that) for the high that comes from finishing a satisfying story.  It's why the book is always better than the movie.


Like many fans of the arts, be it dancing or singing, sketching or storytelling, sometimes I can be so inspired by what I see as to try my own hand at it.  Watching the movie "Strictly Ballroom" inspired me to try ballroom dancing.  I've been told that you are always supposed to find a least one positive from any experience you've had.  In the case of ballroom dance, I learned that I could save a lot of time and frustration by not doing it.  


Same with singing.  My daughter has a beautiful voice.  I guess it must skip a generation.  My positive?  Trying to sing with little success made me appreciate my daughter's gift that much more. 


It's the same with trying to write The Great American Novel.  When I read the works of some of the really great authors of our time I think, "I could never write like that." 


But one thing I can do is draw cartoons.  I also like to tell jokes, even write my own (with mixed results).  And I love to tell stories.  Not a novel or even a novella.  Just light entertainment that can be enjoyed for what it is.




I decided to challenge myself to put my strengths together and create something.  For me, drawing, jokes and storytelling added up to writing a comic.  I wanted it to be light and funny, with likeable characters in outrageous circumstances; just like the old Looney Toons characters that inspired me to start drawing when I was a pre-schooler.




Then I set out to draw Fish Tank.  It's the story of three aquarium fish (one of which is a super-genius) and their adventures.  It taught me that it takes a lot of work to make a story flow.  An effortless cartoon, one that tells a story and is funny in all the right places, is actually quite a chore to create.  But I love to create them and the results made the work that much more rewarding.


For the first time in my artistic exploits, I finally feel like I've put together something that I can be proud of, something I can share with you.


If you'd like to learn more about Fish Tank, even look over some free samples of the eBooks, you can go to my website at http://fishtankcartoon.wordpress.com.  There is even a complete story there that you can read.  Give it a try.  It's fun!


Maybe it's not a steak, but sometimes a little piece of chocolate can be satisfying, too!



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