The Gold
This project took eleven years from when I began putting ink to the first page until completion. I kind of jumped into it without knowing exactly what would happen, which is different than how I normally jump into a story. Normally, I have a complete script. I didn’t have a script, I had a vague idea in my head what favorite works of art I would like to reference, and how those dozen pieces would determine the storyline – and that was it. I had a lot of holes to fill in, in between those few banner images. The excitement and story kicked off after I had drawn a couple pictures of my lead character, and it had gotten me excited enough, I just jumped in and thought, let’s see what happens and where this goes, and I started drawing without a map. (Without a very complete map.)
My initial concept – which you can see elements of, on this and the next page – is that the President character is so megalamaniacal, he decides he needs a statue of himself made of solid gold – and that it should be the largest gold statue that has ever been made of someone in history. This idea tickled me immensely, the thought of someone deciding that this is an ultimate show of self-value and worth, and that it would be something to aspire to accomplish. I find it to be such a poignant, sad, ugly, disturbing metaphor to reveal the kinds of needs to feel respected and values we hold high as a society.
I had gotten the idea from an old 1967 episode of the Spider-Man cartoon, in which the villain, The Rhino, decided that HE wanted a solid gold statue made in his likeness – not of whatever he looked like under his costume, but decked out IN his Rhino super villain costume!
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