The Devils Chapel by Rob Stephens – Episode 1 – SEE SAW Comics, Webcomics from the Sequential Artists Workshop

The Devils Chapel by Rob Stephens – Episode 1

The comic features layered collages with neon line drawings, creating a graffiti-like aesthetic throughout, accompanied by chunky all-caps lettering. â€œSmash cut to Booze Alley A short intro to the big city. Concise writing. Maybe a poem. Maybe clever. Clever enough. Some thing a writer type would create. Establishes setting. The whole thing. The whole sleazy urban nightmare. Think grimy New York of the seventies. Think film noir. Think hard boiled corruption. Think shanty town graffiti. Nightlife. A regular Dashiell Hammett vibe. But good.â€

â€œThink St. Augustineâ€™s City of Man. Think grind house chassic â€˜basket case.â€™ Think flop houses. Jazz joints. Opium dens. Coffee shops. Red light Babylon. Think exploitation. Think cautionary morality tales of innocence seduced of vice. Think garbage strike. Walk ups. Crime waves. Think tough talking career gals. â€˜All valley of the dolls.â€™ Think slum lords.â€

â€œCall my art â€˜pedestrian,â€™ will they? They havenâ€™tâ€¦begun to see â€˜pedestrianâ€™ work! Iâ€™ll show them â€˜pedestrian.â€™ A man is approaching a bar with a bottle of alcohol in hand. He thinks, â€œAny more?â€ as the bottle appears empty. He thinks, â€œâ€¦stupidâ€¦stupid stupidâ€¦Iâ€™m so stupid. They didnâ€™t even look at my work. Those snobsâ€¦will be sorryâ€ He enters the bar

â€œThey said I was derivative!?! I hitchhiked all the way up here for what? For why?â€ The man sits brooding at the bar. The bartender says, â€œHave another one, little dude. Itâ€™ll calm you down,â€ and pours a drink. The man responds, â€œCalm down?? I poured my heart into those stupid paintings.â€ A customer wearing red boots says, â€œPaintings? You a painter?â€

The man replies, â€œYeahâ€¦I try to be. Thereâ€™s plenty who think otherwiseâ€¦ Gallery X says my paintings arenâ€™t â€˜Laconianâ€™ enough.â€ The customer, a woman with blue shaggy hair, red lipstick, red nail polish, and a pentagram choker, smokes a cigarette and says, â€œâ€˜Laconianâ€™? Enough?â€ The man looks dejected and replies, â€œIt means â€˜fancy.â€™ They said my brush strokes were â€˜unstudied and too precious.â€™ The art world hates my work.â€ The woman replies, cig in mouth, â€œThe art world really does hate your work. Theyâ€™re vultures ready to feat on naive souls like yours, hon.â€

The man looks off in the distance and says, â€œI brought my best work. I even borrowed a tie. To be fancy.â€ The man flashes back to a gallery show at the â€œclassiest gallery in capital city.â€ A sign reads â€œPlease respect the art - dress fancy. No shirt. No shoes. No service.â€ He is wearing a short-sleeve button down with a tie and gesturing to three of his pieces on the wall, all side profiles of different figures: a turtle-person named Tippy, a mouse in a party hat named Tiny, and a pirate with an eye patch and tricorn. He refers to the latter and notes, â€œI won a blue ribbon for this.â€

Published On: June 20, 2024

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