50. NO GREY AREA: Pia Zawa.

This being the 50th article of the Travelogue, we shall celebrate with a few images of my most well known creation, the female private investigator Pia Zawa. I've also collected a soundtrack with most of the music "played" in the Pia Zawa comic - there are a few stories I don't have.

 

The first melody wasn't made until late in the comic's run, in 1996, but, since it's an instrumental, you wouldn't have been able to read it anyway. I'm afraid the only audio I could find is a short sample, but you'll get the whole thing on The Beat Tornados' album Scandinavian Interlude (2004). Number four I can't find at all. All I can say is buy the mp3, or try http://www.spotify.com

1. Theme From Pia Zawa - The Beat Tornados

2. You Keep Me Hangin' On - The Supremes 

3. Surfin USA - The Beach Boys 
4. Hyler Meg Hes - Dumdum Boys
 5. I Fought The Law - The Clash
6. Pour Some Sugar On Me - Def Leppard
7. Idyll - Dumdum Boys
8. Dead Hero - The Samples
9. Roxanne - The Police

10. I Feel Better Than James Brown - Was (Not Was)
11. The Devil Inside - Inxs
12. Desperado - The Eagles
13. Alive - Pearl Jam 
14. Devil In Disguise - Elvis Presley
15. She's Leaving Home - The Beatles
16. The Night Is Calling - The Lords Of The New Church
17. Sign Of The Times - Prince
18. Smooth Criminal - Alien Ant Farm
(Or maybe you prefer Michael Jackson's original version...)

My final thoughts go to the Travelogues handful of Japanese readers. I hope you, your families, and your friends are okay.

49. NO GREY AREA: Safari in The Sticks.

New Jersey has a bad rep. On film and TV, the state's always described as a polluted garbage dump, infested with gangsters. And, one must admit, in certain parts of the Garden State, its reputation rings true. But, in addition, there are areas of large, lush forests, filled with wild animals, and streams where trouts thrive.  

SKYLANDS, NEW JERSEY.

In the early summer of '98, my cousin Sig - probably the best archer and hunting guide on the East Coast - took me and my niece Monica on a one day trip, with a promise of seeing bear. This was a big thing for both of us, neither having seen a bear in the wild. We got to see three.

A female black bear (Ursus americanus) with two cubs crossed the road right in front of us. It was one of those moments I can rewind in slow motion in my skull. Finally, mom turned her head and gave us one last warning stare, before the small family disappeared back into the safety of the woods.

 BIG BEAR. SMALL BEAR. ANOTHER SMALL BEAR.

Black bears are not rare in these parts. Here, in the Skylands region of Northwestern Jersey, there's a growing population of at least a thousand bears. A total of 3500 black bears in the fourth smallest, and most densely populated of all the United States. Bears have been reported in every county. In fact, there are so many bears now that they had to start hunting them again last year. 

In Norway, where I live, a country known for its nature and wilderness, there are around 164 brown bears (Ursus arctos, last count in 2009), and plenty of people who think that number's way too high. We're now talking about an area fourteen times larger than New Jersey, and with roughly half the human population.

Also that day, we saw flocks of deer, and rarities like wild turkey and golden eagle... All this, a little over an hour's drive from Manhattan.

48. NO GREY AREA: Night Fishing.

The first attempts made by humans at drawing things they saw, at least that we know of, are the cave paintings. And, in all probability, the first time they did it in a realistic manner, somebody or something's shadow was traced on a flattish surface. The cradle of the art of drawing may have been a cave, but its first shoes were silhouettes.

NIGHT FISHING.

Some would claim that an artist just do silhouettes because he or she is to lazy to do details*). I beg to differ.

*)Very few would claim this to Frank Miller's face, though.

 NIGHT FISHING II: SEA TROUT.

The limitations makes me focus on basic shapes instead of, say, drawing the perfect nostril. It enables me to control the detail freak inside - who's usually ruling around here. Enables me to remove things like stars and ripples in the ocean - reduce it all to graphic shapes as clear as possible.

NIGHT FISHING III: MUSSELS.

Sometimes, you'll continue simplifying right up to the edge of abstract. And beyond. For quick exercises in composition, it's perfect. In this particular case, the dim light of a cabin also made silhouettes a logical choice of expression.

NIGHT FISHING IV: CATCHING CRABS.

The original sketches for the drawings included here, were done during a weekend of fishing, eating and partying with good friends, back in the fall of 1999. The names of the involved are kept secret to protect the innocent. I shall not bore you with even more fishing stories than the visual ones - in fact, the whole weekend is kind of blurry, anyway. But one thing I do remember, besides there being a lot of laughing.

NIGHT FISHING V: CATCHING MORE CRABS.

There's this dude, let's call him X. He's one of us who won't admit we need glasses, and find it more convenient to bump into things. He's outside the cabin with a rifle - a '22, I think. Perhaps just a pellet-gun. And he wants to do some target practice. But, since it's nighttime, and as dark as it only gets with zero neighbors, X hangs up a lamp a few feet from the target. Then he walks away ten steps or less, turns, aims carefully, squeezes the trigger--

And shoots out the lamp.

47. The last Rox.

9. PORTRAIT.

  

Not many tricks here. Brought an easel out to the ocean, shot a few different angles, chose a favorite, and drew in the rock. There's a bit more story to the last one.

10. MIGRATING ROX.

The clouds over the horizon contains the first snow this winter, and that's where the idea came from. It's the only image of the ten which didn't start as a thumbnail. By now, I have a rather large collection of rock-pictures, lit from various sides, so putting together the flocks of rocks is easy casting.

 

And that's the end of Rox. Actually, there are at least ten more ideas I haven't shot yet, but this will have to do for now.

Next week - the first installments of NO GREY AREA, a collection of black and white drawings.