Sunday, January 4, 2009

Enter Vast Dominions, Welcome to My Dream (part the second)



Carrying on, page 3. As it happened in the dream.

I think I saw the wide mouth grin in my sleep because in conversation with Blazej Dzikowski some years ago he had conveyed to me this scene I think from an amateur and/or small budget horror film where this man falls asleep and finds himself in strange positions when he comes to. So he films himself while he's sleepwalking, and one of the things his body does is look to the mirror and make the sort of grin that a face would make if they didn't know, or care, what humans use their faces to convey emotionally. I haven't seen the film but I guess the startling part of that description stayed with me because that's what I saw in the dream and what I tried to capture in the drawing.

I don't know why my dreamself thought that if he averted his gaze and then looked again the other would have disappeared. Dream logic. He tries a slightly more direct attempt later on in the comic. Two pages left.

-Helm

4 comments:

Solar said...

Now that is just psychotic. The face that is.

Sounds like an interesting film.

For a moment I thought I was seeing a small scenery or landscape in the darker tiles behind your grinning dream-man. But when I blew up the page there was nothing there... spooky.

Btw, exactly how long did you stare in the mirror posing to capture that menacing wide mouth grin? :)

Helm said...

None. Though I did have a mirror for reference, I didn't try to do the expression as the whole point was for it to not look exactly real and human.

I haven't hidden anything in the background tiles to the best of my knowledge!

I'm kinda afraid to track down the film in question and watch it for fear that it'll disappoint me after all I've imagined on my own about it.

Anonymous said...

Hm, I'm afraid that you might never find the film. I believe the story went like that: by one Agia Anna bonfire, it was Chrille or Petter who told us about a film in which a man commits crimes in his sleep, so he puts a camera on his arm to see what he does at nights. At that point I, a compulsive script-doctor, said that it WOULD BE great and scary if, while sleepwalking, he filmed his reflection in a mirror and saw his own face perform hideous grimaces. Or maybe it was in the film after all (I've never seen it) and Chrille or Petter told us about it after I told the story of my brother having a recurring nightmare, in which some force draws him to a mirror; when he looks at himself in the mirror, his face starts to deform its muscles in the most scary, unnatural manner. It's all very mysterious and connected to our ancient fear of our psyches going out of control.

I'd like to say that I love the panel with face transformations the most, it's masterful, I believe. Especially the one which is swollen.

I'm quite wordy in my comment because at this moment I'm working, cutting a promo for an American comedy called "Good Luck Chuck". It sucks.

Helm said...

At that point I, a compulsive script-doctor, said that it WOULD BE great and scary if, while sleepwalking, he filmed his reflection in a mirror and saw his own face perform hideous grimaces.

I didn't remember you made it up! Then you sorta wrote this comic via Helmy subconsciousness... c..congrats?