This story is set in my invented world of the "Toonworld", where cartoons are real and live among mainstream humanity. The concept I came up with here is a sort of tweaked take on H.P. Lovecraft's "Herbert West: Reanimator", but this story is much more uplifting. It is the tale of a "mad artist" who takes the role of mad scientist, trying to resurrect Walt Disney as a living cartoon so that he can meet him, (and get permission to animate Disney's characters in living form as well). Here it is:
The Rogue Re-Animator
A “Penny Dreadful” Tale of the Toonworld
By Jacob Martin
“So we begin, our dark work in the night, but with vision and genius will bring light” said a man in an artist’s smock. It was unusual for mad scientists to wear artist’s smocks. Usually the animation of life was considered to involve a dead body and nasty, sharp tools, unholy liquids, and if they were lucky enough with the weather, a thunderstorm to complete the madman’s sinister plan. Not so with Mr. Curwen. He did not work with dead bodies at all. Simply drawings, cartoons of people long dead. For he was an Animator of a different sort. He did not give the illusion of life and motion to static drawn images. He gave them true life.
“Are you sure Walt Disney would want us to be bringing him back from the dead in cartoon form, Mr. Curwen?” said an assistant, surprisingly without a hunchback and unusually in an assistant of this line of work, handsome enough to be considered “date material”. Sure, he couldn’t exactly tell potential girlfriends what his job was entirely in the realms of truth, as “I bring dead people to life in cartoon form” is rarely a good pickup line. Unless the girl you’re trying to impress is a Goth girl, in which case, it might be an asset to the relationship.
“Sure he would, do you have any idea how much money his company is raking in? He’d be a fool not to agree!” said Mr. Curwen. “Don’t you see Igor… I mean Reggie, this is a historic moment in science!”
“It’s a historic moment in how to spend a Wednesday night, that’s what it is” said Reggie. “Beats watching TV I suppose. However I should be earning overtime for this”
“Fine, you can have your overtime pay, just get the machine ready”
“What machine?” said Reggie, “I never knew anything about a machine, unless you mean this digital art computer package that’s in a box over in the corner”
“I don’t know how to install it, ok?” said Mr. Curwen. “I’m an artistic genius, not a computer wizard”
“You say you can create cartoon characters in living, breathing form, yet you don’t know how to use a digital art computer program?”
“Oh shut up, before I outsource your job to India!” snapped Mr. Curwen.
Reggie unpacked the box, and started putting together the computer. It was a Mac.
After he installed the scanner and the life sized printer, he came across an accessory that looked like a helmet with electrodes on it.
“What might this be?” said Reggie.
“That,” said Mr. Curwen, “Is what’s going to make this process work. The machine that makes living cartoon characters is powered by the imagination. And it takes a heck of a lot of imagination to make this work, let me tell you. I’ve got such an imagination, however this model of machine is designed in a way that requires little distraction in the animation process”
“So you want me to put this obvious deathtrap on my head?”
“Heavens no, it’s not a deathtrap, I’ve worked with machinery like this before. You simply stick it on your head and imagine things, and your cartoon person becomes a living, breathing, animated work of art. So far the tests I’ve done allowed me to create various stick figure people. I was able to do this because no copyright exists on most stick figure cartoon characters, whereas nobody has the rights to animate characters like Mickey Mouse in living form yet”
“So that’s why you want to bring Disney back to life?”
“Partly” said Mr. Curwen. “Mostly I just wanted to meet the man”
“If I’m not going to wear this helmet, who will?”
“My niece”
“You wouldn’t…”
“She won’t be hurt by it, and besides, I’m babysitting her for my sister, I have to keep her occupied somehow”
“Fair enough, but will she cooperate?”
A small girl appeared at the doorway.
“Uncle Abner, what’s this about you trying to make a cartoon? If you’re trying to do something questionable down here, my Mummy will not be pleased” she said.
“Quinn, just get that helmet on and start imagining things!” boomed Mr. Curwen.
“Are you sure bringing back Disney is a good idea?” said the girl. “From the looks of this drawing, and the machinery you’re using, you’re either trying to bring him back from the dead or you’re trying to make counterfeit money”
“What a large vocabulary the girl has” said Reggie. “What’s her name?”
“She gets those big words from her mother” grumbled Mr. Curwen. “Her name is Twyla”
“Hello there Twyla, be a good girl and put the nice helmet on” said Reggie, trying to make himself seem less threatening than Twyla’s uncle.
“Fine, I’ll put it on, but if you don’t have a tea party with me and my stuffed animals later, I’m telling Mummy what you’re doing down here” said Twyla.
“You wouldn’t…” said Mr. Curwen, “She’d never let me see you again…”
“See, he does care about me” said Twyla to Reggie.
Twyla put the helmet on, and Mr. Curwen instructed her.
“Now start imagining things” said Mr. Curwen.
“Mummy says I shouldn’t do that”
“I don’t care what your Mummy says, you’re going to imagine things, unicorns, dragons, fairies, anything!”
Twyla started imagining she was a princess in a castle, and Mr. Curwen put the drawing of Walt Disney in the scanner. He then got Reggie to work with the Flash Animator Deluxe program, and results were being achieved. A pair of feet were printing out of the giant printer, and the legs were kicking in an erratic manner.
But Twyla got distracted. At this point the paper jammed. The feet went back to their 2D form.
“I’m not blaming you for this Twyla” said Mr. Curwen. “I should have worn the helmet myself. It takes a lot of concentration to do something like this, when you’re a bit older I might show you how to do it properly”
Twyla went over to the printer and pressed a button. The rest of Walt Disney’s body printed out, in flat form.
“One day I’ll get this to work, Twyla. Then we’ll have Old Walt back again” said Mr. Curwen, as he walked off with her, to attend a tea party with stuffed teddy bears as the guests of honour.
As Twyla, Reggie, and Mr. Curwen walked away, they failed to notice the life sized print out of Disney was stirring. The cartoon person stood up, and yawned.
He looked around, and remarked: “Wait a minute, this isn’t California!”
THE END
My Current Mood in a Picture
Showing posts with label Short Stories. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Short Stories. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Short Story: The Drawing Of Victoria
This is a short story of mine that was submitted to a writing contest that I did not win, which is the origin of my disgruntledness with Sydney Morning Herald judged writing contests. It is about a Life Art model who berates the artist who draws her, in a line of work where female models are expected to keep silent and still, in order to be gazed at by what is often a male artist. Here it is:
The Drawing of Victoria
By Jacob Martin
Victoria Kenneth was a young lady who worked at an art school. This art school was highly prestigious and was one of the best in the British Isles. Now Victoria was a fussy girl, and she didn’t like her job much, mainly because the only job she could get at the art school was to be a life art model. This complicated things for her, since she hardly imagined her life prospects as being a pretty girl who takes her clothes off and gets gawked at by young men of an artistic mind.
Victoria was reasonably good looking, with a rounded face, brown hair, blue eyes and a nose that didn’t look like a trumpet. For this reason young men did not complain about drawing her in the nude. That is until they discovered her personality.
Today she was due to be drawn by a new student called Geoffrey Adams, 22 years old, wore rounded glasses and had talent for drawings, but he had never drawn an undraped woman in his life. Victoria was a year older than him, and he was stuck with her as his model for the entire year, which had just started. Victoria undressed herself and lay sideways with her front facing Jeff. He got nervous, and sooner or later he noticed that he had an erection from staring at a pretty girl with her knickers off. Unfortunately for him Victoria noticed this, and she started talking to him.
“I am feeling unusually generous today, so rather than decrying you as a chauvinistic pig I will take the bulge in your pants as a compliment to my figure. My name is Victoria, and I’d like to give you a few rules about drawing me. Number One: Never draw me in a fashion that makes my thighs look fat. Number Two: Don’t stare at one part of my body for too long, I don’t like being ogled. Number Three: If you even dare to consider trying anything funny with me just because my clothes are off I will scream, thus alerting the art instructors. They would be very interested to know why you would be touching the model, and you would be slapped with a court order ensuring that you would never do life art again”
Jeff had now found out that Victoria liked to talk to the artists drawing her. He also found out that she liked to berate them too. Poor Jeff was embarrassed and stood staring at Victoria. She offered some encouragement:
“Go on! Draw me! Don’t be shy about it, by the looks of you I’m probably the only naked lady you’ll ever see. Start with my face”
Jeff started drawing her face, and carefully crafted the likeness as if he was filled with the spirit of Raphael himself.
“That’s a good boy” said Victoria. “Just go easy when you draw my eyes”
Jeff drew the pupils flawlessly, and added the eyelashes. He finished the face and moved downwards.
“I know it’s tempting, but don’t stare at my breasts too much, as it unnerves me. Draw my shoulders first”
As Jeff started the shoulders Victoria started talking again. “You better be doing this right, I want a portrait that makes me appear like Venus, but now that I’ve mentioned that, I don’t want a drawing of me that portrays me as the Venus of Willendorf!”
Jeff continued drawing her torso. He accurately drew in her chest, which was not quite as well endowed as a Playboy centerfold girl would be but not small either. Victoria was only slightly on the pudgy side, but still beautiful in her own special way. Her courtesy towards poor Jeff on the other hand was terrible, and she was demanding of him.
“Be a dear and bring me some water! I am thirsty! And an unhappy model is bad for good art to be made!”
Jeff brought Miss Victoria “We are not amused!” Kenneth some water from the studio tap and she drank it down.
“This water is terrible!” cried Victoria, as she adjusted herself slightly on the provided couch.
“Oh Vic, you’re so delightfully cruel to me!” said Jeff, as he gave her some better quality water from his canteen.
Victoria thought about what Jeff said, and she realized that Jeff was smitten for her, despite her constant badgering of the poor chap. But she needed to be sure, in case she was wrong, and an awkward situation arose.
“Have you finished my torso yet? Don’t make me late for my manicure!” she cried, trying to hurry Jeff up. But he was busy doing all the shading and tone that he needed to complete the details. He then finished, and moved on to her legs having filled in the arms.
“Remember! Don’t make my thighs look fat! And don’t misjudge the proportions on my feet!”
Jeff drew in the legs and finished for the day. Victoria put her clothes back on and looked at the end result.
“That’s actually a good likeness! You’re pretty talented!”
“You’re pretty yourself you know. I’ve never drawn nudes before, but at least they gave me the most beautiful of the models to work with”
Victoria was now completely sure Jeff was smitten for her. She replied to him, but spared him her acid tongue for a moment.
“That’s sweet of you to say. And you captured me on paper truthfully. I’ll admit I’m not really slim like the other life art models. The last chap who drew me made me look fat, and I got a bit upset, and smashed his car with a cricket bat…”
“You’re not fat, you’re just well rounded. At least you’re natural looking and curvy, I’ve seen Sarah Borough who works with my friend Tim as a life art model. I could have sworn that girl has anorexia…”
“Sometimes I hear that people don’t like the way I talk to them when they draw me. They think I’m bitchy”
“You’re bitchy in a good way, I like a girl who has wit and uses it well. I don’t mind you talking when I draw you, it’s nice to talk”
Victoria had only heard the remark that she was bitchy in a good way one other time, from her brother back when she was 16 and going through high school. She saw that Jeff was a sweet little nerd who had a promising art career ahead of him, and she was stuck doing work as a life art model to support hers. Victoria wanted to be an artist, but for now she was happy to work with someone who liked her.
“Maybe we could meet up sometime this week” said Jeff, “We could have some coffee and discuss our favorite artists. I like Da Vinci and Rubens”
“Sure I’ll meet you! How about 2:30 on Friday?”
“Sounds great” replied Jeff. He parted with Victoria and went to catch up with his friend Tim, who had just finished his life art class.
“Hey Jeff, which model did you get this year?”
“Victoria Kenneth…”
“You poor poor man. She made you get her water didn’t she? I had her as my model last year, she’s really mean. Victoria said I made her look fat! I can’t help it if she’s a little on the chubby side!”
“She’s really nice if you get to know her”
“Are you nuts? She smashed my car last year! How could you like her?”
“My friend, I think I’m going to marry her someday…”
The End
The Drawing of Victoria
By Jacob Martin
Victoria Kenneth was a young lady who worked at an art school. This art school was highly prestigious and was one of the best in the British Isles. Now Victoria was a fussy girl, and she didn’t like her job much, mainly because the only job she could get at the art school was to be a life art model. This complicated things for her, since she hardly imagined her life prospects as being a pretty girl who takes her clothes off and gets gawked at by young men of an artistic mind.
Victoria was reasonably good looking, with a rounded face, brown hair, blue eyes and a nose that didn’t look like a trumpet. For this reason young men did not complain about drawing her in the nude. That is until they discovered her personality.
Today she was due to be drawn by a new student called Geoffrey Adams, 22 years old, wore rounded glasses and had talent for drawings, but he had never drawn an undraped woman in his life. Victoria was a year older than him, and he was stuck with her as his model for the entire year, which had just started. Victoria undressed herself and lay sideways with her front facing Jeff. He got nervous, and sooner or later he noticed that he had an erection from staring at a pretty girl with her knickers off. Unfortunately for him Victoria noticed this, and she started talking to him.
“I am feeling unusually generous today, so rather than decrying you as a chauvinistic pig I will take the bulge in your pants as a compliment to my figure. My name is Victoria, and I’d like to give you a few rules about drawing me. Number One: Never draw me in a fashion that makes my thighs look fat. Number Two: Don’t stare at one part of my body for too long, I don’t like being ogled. Number Three: If you even dare to consider trying anything funny with me just because my clothes are off I will scream, thus alerting the art instructors. They would be very interested to know why you would be touching the model, and you would be slapped with a court order ensuring that you would never do life art again”
Jeff had now found out that Victoria liked to talk to the artists drawing her. He also found out that she liked to berate them too. Poor Jeff was embarrassed and stood staring at Victoria. She offered some encouragement:
“Go on! Draw me! Don’t be shy about it, by the looks of you I’m probably the only naked lady you’ll ever see. Start with my face”
Jeff started drawing her face, and carefully crafted the likeness as if he was filled with the spirit of Raphael himself.
“That’s a good boy” said Victoria. “Just go easy when you draw my eyes”
Jeff drew the pupils flawlessly, and added the eyelashes. He finished the face and moved downwards.
“I know it’s tempting, but don’t stare at my breasts too much, as it unnerves me. Draw my shoulders first”
As Jeff started the shoulders Victoria started talking again. “You better be doing this right, I want a portrait that makes me appear like Venus, but now that I’ve mentioned that, I don’t want a drawing of me that portrays me as the Venus of Willendorf!”
Jeff continued drawing her torso. He accurately drew in her chest, which was not quite as well endowed as a Playboy centerfold girl would be but not small either. Victoria was only slightly on the pudgy side, but still beautiful in her own special way. Her courtesy towards poor Jeff on the other hand was terrible, and she was demanding of him.
“Be a dear and bring me some water! I am thirsty! And an unhappy model is bad for good art to be made!”
Jeff brought Miss Victoria “We are not amused!” Kenneth some water from the studio tap and she drank it down.
“This water is terrible!” cried Victoria, as she adjusted herself slightly on the provided couch.
“Oh Vic, you’re so delightfully cruel to me!” said Jeff, as he gave her some better quality water from his canteen.
Victoria thought about what Jeff said, and she realized that Jeff was smitten for her, despite her constant badgering of the poor chap. But she needed to be sure, in case she was wrong, and an awkward situation arose.
“Have you finished my torso yet? Don’t make me late for my manicure!” she cried, trying to hurry Jeff up. But he was busy doing all the shading and tone that he needed to complete the details. He then finished, and moved on to her legs having filled in the arms.
“Remember! Don’t make my thighs look fat! And don’t misjudge the proportions on my feet!”
Jeff drew in the legs and finished for the day. Victoria put her clothes back on and looked at the end result.
“That’s actually a good likeness! You’re pretty talented!”
“You’re pretty yourself you know. I’ve never drawn nudes before, but at least they gave me the most beautiful of the models to work with”
Victoria was now completely sure Jeff was smitten for her. She replied to him, but spared him her acid tongue for a moment.
“That’s sweet of you to say. And you captured me on paper truthfully. I’ll admit I’m not really slim like the other life art models. The last chap who drew me made me look fat, and I got a bit upset, and smashed his car with a cricket bat…”
“You’re not fat, you’re just well rounded. At least you’re natural looking and curvy, I’ve seen Sarah Borough who works with my friend Tim as a life art model. I could have sworn that girl has anorexia…”
“Sometimes I hear that people don’t like the way I talk to them when they draw me. They think I’m bitchy”
“You’re bitchy in a good way, I like a girl who has wit and uses it well. I don’t mind you talking when I draw you, it’s nice to talk”
Victoria had only heard the remark that she was bitchy in a good way one other time, from her brother back when she was 16 and going through high school. She saw that Jeff was a sweet little nerd who had a promising art career ahead of him, and she was stuck doing work as a life art model to support hers. Victoria wanted to be an artist, but for now she was happy to work with someone who liked her.
“Maybe we could meet up sometime this week” said Jeff, “We could have some coffee and discuss our favorite artists. I like Da Vinci and Rubens”
“Sure I’ll meet you! How about 2:30 on Friday?”
“Sounds great” replied Jeff. He parted with Victoria and went to catch up with his friend Tim, who had just finished his life art class.
“Hey Jeff, which model did you get this year?”
“Victoria Kenneth…”
“You poor poor man. She made you get her water didn’t she? I had her as my model last year, she’s really mean. Victoria said I made her look fat! I can’t help it if she’s a little on the chubby side!”
“She’s really nice if you get to know her”
“Are you nuts? She smashed my car last year! How could you like her?”
“My friend, I think I’m going to marry her someday…”
The End
New Feature: The Short Stories of Jacob Martin
I am going to post some of my short stories on this blog to give people a taste of my work. Contrary to popular belief, not all my stories are Fantasy ones, though I mainly work in the modern Fantasy Genre.
Such works that will get put up are:
The Drawing of Victoria, which is a story of mine set in the real world,
The Rogue Reanimator, which is a story set in my imagined worlds where cartoons are real people animated by Animators and Re-Animators, slightly inspired by H.P. Lovecraft, but moreso inspired by my knowledge of animation and comics/cartooning.
More will be put up over time.
Sincerely, Jacob Martin, TeenAuthor.
Such works that will get put up are:
The Drawing of Victoria, which is a story of mine set in the real world,
The Rogue Reanimator, which is a story set in my imagined worlds where cartoons are real people animated by Animators and Re-Animators, slightly inspired by H.P. Lovecraft, but moreso inspired by my knowledge of animation and comics/cartooning.
More will be put up over time.
Sincerely, Jacob Martin, TeenAuthor.
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