An Artist's Life, Digitized: February 2015

Unfinished Science Fiction Adventure Series

Story & Art by Grady Lyda

BOOK I - THE SAGA BEGINS -- The Solar System 3 million years from now

SECTION 1 - EARTH HABITAT: Presentation of the Great Sphere, Earth Habitat, and the killer light shafts. Primary characters are introduced: SHERMAN, LANARA, BUSTER, BOB

Page 0 (Inside Front Cover) & Page 1

PART I - SHERMAN AMES

A - INTRO - Starting with view of galaxy, going into tighter closeups until we come to Earth

1 - The Solar System is seen as an immense globe. This Great Sphere was constructed long ago by nearly god-like humans who fashioned all the matter in the system into a thin shell containing the sun and the earth.

2 - Earth orbits within a bubble of eternal daylight, isolated from the darkness and dangers outside the Great Sphere.

3 - Our planet is circled by a vast ring that had once been the moon. The world is barren except for a biosphere in Antarctica that sustains what is left of Earth's erratically evolving life forms.

Pages 2 & 3

B - AMES APPEARS - He drops into the scene with a bang, disrupting nearby wildlife

1 - A human shape appears in the sky then plops onto the shore of a quiet bay. The man sits in a shallow crater formed by his impact, blankly observing his surroundings.

2 - He seems oblivious to the fact that animals slow their frenetic activity when they notice him -- then narrow shafts of brilliant light consume one or two of the motionless watchers, prompting the other curious creatures to flee.

3 - The seated man idly adjusts his skin-tight covering, rolling up sleeves and cuffs while the cycle repeats: animals slow to watch him, beams strike a couple of observers who haven't moved for about a minute, and the jolted survivors bolt away.

Pages 4 & 5

C - BUSTER INTERVENES - Insectoid plant gets the man moving

1 - The man appears to be unaware that his inactivity is creating a disturbance. A voice calls to him, urging him to move.

2 - BUSTER approaches, telling the man that his motionless presence is hypnotizing the animals, turning them into targets for the deadly shafts of light. BUSTER flashes simple symbols on his rotund surface, attempting to get the man's attention visually as well as verbally.

3 - Finally the man understands and begins walking, accompanied by the relieved, talkative BUSTER.

PART II - BUSTER

A - BLOSSOMING BLOON BULBS - They watch blooming plants; AMES gets named
1 - The man follows BUSTER to a colony of insectoid plants, listening to his chattering monolog, assimilating the sound of his language. They observe the blossoming vegetables, waiting to see if they'll fall victim to the beams during this crucial moment in their life cycle.
2 - BUSTER asks the man his name. Confused, the man replies, "I'm sure my name's --" but his sentence is cut off by the blast of a light shaft. BUSTER says, "Greetings, SHERMAN AMES. I am BUSTER." The man tries to correct him: "No, I meant to say 'I'm sure my name's in my mind… but I can't remember it,' " but again his words are interrupted by a flurry of beam blasts. He lets the name stand.

3 - BUSTER mourns the total destruction of the Bloon Bulbs. He explains that he was born from plants like these -- they were the last of their kind, and now that they're gone they will never produce another specimen like himself. He creates a diagram on his surface to show AMES the unique Bloon life cycle.

ART 7 PART II - "BUSTER"

These are various notebook page dividers with image samples and reference intended to serve as inspirations for artwork.

Page 1 - "Impressions"

ART 8 PART II - "BUSTER"

Pages 6 & 7

B - BUSTER DISCUSSES LANARA - BUSTER's first encounter with LANARA is depicted

1 - They leave the scene of devastation, and BUSTER tells AMES about LANARA and her assistance in his growth into a sentient being.

2 - BUSTER demonstrates his ability to render lifelike pictures on his skin, and he produces images of LANARA from his eidetic memory.

3 - BoB's first appearance is portrayed by BUSTER, along with scenes of schooling he received from LANARA and BoB.

ART 9 PART II - "BUSTER" -- Page 3 - "Education"

Pages 8 & 9

ART 10 PART II - "BUSTER"

Page 7 - "Entertainment"

Pages 10 & 11

Buster receives an education from LaNaRa and BoB

LaNaRa falls asleep while BoB shows Buster "2001: A Space Odyssey"

C - THE LANARA/BOB STORY - BUSTER narrates their life, and LANARA's fate

1 - Using his self-created pictures, BUSTER describes LANARA's development and BoB's role.

2 - He goes on to explain how this idyllic world was shattered when the killer light beams began to occur.

3 - He tells how LANARA tried to let the beams take her life -- how BoB saved her and was damaged -- how she tried again and was abducted by mysterious spheres.

ART 11 PART II - "BUSTER" -- Page 9 - "Thwarted"

ART 12 PART II - "BUSTER" -- Page 11 - "Thwarted Again"

For more like this, go to In Progress - 01 & - 02 & - 04 & - 05 & - 06 & - 07

Text & Photos by Elora Lyda for her inventive SEE THRU book project

This book was created for my UCLA Visual Communications 2 Class. Each student interviewed an artist of their choice, and the assignment was to take the transcripts of each interview and put them together into one publication.

The interviewees came from various creative fields ranging from illustration, web and graphic design, to music and motion graphics. Interviews were also conducted in different ways -- in person, online, and on the phone. The challenge was to somehow connect and balance these 20 interviews with a solid and logical concept.

SEE THRU is based on the connection between human beings, and the process of breaking through the invisible walls we naturally raise against strangers. I chose to make the entire book out of vellum (semi-transparent paper), with each page metaphorically representing these walls. The information on each page then turns into layers, running into each other and sometimes blurring the original intent.

Professions are designated by different colors as a method of navigation, and each interview is set up as a conversation.

The interview starts with the person's name, and then a picture of the interviewer on the next page with their back turned to the reader, as if they were speaking with someone else.

At the end of the interview, a photo of the interviewee faces the reader, but so does the picture from the beginning, as if these two people were actually speaking to each other and all the pages in between portrayed their attempt to get to know one another.

Each section ends with a single word that I asked from each interviewer to describe the person they conversed with. This provides input from the student on what they personally gained from their interaction with the artist.

I wanted to include as much personality as I could with each discussion, of both the interviewer and the interviewee. I found that the artists the students chose really reflected a part of themselves and their own work, and I wanted that to come through as well.

For me, this was very important to express that deep connection the student had with their artist, and how their experience unfolded through the course of the interview.