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Technoccult interviews Mister X author Dean Motter

November 4, 2008 / Klint Finley

mister x archives

A bald, drug addicted architect cum mad scientist returns to the futuristic city he helped build to save its people from the misapplied “psychetecture” he designed. That’s the basic plot of Mister X, a comic series by Dean Motter and various artists first published in the 1984 by Vortex Comics. Motter, a graphic designer by trade, crafted the entire visual presentation of the series – going so far to create a new logo for every issue. The graphic influence of Mister X can be found in Watchmen, Transmetropolitan, and countless other subsequent series.

Dark Horse recently published The Mister X Archives, a complete collection of Motter’s run on Mister X. Klint Finley catches up with Motter to talk about the behind-the-scenes history of Mister X, and Motter’s future projects – including an all new Mister X series, Mister X: Condemned from Dark Horse.

dean motter

Technoccult: How did Mister X come about? Did you pitch it to Vortex, or did they ask you to do something for them?

Dean Motter: It was a combination of both. Vortex was publishing black and white comics and was looking to do a color title. We all worked in the rather small but vibrant comic book community in Toronto. When they got wind of a project that original collaborator Paul Rivoche and I were developing to shop around they pulled it together.

mister x

T: What comics did you do before Mister X?

D: I had edited and contributed to an independent comic call Andromeda, which was the Canadian counterpart to Star Reach, which I also contributed to. I had also collaborated with Ken Steacy in Epic Illustrated for Marvel. I was mostly working in the music and entertainment industry at the time doing design work for LP covers, music promotion and book cover and magazine work.

T: Had you worked with Paul Rivoche before? How did you meet?

D: Paul and I shared a studio (with a number of other artists and illustrators in Toronto) for years. We met when he moved to Toronto.

mercedes mister x

T: How did you get hooked up with the Hernendez brothers for that project?

D: Back in ’84, when it became apparent that Paul and I had reached a creative impasse, the publisher (Vortex Comics) approached the the brothers to jump-start the already-delayed series. They came aboard, and took my outline and story notes and crafted the first four issues. Paul lettered and colored them the art while I oversaw the production, art direction, design and editorial chores.

new mister x series from dark horse

T: Why, after all these years, did you decide to do a new Mister X series?

D: The time just seemed right. Diana Schutz at Dark Horse asked me if I’d like to do it. I’d worked with Diana (the first Grendel: Black, White and Red) and for Dark Horse on some Star Wars stories, and the 9/11 book.

T: Who owns the rights to Mister X now?

D: Vortex Comics still owns the rights. They no longer publish but basically run the franchise. Dark Horse is publishing the new archival edition plus the new reboot series.

dean motter the prisoner

T: Why did you leave Mister X?

D: It was largely financial. DC was offering me The Prisoner, and I was kind of burnt out on the project. I’d been working on it pretty intensely for years. Both in development and in the actual run.

T: Why did you re-release the final issue? How does it differ from the original version?

D: I was very unhappy with my final issue. My script was lacking. It was missing many elements I wanted to explore. Plus, it had no closure. No resolution to the whole story arc. Combined with what I felt was very poor artwork when compared with most of the series. When IBooks decided to collect the series I took the opportunity to redo it myself and address these issues in they manner I envisioned originally.

mister x robot

T: You say that the second volume of Mister X (and I presume also the third volume, from Caliber) shouldn’t be considered part of the same continuity as the first volume. Are Terminal City and Electropolis, in your mind, part of the same continuity as the original Mister X series? What about the new Mister X series coming in December?

D: Terminal City and Electropolis can be read as part of the original continuity. But I took care so that a reader did not need to have read the original Mister X to get into the story. The second volume and the Caliber series are ‘new’ takes. Differing from the original in the same manner as DC has told and retold the mythos of Superman. The new series is the equivalent of Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One. It retells and relaunches the Mister X mythos.

mister x 7

T: With all the praise that’s been heaped on creators like Alan Moore and Frank Miller, especially recently, do you ever feel like your work hasn’t received the appreciation it deserves?

D: Occasionally… But the work has a loyal following. (BTW I’d add Mignola to that list. ) But their oeuvre was much more consistent.

dean motter album cover

T: One thing Mister X is remembered for is bringing graphic design sensibilities to comic books. Did you make a conscious decision to bring your design sensibilities to the comic, or did it just happen?

D: As I said, I was working as art director/designer and occasionally as illustrator in the entertainment business at the time. I wanted to elevate the design of comics to that of the music industry, since they appealed to similar demographics.

mister x 8

T: Any chance that Mister X will ever be made into a movie?

D: There are discussions ongoing with both Mister X and Terminal City.

T: Have you read Warren Ellis’s Doktor Sleepless? It’s obviously heavily influenced by Mister X.

D: Indeed. That’s one reason Warren was asked to write the intro to the Archives.

T: Do you have any other projects in the works?

D: Original collaborator Paul Rivoche and I have an issue of The Spirit in the works. I am working on a Dominic Fortune series for Marvel, set in 1937. I have other pitches in the pipeline I can’t discuss just yet.

Links

Buy the Mister X archives on Amazon

Dean Motter’s homepage

Dark Horse’s Mister X Archives site, including a 3 page preview

A collection of Mister X covers

Correction: The article originally stated that Mister X contained the first published work of Los Brother Hernendez. This is incorrect. The entire sentence, which also stated that Mister X contained the first work of Dave McKean and Seth, has been removed.

TAZ History: Mound Bayou, Mississippi

October 11, 2008 / Justin Boland

I’ve been collecting a history of Temporary Autonomous Zones. I’m grateful to Hakim Bey for the conceptual phrase, but his history was more romantic than tactically useful…and after all, he is something of a pedo. So in honor of the TAZ going down right now in PDX — YOU KNOW ABOUT ESOZONE, YES?? — I’ll be sharing some of the best stories this weekend.

One of my favorite corners of Southern History was an all-black community hidden in Northern Mississippi. The story of Mound Bayou stretches across centuries and winds through everything from the Civil War to the Civil Rights movement. Sadly, Mound Bayou exists almost nowhere online. The Wikipedia is shallow filler, and most of the online histories are short and sloppy.

Isaiah Montgomery and Ben Green founded Mound Bayou in 1887, but the story begins with Montgomery’s father, Ben, who was a slave on the David Bend plantation. For most folks alive today, our images of a plantation are based on Roots, but things were very different at Davis Bend. It was owned by Joeseph Davis (the brother of Confederate president Jefferson Davis) and he was heavily inspired by the “socialist utopianism” of an obscure thinker named Robert Owen.

As a side note, Technoccult readers might be interested to know that “Owen insisted he could communicate with great minds of the past by means of electricity.” The precise details are lost to history, but it should be noted Owens was unusually blunt after death, telling Spritualist mediums who summoned him “Oh! How you have misunderstood the laws which connect spirit with spirit…you will never understand these things…”

David Bend was an experiment in education and empowerment, and yes, I do realize how absurd that sounds when I’m still talking about white people owning slaves. Rather than draconian dormitory conditions, though, Joeseph Davis encouraged his slaves to educate themselves and even own businesses. In the aftermath of the Civil War, Davis sold his land holdings to Ben Montgomery, who had run the plantation store. The price was $300,000 in gold, and with that David Bend became one of the first autonomous black communities in the South.

The Owen-inspired focus on learning and skills carried into Mound Bayou, especially when Booker T. Washington got involved later on. This isn’t just a look into the past, though: I think that Mound Bayou has a signifigant lesson to offer us here in 2008. During the many “exodus” movements which happened throughout the history of both Davis Bend and Mound Bayou, the Montgomery family was adamant about building a strong foundation instead of leaving for the mere promise of something better. Most importantly, the education they focused on was agricultural tech and self-sufficiency techniques:

Through outlets like the town’s newspaper, The Demonstrator (1900), Mound Bayou promoted education as an essential path to community survival, in particular vocational education in scientific agriculture through the Mound Bayou Normal and Industrial Institute.

Here in 2008, John Robb, one of my favorite Big Thinkers and the author of Brave New War, has been doing an amazing series of short, potent articles revolving around global systems collapse and the concept of the Resilient Community. Although fairy tales like Gabriele D’Annunzio taking over Fiume are beautiful, they’re not realistic or sustainable solutions. Mound Bayou is a model that lasted, and it was based on smart design and hard work, not poetry and wine.

The 40th Anniversary of the Democratic Convention of ’68: Activism Then and Now

August 28, 2008 / TiamatsVision

Someone sent me a link to a site that is promoting a re-enactment of the protests at the Democratic Convention of 1968. While some of my older activist friends and I kinda like the idea of a ritual in remembrance of this day, the first question that popped in our heads was ‘What’s the point?’ Their mission statement says:

’40 years ago this August, the streets of Chicago became a bloody open forum on the politics of power and resistance, as the Democratic National Convention lapsed into chaos and protesters in the streets were met with the gas and bayonets of Law and Order. The ghosts of this unresolved history haunt us to this day. We meet on August 28 in Grant Park to peacefully purge these ghosts and to make sense of our past through ritual reenactment, a living history lesson for the city of Chicago which asks, where were we then?, and where are we now?’

Although it may be an interesting and memorable history lesson, these are very different times, and re-enacting a violent day in history will do nothing to change the status quo. But the questions are being asked in order to gain some perspective. This led me to question how activism has changed during the past 40 years, and to wonder where it will go from here.

‘Where were we then?’

Many of the rights some of us have now were because of what happened in ’68. New frontiers were broken by the exploration of sexuality (free love), mind-altering drugs, the human potential movement, and alternative religions, The young and the oppressed banded together to express outrage at a system that didn’t recognize their rights, to demand equality, and to protest the war being fought in Vietnam. And though it seems that we’re in a similar place now with people who are fed up with a rogue government and another insane war, many people seem complacent and apathetic. Why? This leads to:

‘Where are we now?’

We’re in an Age of Apathy. People are too busy working two jobs to make ends meet, playing video games, social networking, texting, chatting, emailing, watching TV, and consuming whatever they can in part to quell their anger and fill an empty hole that’s surrounded by a wall of cynicism. Activism is still alive and well, but it’s nowhere near as organized as it was in the late ’60’s and ’70’s. The human potential movement with its emphasis of individualism and ‘looking out for #1’ has run amuck. The major human rights fights that were fought for in the 60’s and 70’s have now branched off into smaller, differentiated groups. Now there are various smaller groups, all trying to make their voices heard. All these smaller branches screaming their own tune drowns out any major song sung loudly in unity. So let me add another question;

‘Where are we going?’

The computer age has brought activism to the internet. The success of Anonymous’ protests against Scientology has given us a new model. And they’re not the only ones doing this. It’s difficult to organize people that are only known through cyberspace, but it’s being done and changes are happening. Blogs and forums are proving to be a powerful medium in making peoples voices heard. They’re even more potent when added with actual protests. The bigger challenge may be to spur the people who have become cynical and distrustful during these past years into action within a larger group setting. There are good reasons for their cynicism and distrust, but that’s a whole other article in itself.

I think the questions this group asks are a good starting point for a dialogue. But the last question is can people rise above all the in-fighting and bickering that goes on within certain groups, long enough to organize and attempt to make a difference? And then keep up the momentum once change has begun?

(Also: the documentary “1968”)

Technoccult TV: Psychotronics with Bill Whitcomb

August 20, 2008 / Klint Finley

Bill Whitcomb – author of The Magician’s Reflection (soon to be re-released and expanded by Immanion Press), The Magician’s Companion, and the forthcoming Selections from the Dream Manual – gives us a lesson in the theory and practice of psychotronics.

Bill’s recommended reading:

Rays From the Capstone, Christopher Hills
Secrets of the Life Force, Christopher Hills
Supersensonics, Christopher Hills

Psionics 101, Charles W. Cosimano

Amazing and Wonderful Mind Machines You Can Build, G. Harry Stine

Websites:

Chuck Cosimano’s website

KeelyNet

Rex Research

Borderland Research

Information Unlimited

Reflections on the Ether and some Notes on the Convergence between Homoeopathy and Radionics

The Black Hole in the Cost of Healthcare-pt 2: Computerized Healthcare

August 3, 2008 / TiamatsVision

Imagine receiving a letter in your mailbox asking you to participate in a study for cancer research, and that your doctor didn’t mention anything about cancer during your last physical. This is what happened to 400 women in Maryland. According to the Baltimore Sun, ‘A state contractor tampered with Maryland’s cancer registry, a database used by researchers to track the disease’s impact, counting hundreds of patients as having cancer when they did not, according to a legislative audit released yesterday. The company, Macro International Inc., found in an internal investigation that data were deliberately altered between August 2004 and December of that year. The company fired the employee responsible for the cancer registry. State officials said that Macro employees apparently overreported the incidence of cancer to ensure that the database met standards set by a national certification association, which closely monitors registries to ensure that states have a complete count of cases.’ These letters were sent in 2005, and they’re just addressing it now.

If this can happen with a cancer registry’s database, imagine what could happen with someone’s personal health records. The argument for computerized records is simple. It will eliminate many errors that occur with paperwork, and will help emergency workers to assist a patient if the patient is unable to communicate. While this seems like a great idea in general, the issues of privacy, confidentiality, and abuses of the system lie in the back of many people’s minds. And for good reasons.

It’s not only our health records that are vulnerable. The WSJ Health Blog reports ‘In yet another example of the health industry mishandling private patient records, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia sent some 202,000 explanation of benefits letters to the wrong addresses last week, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. The letters, which were mistakenly directed to the addresses of other policyholders, included names and insurance identification numbers of patients as well as the names of the doctors and other medical providers they were using.[..] A small proportion of the letters also had Social Security numbers, a spokeswoman for the company told the paper. Vulnerability to identity theft is one concern. But EOB letters are especially sensitive from a privacy standpoint because they contain some treatment information. And this is one of a steady stream of mistakes by the health-care industry when it comes to protecting electronic data. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia told the AJC that a computer system change was to blame, and it’s taken steps to avoid the problem in the future.’

I foresee many ‘computer system changes’ in the future. Is this what we have to look forward to? The steps they’re taking to ‘avoid the problem in the future’ currently may be completely different whatever steps are needed in the future. Will everyone be up to speed?

According to USA Today advocates for electronic prescribing ‘say it will have many benefits including decreasing medical errors, which harm least 1.5 million people every year, according to the Institute of Medicine. Doctors’ scrawl will be replaced with typed information, and potentially dangerous interactions with patients’ existing medications will be flagged.’ Yet privacy advocates are worried. ‘Transforming prescriptions from scrawl into a standardized electronic format can make them even easier for pharmacies to sell and trade, violating patient privacy, says Tim Sparapani, senior legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union. ‘Any time you put something in a digital format and standardize it, it becomes much more profitable and easy to move those records.” The WSJ Health Blog also quotes the Coalition for Patient Privacy which said ‘While e-prescribing is attractive to many, Americans do not want their private prescription information data mined and used without their permission. Many Americans would be quite alarmed to discover their employer and others know they take an anti-anxiety medication or that they are being treated for an STD.’

I’m all for simplifying the paperwork process involved in healthcare. But I, like many others, am also worried about personal information being altered or available to those I don’t want accessing it. Will there be enough people enforcing our HIPAA rights? Will there be enough people to oversee these systems, to address immediate problems and to correct any glitches? Or will this be a windfall for Big Pharma and those who work in the field of law?

(Resources: Baltimore Sun-‘Md Cancer Statistics Altered’, WSJ Health Blog- ‘Insurer Sends Patient Info To The Wrong People’ and ‘Privacy Advocates Sound Alarm about Electronic Prescribing’, USA Today- ‘Writing is on The Wall for Doctors’ E-prescriptions’, Journal of Medical Internet Research-‘The Emergence of National Health Record Architectures in the United States and Australia: Models, Costs, and Questions’, and National Academy Press-” For the Record: Protecting Electronic Health Information” )

Technoccult TV: Nemo pt. 2

July 30, 2008 / Klint Finley

In the second part of our interview with Nemo he talks about the visionary art world, his store the Revolutionary Exchange, the late Seth Fisher, and his advice for aspiring artists.

(Full disclosure: the Revolutionary Exchange is an official sponsor of Esozone)

Bonus: Remastered version of the first episode w/ Antero Alli

Technoccult TV: Antero Alli pt. 2 (updated)

July 16, 2008 / Klint Finley

Antero Alli returns to talk about Dr. Christopher Hyatt’s legacy, and how he met Robert Anton Wilson.

Update: The Myspace and Archive.org versions were cut-off at the end. Here is another version, on Google Video.

Direct link to Google Video (download available there)

Technoccult TV: Nemo

July 9, 2008 / Klint Finley

Technoccult TV talks to visionary artist Nemo about his art, how he got into the occult, and how you too can make ambidextrous art.

Be sure to visit Nemo’s Revolutionary Xchange. I did an interview with Satoshi Sakamoto over there a couple months ago.

(We’re having some trouble uploading to archive.org, but once it’s done you’ll be able to download a DIVX or iPod format version)

July Moon

July 5, 2008 / TiamatsVision

After discovering the complexity of the different layouts for various situations within the Kolduny Tarot, and finding difficultly in explaining them in a few brief blog posts, Natalia Tikimirov has agreed to walk us through monthly New and Full Moon Tarot readings. These methods were handed down to her from her mother, and her mother before that.

‘The date of the New Moon is July 2 or 7/2. Draw the 7th card of the major arcana which is the Chariot and the 2nd card of the major arcana which is The High Priestess. Lay them down. Add 2 plus 7 and pull the ninth card of the major arcana which is The Hermit.

As the Moon waxes it will be governed by The Chariot, a card of drive and ambition, plowing on to reach its goals. Many decks display The Chariot being raced forward by a warrior. The early Visconti Decks however are unique in displaying a woman wearing a crown operating the chariot at a slower pace. This is to remind us that many times the fastest chariot crashes and never finishes. It is important to operate the chariot skillfully, knowing when to slow down for curves, and knowing how to avoid rough spots in the terrain. As the Moon waxes, remember the skill required to operate and maneuver the chariot.

As the Moon wanes it will be governed by The High Priestess card. Through the centuries this card has been overloaded with meanings that it did not originally have. Occultists of the 18th and 19th centuries began to attribute many meanings, many of which are thought provoking and worthy of consideration. However, if we return to the early Visconti deck we see the original meaning implied by the culture that produced this particular deck, and that meaning is quiet faith. The image presented in this deck is that of a woman sitting upon a stool of humble origins. She wears a Papal tiara on her head and a gown belonging to the Order of the Humiliati founded in 1134, the tiara and the gown tied with a simple rope shows the contrast between the pomp of religious hierarchy and simple faith of the single soul. Many lay claim that this card is a display of Giovanna who had claim and should have risen to the Papal throne in 854. And while that is just a theory, this card tells us that as the Moon wanes, we need to be willing and brave enough to acknowledge the simple faith that resides in all of us.

The soul of this Moon will be governed by The Hermit, who in the early decks held an hourglass as opposed to a lantern. Reflecting more upon time then illumination. This is a Moon to be skillful, faithful, and very much self reflective. Take the time to examine yourself closely, and don’t let this Moon pass away leaving you a stranger to yourself.

The time of this new moon along the East Coast is very interesting it will happen at 14:32. If you add these numbers together it adds to 10 just as you add this year 2008 together it adds to 10. This tells us this moon will be a very important moon for those living in the East Coast time zone.

The Full Moon this month also is very interesting. It falls on 7/18. Add 7 plus 1 plus 8 and you get 16, The Tower. Along the East Coast the Moon will go full at 2:59. Add 2 plus 5 plus 9 and again you get 16. This will be a powerful Full Moon ruled intensely by The Tower card, which is a warning for sure to be both a skillful operator as well as a faithful child. When troubled this month don’t hesitate to withdraw and slow down for some self reflection, remember The Hermit is the soul of this Moon.

If you examine the time of this new moon 14:32, you will see a pattern. The 1 jumps at us, then we see a very organized 4 3 2 taking us back to the 1. We will see a surprise this month, perhaps even a shock, but when we consider it all carefully like The Hermit, we will be forced to ask ourselves “why did that surprise me”? This time adds to 10. The year 2008 adds to 10. The tenth card of the major arcana is The Wheel, which really isn’t a tool for assistance but rather an awareness that things happen outside of our control.

(For your time zone just find the exact time of the Moon for your particular area and follow the instructions above.)

Here is a neat old Kolduny thing I will share with you. It is a good tool for considering the day.

Take the month and day you were born, and add them together. For example, if you were born on May 27th, add 5 (May) and 2 and 7: 5+2+7=14. That is the Temperance card. This number related to the Tarot, explains your needed tool for every venture you enter into. Now add the current date which is July 3, 7+3=10, which is the Wheel of Fortune card. This tells you what to expect for the day.

Now add the two together by single digits 14, and 10, 1+4+1+0=6. This would be The Lovers card. This would be your daily card; adding the day of your birth, the date of the day, in singular numbers, and reducing the numbers if over 21.

The final card is your daily card. The other two cards combined with your daily card create your daily spread. If you want to know what is happening in aspects of your life, reduce the number to less than 10, and pull the minor arcana cards for that number.

Cups: represents love, interpersonal relationships, and family.

Wands: represents intellect and creativity.

Pentacles: represents earthly considerations, work, money and survival.

Swords: represents lusts, desires and conflicts.

Give it a try. It might surprise you.’
– Natalia Vladimirova Tikimirov

(See also: “An Interview with The Koldun: Natalia and Anton Tikimirov”, parts one, two and three)

Technoccult TV: Antero Alli (part 1)

July 2, 2008 / Klint Finley

Update: Part 2 now available

Technoccult TV talks with Antero Alli about paratheater, his films, the 8 circuit model of consciousness, and his plans for the future.

Antero Alli is a paratheater director, filmmaker, astrologer, and the world’s leading expert on the 8 circuit model of consciousness. For more information about his work, or to purchase his DVDs, visit ParaTheatrical ReSearch and Vertical Pool Productions.

And of course, you can see him give a presentation on the 8 circuit model this October at Esozone in Portland.

Special thanks to: Chris Cloke, Bill Whitcomb, and Trevor Blake.

(Watch for more episodes of Technoccult TV, inlcluding part 2 of this interview plus interviews with Paul Laffoley, Nemo, The Red King, and many more)

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