{"id":13558,"date":"2011-04-28T19:51:45","date_gmt":"2011-04-29T02:51:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reallifesuperheroes.org\/?p=13558"},"modified":"2011-04-28T19:51:45","modified_gmt":"2011-04-29T02:51:45","slug":"motionary-comics-returns-with-costumes-in-tow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/2011\/04\/28\/motionary-comics-returns-with-costumes-in-tow\/","title":{"rendered":"Motionary Comics returns \u2014 with costumes in tow"},"content":{"rendered":"

Originally posted: http:\/\/thirdcoastdigest.com\/2011\/04\/motionary-comics-returns-with-costumes-in-tow\/<\/a>
\nBy By <\/a>DJ Hostettler<\/a>
\n

\"Blackbird,<\/a>

Real Life Super Heroes on patrol <\/p><\/div>
\nKurt Hartwig and Tea Krulos aren\u2019t saying there\u2019s going to be a rumble at Moct on Friday night. And there\u2019s really no reason why they would; the likelihood of the Third Ward bar getting leveled by warring factions of costumed vigilantes and villains is almost disappointingly low (not saying we want to see Moct leveled, but hey\u2026warring factions!). However, both men have guaranteed that Real Life Super Heroes and <\/em>Villains will be in attendance when Motionary Comics <\/a> <\/em>returns to Moct\u2019s hallowed halls of justice this Friday, April 29, so it would be logical to assume that some<\/em> sparks will fly, yes?
\nMotionary Comics <\/em>is a collaborative art project where twenty-four artists work to create a semi-improvised comic strip mural on the walls of the bar.
\n\u201cIt was actually a development of the first idea we ever played with for [art\/theater group] Bad Soviet Habits<\/a>, just with a lot more detail,\u201d says Hartwig. \u201cWe tried to do it at Hot Cakes, but Mike [Brenner] was afraid (not knowing us, and dealing with artists all the time) that we were only crazy and messy. When I decided to develop it for Moct after they asked me for some art event, I figured a story line would help audiences, and big painting plus story seemed like comic strip.\u201d
\nThe first Motionary Comics <\/em>event was held last April and was a rousing success. The project\u2019s basic plan of attack leaves lots of room for the artists to play around: a pair of choreographers place five volunteer bodies against the wall; they are then painted by a team of colorists as they produce a backdrop directly over the volunteers, leaving silhouettes when they step away. The silhouettes are then filled in by a team of local comic artists.
\nFrom there the images take more shape on each successive pass until local journalist and Real Life Super Hero expert Krulos attempts to make sense of it all by adding the text of his story.
\nSounds like a glorious mess, doesn\u2019t it?
\n\u201cLast year\u2019s event went remarkably well,\u201d explains Hartwig. \u201cFew things stayed according to the time table\u2014for example, colorists didn\u2019t finish their pass in the scheduled one hour\u2014but that rarely mattered because they were far enough along that the illustrators could still start.
\n\u201cThe big thing I learned was that it would be helpful to have a single \u2018creative producer,\u2019\u201d says Hartwig. \u201cI really like how the whole thing is very improvisational and collaborative, and that entails a certain amount of mess. I\u2019m good with that. But last year, while trying to explain the idea to everyone, I used the fairytale Rumplestiltskin<\/em> as my example. I think that was necessary at the time \u2013 we all knew the story, and it meant that we could move forward. Eventually, though, that ended up hamstringing the artists in some ways. That\u2019s why this year I asked Tea Krulos to be the creative producer.\u201d
\n

\"The<\/a>

The Watchman (left) and Blackbird: two of Milwaukee's Real Life Super Heroes. <\/p><\/div>
\nThe other big change this year, of course, is the presence of actual Real Life Super Heroes like Milwaukee\u2019s The Watchman and Blackbird<\/a>\u2014normal, everyday people who at some point decided to design their own hero tights and take to the streets to make their cities safer. Their presence (as well as the presence of heroes from Chicago and other cities) is largely related to Krulos\u2019 involvement in the project, as he not only runs a blog<\/a> dedicated to tracking this nationwide movement, but is working on a book about these caped crusaders.
\nBut wouldn\u2019t most super heroes eschew celebrity public appearances, preferring to operate in the shadows?\u00a0Excepting the occasional glory-hound like Iron Man or the Human Torch, most of the good guys in the funny papers aren\u2019t exactly lending their services to the local auto dealership\u2019s grand opening. Aren\u2019t Blackbird and The Watchman putting innocents in danger by broadcasting to their arch-foes where they\u2019ll be?
\nKrulos confesses that he has already heard from one Real Life Super Villain who plans on disrupting things\u2014the \u201cbrilliant maniac\u201d Dr. Lupus and his Team Werewolf (and for the record, yes, I am typing this with a straight face). \u201cHere\u2019s what I know- he has a monocle. His labs are located high on the peak of Mount Lupus, and he loves evil laughter. We\u2019re being told he\u2019ll be sending a series of video messages to Moct making threats that he will be showing up in person with his werewolves if the artists don\u2019t create a piece that glorifies his image.\u201d
\nUm\u2026this concern you at all, Mr. Hartwig?
\n\u201cThere\u2019s been some smack talk, I understand, but we all know that werewolves aren\u2019t real, so I remain unconcerned\u2026especially about the Doomsday Were-Machine. That\u2019s entirely fiction.\u201d
\nMotionary Comics 2.0 <\/a>begins at 5 p.m. at Moct (240 E. Pittsburgh Ave.) on Friday, August 29. It ends at bartime or when the National Guard shows up to save us all from werewolves, whichever comes first.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Real Life Super Heroes and Villains will be in attendance when Motionary Comics returns to Moct\u2019s hallowed halls of justice this Friday, April 29<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13559,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[242,330,1457,1744,2606,2706],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13558"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}