A Twisted Transparency Released:

After 5 long years my trilogy is complete, what started with "Cooljaw: Dreaming Darkly", was followed by "The Sugar Claws: Full Course", and now finally ends with "A Twisted Transparency".

I'm ecstatic my comics can finally be viewed as a whole body of work, I think by doing so one may be able to better understand what I was trying to achieve with the series, and notice how each of the stories are indirectly related to each other.

Started this project as a way to deal with some things that happened in my life, as well as to work out questions I play around with at night in my head. While the main theme that ties each of the stories is violence, they also dealt with other subjects that I found interesting and troubling.

I feel that this news post should serve as a sort of postmortem to each of my stories, with that being said below you can read about the genesis, and goals of each specific project (Extreme Spoilers Below):

CoolJaw: Dreaming Darkly|

This project started when a cab driver friend of mine was diagnosed with Lung Cancer, during this period he was battling a heavy drug problem, and trying to make peace with his three children .

It was devastating to see someone who's had destroyed his life, and relationship with his children come to a realization that he was dying, and had lost the opportunity to care for those he loved.

It was also heartbreaking to see this same person try to salvage what he could with the little time he had left, it left a deep imprint on me, this experience was what spurred me to make a story about a deeply flawed individual coming to terms with death, and his attempts and making peace.

One of the themes I wanted to touch on in Cooljaw was the idea of hereditary evil, is Colin violent because of his upbringing, or is it something he's biologically predisposed to? The nature vs. nurture debate is something troubling to me, are we slaves to our genetics, and is violence something that passes on from one generation to another?

Colin made a choice at the end of the Cooljaw, in my eye's he did so because he's vindictive, yet he also did so as a means to give his son a new start. By killing Harper he was trying to assume responsibility, and implicate himself for the sculptor murders, as well as silence the only witness who knew who was actually behind the sculptor murders.

Thematically Cooljaw is about someone who was a victim of violence deciding to seek retribution, and salvation, vicariously through violence, and the consequences at which that comes.

The Sugar Claws: Full Course

The genesis of this story stems back to an old girlfriend I once dated, things were fine between us for several months, then suddenly without warning her whole disposition changed.

She would have mood swings, started drinking heavily, and would break out sobbing, eventually the relationship came to an end, and I heard through a mutual friend the reason she changed was because she got raped. Looking back on things I wish I could have known, I would have acted differently, but at the same time a person in that position is so fragile, it's understandable why one would want to keep that quiet.

And that's the way I approached "The Sugar Claws" from the perspective of someone who was being abused, and their attempts to ignore the problem, instead of confronting it, or seeking help. "The Sugar Claws" is allegorical for Maple's problem, as Maple develops an eating disorder in order to feed the creature, "The Sugar Claws" becomes stronger, while Maple becomes weaker.

Until finally everything come to a tragic conclusion, hence the rational as to why I consider this story to be a modern fairytale.

A Twisted Transparency|

The story behind "A Twisted Transparency" stems from the news that came to light after the war documents were leaked to wikileaks, and the question as to whether violence is justifiable to prevent more violence.

As well as whether hiding our societies involvement in crimes against people that have been wronged, is justified if it were to prevent retribution.

The end of this story has the protagonist decide to spare someone who murdered his lover, and attempted to kill him, he does so because felt their was no reason to kill someone if wouldn't change the past. The character also comes to the realization that the life he chose to engage in is responsible for the response of the antagonist.

In doing so the character was able to recover, and move forward; yet at the same time a serial killer gets to live on and potentially kill and harm others, there is a moral ambiguity to that action that has it's own set of consequences.

"A Twisted Transparency's" depiction of the choice to be passive towards violence was meant to be the most complex, even if one chooses to accept, let go, and move past violence that was once done to them, there may still be repercussions in doing so.

Hidden Meanings:

There is an underlying theme to the trilogy, that each action has a consequence, and we are all indirectly affected by others choices and actions, for better and for worse.

I tried to illustrate this by having minor characters become major characters in later stories (In Cooljaw you can see Sirrel with his brother (in the second act), Nate moves from Peaksville to Archorage to work the sculptor case, ect).

Closing Thoughts:

The trilogy is over now, and as I mentioned earlier I am happy it's complete, yet at the same time I'm sad to see it end, these characters, and stories helped get me through some difficult times.

Yet everything has to come to an end eventually if there is to be any closure, and working on these films certainly has been a cathartic experience, it helped me purge a lot of negativity from my person.

I refute the claim that my work is nihilistic, apathetic, or misanthropic, these are stories about people who continue to live and struggle despite everything, hoping to change something, instead of waiting on nothing.

Not long are the days of wine and roses.
Sincerely,
- Celx Requin

Post Script: My film is getting raped, which is sad, whatever I'm still proud of it, I guess silent movies have gone out of style, tis a shame, alas it was the risk I took.