My Writing Passion (The Codex Version)
Back in ancient times, scribes of the Maya civilization drew images of deities and wrote a breadth of information down on codices, folding books that allowed for easy sectioning of material. While only three codices have been completely authenticated and preserved for viewing by the modern world, these books have revealed much about the culture, beliefs, and society of these Mesoamerican people.
“That’s great, Andrew,” you may be thinking, “but why should I care?”
To keep the explanation brief, I’ll simply say that my Honors Art Appreciation professor assigned each student the task of writing and essay and creating a codex about one of the primary factors of our identities, something that has defined and influenced each of us throughout our lives. Naturally, I made a book about writing.
The cover page features the title (“Writing,” written in cursive, ick), as well as the cover of a Sherlock Holmes collection, displaying the detective’s classic pipe; the iconic Amazing Fantasy #15, which debuted the Amazing Spider-Man; and a composition notebook with writing all over it, the trademark of an active writer.
The second and third pages explain why writing is important to me and how the symbol I chose–in this case, a classic No. 2 pencil–represents the topic.
At the top of the page are these words: “To appropriate a popular idiom, I believe that the pencil is mightier than the sword. With this instrument, I can create new worlds or fell mighty beasts, construct fantastic vessels or destroy ancient structures. All my life, I’ve loved imagining and creating through storytelling. Nothing symbolizes that passion better than this pencil, the most essential of writing implements. Not only can I use it to write anything I choose into being, but if I make a mistake—or a dozen or a hundred—I can simply erase and start over. The beauty of writing is that I don’t have to get it right on the first try. Writing reflects my desire to improve; I’m not just putting something into existence with the writing end of the pencil, but I’m also using the eraser to fix my mistakes and move on from them.”
On the left, the tip of the pencil writes, “The pencil giveth…” and at the other end, the words continue, “…and the pencil taketh a–” only to be cut off mid-word by the eraser, which has removed the final word of the sentence. I originally cut up a pink twisty-tie and taped them below to represent eraser shavings, but they must have fallen off when my teacher graded the codex.
Below the pencil imagery is the remainder of this first part of my essay: “The pencil cuts through the text like a ship sailing through the water because, as much as I enjoy making an impression with my work, I love moving on to other projects just as much. There are countless ports to sail to, or in this case, stories to be written. Just like the starship Enterprise, boldly going where no man has gone before, I savor using my pencil to boldly explore depths of the imagination that have not yet been discovered.”
The next two pages are dedicated to a story that highlights an instance of writing in my life. For the first part, I transcribed my essay in pen: “One of the best writing experiences of my life was an assignment in my high school “Creative Writing” class. Our teacher tasked us with writing and illustrating our own picture books. I may know my way around a paragraph, but I couldn’t draw my way out of a paper bag. So, with my teacher’s approval, I contracted one of my best friends to do the illustrations in exchange for energy drinks. However, the writing was all on me. I had to come up with a story that was fun, engaging, and memorable, all in the span of a few dozen pages!
“Like any good writer, I decided to borrow from one of the greats. I took the tale of Star Wars, one of my all-time favorite stories, and gave it my own spin by combining all of the characters with various breeds of dogs; Luke Skywalker became Ruff Groundtrotter the Labrador Retriever, See-Threepio became See-Threebowow the Chihuahua, and so on. By taking a timeless story and its instantly recognizable characters and putting my own creative stamp on them, I was able to put something new into the world while paying homage to a classic saga.”
Here are photocopies of a few images from the aforementioned picture book, which I eventually titled Bark Wars. Taylor Penn drew the images, and I wrote the captions shown here. In the upper left, “Rolly-Wan Furobi, the wise Doggy Master, instructs young Ruff Groundtrotter in the ways of the Furce.” At the right, “Hank Boxo, Chewbarka, and company make a daring escape in the Millennium Beagle.” And finally, at the bottom, “See-Threebowow and Artoo-Chewtoo escape from the evil Tailpire with the plans for the mighty SHOT-VAC; can they reach Pawtooine in time?”
This page takes us to the reverse side of the codex. I drew a scroll, wrote the text below in an attempt to explain my occasional forays into poetry, and added a cutout of a rose, because, you know, those are pretty poetic, right?
“While I love writing because I can express myself creatively, I also love it because it forces me to stretch myself both mentally and emotionally. Poetry, which I dabble in, is a perfect example of this creative challenge. In my own words, “a poet is one who can peer into the soul of Man and emerge with his sanity mostly intact.” Whether it’s a sonnet that leads me to bare my heart and soul or a Shel Silverstein-esque limerick that thrives on my own sense of wordplay, poetry forces me to get out of my comfort zone in a departure from my usual style.”
Here we have my take on another artistic medium that hinges upon writing: the comic book. For this page, I drew some comic book panels, wrote in this portion of my essay, added some snappy hand-drawn images, and used the company logos in place of the comic book publisher names at the very bottom of the page. I like to think it was a pretty nifty effect.
“Another variant form of writing is comic book scripting. Comic books are a fascinating blend of visual dynamics and word-driven action. Writing a comic book script requires both a keen eye for great visuals (even if you’re not the artist, you still need to communicate your vision to the penciler, the inker, and the colorist) and a reliable ear for dialogue (perhaps more than any other medium, comics make it easy to write hokey conversations, so a truly great writer must know how to rise above this). I don’t intend to knock on the doors of Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, Image, or IDW anytime soon, but it’s fun to try out writing something in such an artistically innovative medium.”
And now we reach the final page, in which I wax and wane poetic about my love of writing and the surge of energy and effort that it grants me.
“Possibly the most exciting thing about writing is that I can take my readers on a trip anywhere and everywhere I choose. We can visit the far-flung future or the distant past, sail through monster-filled seas or travel across treacherous deserts. And I can make them feel something. If I want to make you laugh, I’ll try my darndest to do so. If I want to make you cry, I have the power to at least have a go at it. I may not succeed every single time, but as long as I’m putting an earnest effort into it and getting better with each attempt, I’m creating an adventure for both of us.
“If you learn nothing else about me from reading this, at least know this: as long as I have a pencil in my hand and a piece of paper in front of me, I can do anything. I can control time and space, and I can use that power to entertain and even inspire others. That’s who I am; I strive to be an artist with words and parchment rather than with canvas and oil. I’m no Nobel Prize laureate—at least not yet, anyway—but I plan to make my mark on the world doing what I love most.”
At the bottom and a bit to the left, I drew the Aurabesh (read: Star Wars alphabet) characters for my initials (A.J.A.) and finished both the essay and the codes by signing my name under the line, “Here be dragons.”
I’ll end this post with some beauty shots of the codex as it was meant to be, folded so it can be read from multiple angles. I hope this codex piqued your interest and perhaps even shed some light on the life of this writer. Take care.