Tag Archives: Dr Abbey

Art of the island

In the walls

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A wall, are there. Like Black Cat by A. E. Poe. She was inside. (Dr Abbey)

I’ve always wondered about the way old houses fall down once no one is in them. As though it is the faith of the inhabitants holding the walls up. If no one believes that these stones are a house, then the walls also forget, and crumble.

It is normal to put something in the walls, to help a building stand tall. I don’t know why old shoes are popular – perhaps simply because they are easy to come by. Sometimes when old walls tumble, they reveal bones – cats or dogs most often. I like to think these were beloved pets who died of old age and were kept in the walls to be part of the home forever. Not bloody sacrifices slaughtered in barbaric rituals.

There are stories about someone who knew someone who found the bones of a child in the walls. Perhaps these are just stories, or mistakes made with dog bones, It would be fair to say that on this island, unwanted children are as easy to come by as worn out shoes. Easier perhaps, for you have to feed children, whereas worn out shoes can be repurposed in all kinds of ways.

I am not sure how a dead child would help secure the walls. However, who amongst us has not made sacrifices of one sort or another, hoping to appease the nameless, faceless forces that hold sway over our lives?

She was in the walls.

(Story concept and art by Dr Abbey, text by Nimue.)

Flora and fauna

A Wooden Joker Warning

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As we turn towards spring, it seems like a good time to remind citizens about the occasional risks of Wooden Jokers. As yet, no one has determined what manner of entity these are – tree growths? Fungi? Demonic forces? We don’t know. What we do know is that they resemble human men and women, grow out of the trunks of trees and cause nothing but trouble.

Usually they look rather attractive, and can draw the attention of the lonely and sexually destitute. If you fall into this unhappy camp then it is as well to stay out of the woods during the spring, when the sap is rising. Wooden Jokers can be strangely attractive at this time.

My personal theory is that if you find one in the deeper woods, it will probably kill you. Survivors of Wooden Jokers have tended to be on the wood margins, where rescue is feasible. If you are visible to other islanders, someone may come along and cut you free from the tree. This is never a dignified process. The more enthusiasm the tree has provoked in the victim, the less dignified the release is bound to be, if I may speak circumspectly.

It is possible that some Wooden Jokers release their victims after a time. No one has ever admitted to such an experience. I myself make a point of keeping well away from such trees and definitely have no insight into whether there is any scope for enjoying their bounty and then escaping with life and reputation unharmed. It would be unwise to try. No matter how they shake their branches at you.

(Art by Dr Abbey, text by Nimue)

Hopeless inhabitants

Dressed all in feathers

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Her old life is little more than a dream now. She belongs to the shore, to the sky and the wind.

It began with gathering feathers, day by day, weaving them into the worn fabric of her clothes. She wanted to be warm, and to forget herself, to give grief a shape and to fill the hole in her heart with something soft.

The wind heard her prayers, hair growing feathery, shoulders sprouting new growth to push through her tattered clothing. She no longer makes much sense to herself, but she does not care. She is bones wrapped in feathers. The wind soothes her. The sea speaks to her.

(Art by Dr Abbey, next by Nimue.)

Hopeless

Hopeless, live in Kyoto

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This is Asahi Sasagawa reading as Annamarie Nightshade in Kyoto recently. Hopeless, Maine in Japan – thanks to Dr Abbey!

Takeshi Ohbayashi is the narrator for Hopeless, Maine in Japanese –

This was for a public performance based on the opening of Personal Demons. Dr Abbey has adapted the graphic novel script into something that can be performed to a Japanese audience – which is pretty wild. He’s sorted the casting and no doubt directed it as well. The original plan was to have Mari Shimizu reading young Salamandra. Mari Shimizu was the original voice of Astro Boy, but sadly she’s not been well lately.

If you want to take the project out into the world, we have a history of performance and welcome more of it. Quite some years ago, Keith Errington put together a Hopeless Home Companion radio show, based on Garrison Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion, which has been out a few times. The Ominous Folk used to do musical tales from the island. If you want to play with the setting you certainly don’t need to be faithful to the graphic novels.

Hopeless Tales

All of your aunties

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(Art by Dr Abbey, text by Nimue)

When you wake up, your aunty is all around you. When you went to sleep you thought that you had only one aunty, but now there seem to be a lot of her.

You may be feverish. You feel very cold – but it is normal to feel cold so this clarifies nothing.

You’ve heard that there are tiny magical creatures who some people call aunties. You do not think your aunty is a small magical creature but also you have no idea what would happen if an aunty gets inside an aunty.

“This is all perfectly normal” she tells you, and all of her mouths move at slightly different times.

This makes you wonder how many heads you have, and how many mouths, and whether you have woken up with the same number of eyes you had when going to sleep.

“It’s just a nightmare,” one of her mouths says.

You have the feeling she is lying to you.

“When you wake up it will all have been a dream.”

You do not want to go back to sleep, because you have no idea what will have been a dream. This vision? Your life? Everything you have known? If you go to sleep you might wake up into something even worse than this.

“You are just a bone remembering when you had flesh,” she says. “Go back to sleep.”

If this is the only life left to you then you do not want to give it up.

“You are just driftwood and dry seaweed imagining that you are a person, and having a nightmare,” she says, oh so sweetly.

You are drifting now, sliding gently towards oblivion with no confidence that there is anything in you capable of ever waking up again.

Hopeless

News from Dr Abbey

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This week, Dr Abbey shared this rather wonderful statement over on Facebook, and I didn’t want anyone to miss it. It’s very encouraging news. I’ve edited out some of the more personal content from the original post.

“Hello my true friends

I decided to get back to academic area and creative field. Do you see some of my drawings? They are mainly concept art of “Hopeless Mirage”, written by Nimue Brown the marvelous UK writer.

Tom Brown encourages me and he guides me to fantasy graphic. Also he showed me how to draw. I respect him and owe him so much.

Their work”Hopeless, Main ” is great masterpiece,

My Ph.D. in art and three master degree should be useful to explain how my client and friends are wonderful.

Looking up at the sky, stepping on the road.

I am always your wizard.

Expect my magic.

Doc M Aby rises again and again.

Mirage is a project that I wrote based on Abbey’s ideas – I’ve been hoping for a long time that he would illustrate the story, so this is exciting progress. More updates when we have them.

Art of the island

Should I get in the sea?

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(Art by Dr Abbey, text by Nimue)

Should I get in the sea? If you have asked yourself this question recently please read the helpful answers below.

There are dead people in the sea. Some of them are people who got into the sea of their own free will. You might not enjoy being close to them. You really won’t enjoy becoming one of them.

Even if the air is unusually warm and you’ve seen the sun, the sea will be very cold. Cold like the merciless depths of space. Cold like the uncaring madness of elder gods. Unless you in fact are an elder god, the odds are it will not be a ‘refreshing dip’.

Can you swim? If the answer is no, then getting in the sea is just going to kill you. We have tides, currents, pointy rocks and angry sea life. You are soft and squishy and easy to break.

If you can swim, you probably learned somewhere else where the sea is not so hostile. Our sea is full of beings who can swim faster than you and who are also hungry.

We’ve got mermaids. They can swim faster than you, and they are always hungry. We’ve also got jellyfish women who might not be fast, but are subtle and deadly. There are quite a few sea monsters out there, or possibly just the one sea monster with considerable diversity of body parts. Best not to try and establish the truth on that score.

I don’t care who told you that cold water swimming brings many health benefits. They weren’t from round here, clearly.

Flora and fauna

Summer Demons – some advice

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(Image by Dr Abbey, text by Nimue)

Demons love warmer weather and are always more active at this time of year. Here is some advice for dealing with any demons you encounter.

  1. Try not to. This almost never goes well.
  2. Do not believe what the demons tell you. Especially don’t believe them if they tell you it won’t hurt at all, or that you will have fun.
  3. It will hurt. It will not be fun.
  4. Do not feed the demons. This is harder when they pretend to be cats.
  5. Do not give demons your blood, even if they ask nicely. Do not give cats your blood either. Not all cats are demons but it is better not to take any risks on this score.
  6. If you find a sunbathing cat, consider that it could be a demon and proceed cautiously.
  7. If you chance upon a sunbathing demon/cat, and think of something funny you could do, don’t do it. It will hurt, it will not be fun.
  8. Demons never possess you for just a little while. Let them in and you’ll have a hard time getting them out again. Sitting on you is not exactly possession but can lead to possession.
  9. It is as well to be polite and considerate to cats in case they are really demons.
  10. Do not give the demons pets or attempt to fuzz them under the chin. Do not ask the demons if they are adorable floof beans and the bestest little cattypus ever. This also doesn’t tend to go well.
Art of the island

When Salamandra went green

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(art by Dr Abbey, text by Nimue)

About four years ago, Dr Abbey started drawing Salamandra with green hair. I wasn’t sure what it meant at the time, only that it belonged to the part of the story that comes after the graphic novels.

We’re in that time frame now. The last graphic novel (Survivors) has been out for a while, and as a community we’re figuring out what island life is like now that the fog has lifted (a bit). The island is still mostly cold, damp, haunted and weird, but people have more options and are finding their own way of doing things.

Hopeless has become a more hopeful sort of place. People are banding together to do what makes sense to them – be that researching the fungi, developing the science, being part of the folklore response squad or trying a bit of piracy. Islanders are getting better at making the most of what they have. Hopeless has become a slightly happier place.

Salamandra has green hair now, because she’s becoming a happier and more playful sort of person. Responsibility doesn’t sit so heavily on her shoulders. Not least because magic washes around the island more than it used to. Philomena Bucket has a lot of power, Lilly May is handling things well, Annamarie Nightshade lives in the sky, there are crow queens, and there’s lots of folk magic out there. Sal doesn’t have to worry so much about what she ought to try and fix, and what she might get wrong.

It’s always been tricky for her. Salamandra is magic, but she’s not always that keen on doing magic. She just wants to be left alone to get on with being herself, and she can do that now. She can be a bit reclusive, but she’s got green hair, and plants to grow, and a desire to live quietly. Whether she’ll be left in peace to do that is a whole other question…

Hopeless inhabitants

Keeping the lights on

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Image by Dr Abbey, story by Nimue Brown

Keeping the lights on at night is important for islander safety. Generating the energy to keep the lights on remains problematic. This latest invention purports to use the souls of the damned to provide illumination. 

Dr Lyssa assures us that there are a lot of damned souls floating about on the island, taking up far too much space in the ether. “Diverting their energy into light might do more than illuminate the town. It might even serve to reduce the miasma,” she told The Vendetta.

When asked how exactly the device worked to trap the souls of the damned and extract energy from them, Dr Lyssa said, “Very nicely, thank you.”

Several of our island’s psychics, who did not wish to be named (but you know who they are, it’s the usual suspects) have confirmed that they can see ghosts attached to the street lamps. There is consensus to that point, but not beyond it, which is probably why none of them wants to admit who exactly said what. I am reliably informed that

  1. The damned are suffering dreadfully to create light and this is just.
  2. That damned are using the lights to steal energy from everyone else and it is a conspiracy and a trap.
  3. It isn’t the damned at all, but the ghosts of things that glowed when they were alive. You can see the glow, you just can’t see the ghost making it.

Doc Willoughby wants to reassure people that street lights cannot hurt you unless they fall on you, or a massive splinter of ice drops off and stabs you to death, or you walk into one in the fog, or something thin and awful is hiding behind one.

I hope everyone is reassured by this.