Comic Book Tattoo: Colleen Doran

Artist: Colleen Doran
Contribution: 'Pretty Good Year'

How would you describe your relationship with Tori?

Well, my relationship with Tori is limited to adoring her music. I bought her first album when it came out, after I heard selections on a local alternative music station. I rushed out and got the album right away. I later added videos and limited edition albums to my stack of Tori adoration and I venerate often.

How did you become involved in this project?

I heard a rumor through the grapevine that this project was in the works, and sulked a bit, wondering if anyone was going to contact me about it. then I got the call and stopped sulking.

Why did you choose to interpret 'Pretty Good Year'?

I worked with a writer on this piece named Derek McCulloch, and he actually chose the song. Fortunately, it was one of my favorites, and he took a different approach to it that I think distinguishes it in the collection. I had very strong visual ideas when listening to the music and integrating that imagery with the story which I did not write was in interesting experience. I think I came up with a way of visualizing the story that honored the content as well as gave a visual impression of the sound of the music.

What is it about Tori's music that inspired your visuals and storyline?

Tori has a very gentle, liquid voice that becomes very powerful and angry during the course of the song. Also, she sounds hurt. The sound of the piano gives me an impression of blocks of color. So, I like the way that the story transpires in blocks of time, both within the context of the individual moments of life's passage, but also in the blocks of sound that the piano staccato creates. And I see different colors when she creates different sounds and used them as visual cues for both the sense of the sound and the sense of the characters in the story.

In what way to graphic novels evoke the same reactions -- both emotional and physical -- as that of music?

Both comics and music are multi-sensory and require a certain amount of participation on the part of the audience to enjoy them fully. Music, like Tori's music anyway, requires that we pay attention to the feelings evoked by the sound of the music, but also to the lyrics which also have a narrative sense, and, in the case of Tori Amos, can often be challenging. there are different levels of meaning and experience in her music. She can sing in this gentle, ethereal way about the most difficult of life's experiences, and if you aren't paying attention to the lyrics, you miss half the story.

Comics have a similar ability to create a multi-layered experience. the pictures and the narrative may even be at odds with one another. Music has the ability to suggest color through the mood conveyed by sound, and comics have the ability to convey mood with color. The narrative may be in concert with the message of the pictures, or may be in counterpoint.

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