Comic Book Tattoo: Rantz Hoseley

Project Editor, Writer: Rantz Hoseley
Contributions: 'The Waitress,' 'Mr. Zebra'

Describe your relationship with Tori.

Tori and I have been friends for over 20 years now, since the days of her playing piano at the Holiday Inn at LAX, through the "adventure" of Y Kant Tori Read, to her finding the strength to unleash her true musical voice on 'Little Earthquakes.' Before that album was released, I took an early mix on a cassette tape down to the San Diego Comicon and gave it to 'Sandman' writer Neil Gaiman. I've designed tour programs, T-shirts and contributed a painting to one of the RAINN calendars for her. Now, many tours, albums and various projects later, I still consider her to be one of my dearest and best friends.

How did you become involved in this project?

About a year ago, Image [Comics] put out an anthology based on the music of Belle & Sebastian. The book was good, but I'll fully admit I kept thinking, "This is a great idea, but it would be really killer if it was done with Tori's music and songs as the jumping off point for the creators." So, last year at the San Diego Comicon, proving everything comes full circle, I asked Image if they'd be interested in doing something like this. They thought it was a great idea, so Tori, her managers and I starting talking about it. Looking at all of the angles to decide if we wanted to go ahead and commit to it, because we all agreed that if we were going to spend the time on this, it couldn't be "just another comic book," or anything less than a full scale "Tori Project." Once we had all agreed, I started going through lists of creators, and showing them to Tori, getting her yea or nay on them. After getting a solid list of about 150, I started contacting people, and was pleasantly surprised at how many of them immediately and enthusiastically signed on, and really threw themselves into it, individually and collectively producing some of the best comics I've seen.

Why did you choose to interpret 'The Waitress' and 'Mr. Zebra'?

It's a bit funny, because when we started this project, I was sure that I'd end up doing a story for 'Flying Dutchman,' or 'Sugar,' or 'Honey' or 'Here in My Head.' Those are some of my favorite songs of hers and the one that really speak to me on a constant, continuous basis. But it was a funny thing -- I was driving around, doing the daily commute, and I was playing Tori's full discography, getting the songs vivid in my mind, really trying to see them fresh and new, so that I'd be able to do a good job as an editor for the various songs/stories. And then 'Waitress' came on, and it hadn't made it to the first chorus before the whole story just ... appeared. Start, middle, end. All the complex cross-time/location panel cuts, the double meaning on the last page. It honestly freaked me out a little bit, because no story comes that easily or that quickly. Moreover, I was really dead-set on doing one of the other songs, so I fought it. But it kept sneaking in, poking at me saying "You need to do this, you know you do." Tori has always said to me that her girls -- the songs -- always tell her which ones to play on any given night, and I'd always kind of chuckled and thought "Yeah, sure Tor. OK, whatever you say." But here I am, having this song tell me, "You know I the one, stop being stubborn and let's go!" So, I gave in, and did it.

'Mr. Zebra' was very similar. When James Stokoe became available at the 11th hour, I thought "What story should we do?" and it was obvious, the format, the humor, the surrealist bent. It was just ... there. I'm very happy with both of them, and glad I stopped being a stubborn ass about it.

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

'Waitress,' the song, is all about betrayal, and the emotion that comes through makes that pain so clear -- the regret, the anger, the hurt and the frustration of other people seeing the other person's side, and not yours. Treating your reaction like it's irrational or worse yet, crazy. So, by drawing a page by page parallel between these two women's relationship from start to tragic end and the minute by minute buildup to their final confrontation, hopefully the reader can see what's pushed the main character to the point of taking the actions that she does.

With 'Mr. Zebra,' it was just going to that Duchamp-esque state of mind -- being open to the seemingly unrelated series of words and scenarios tell their story. Not shutting any part of the mind off from it for fear that it was "too far out there," and just letting the song tell its own story through the filter of my perceptions. It's probably just a bit different that what someone else might think of, but that's kind of the point of the whole project -- to show how art in any form, be it music, visual, or written word, begets and inspires more art. Sometimes in obvious ways, sometimes in forms that are completely unexpected.

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

I think music and comics, more than any other art forms, are so closely related in terms of how they draw a reaction, or emotional response from their audience. Both have a controlled cadence and beat to them, both can use staccato rhythms (a series of small, tight panels in the case of comics) to build a frenetic feeling, or hold a long, intense note to draw the audience deeper in, and add emphasis on the emotions that have been building (in comics, using a splash page, for example).

Comics and music also, especially in this day and age of being able to release work digitally, have the capability of being some of the least "committee"-driven forms of art. With music, it can be one person or a small group of people in a band, writing songs the way they want to write them. Recording with protocols, releasing them onto the net and getting it out the way they want to. The same holds true for comics. Sure, you can have large, multi-title crossover events from companies like Marvel and DC, but you can also have someone making a comic by themselves, or with a small number of friends, putting it up on the web or self-publishing, and getting out the stories that they feel compelled to tell. I think that's why so many people connect with both comics and music. At its best, there's less between the creators and the audience.

Many comic creators I know use music as an inspiration in their comics, and draw direct parallels between musical timings and signatures and panel, page and story construction. It's nothing new really -- comic creators have been riffing off of music for years. It's just that now comics has gained the level of public acceptance to where the audience, for both music and comics, is becoming more aware of it.