[8] CANCER
THE STORY'S INSPIRATION:
This week's flash fiction, Cancer, was inspired by two things. First, I had a friend who once said, “He’s the whitest black guy I’ve ever met.” It’s a statement that blew me away because it assumes that being black to him requires behaving and speaking in a way he associated with it. When, to me, blackness is fully realized if the person walking out into the world is simply perceived as being black. That’s all that’s required to have to endure endless petty slights and possibly life threatening violence.
This triggered a stream of consciousness that brought the movie, Trading Places, into my head. It’s an 80’s movie about two, rich, white, old men who manipulate a black character into behaving differently to make heaps of money and have a prestigious job. I merged the two and came up with the concept of one of two black friends trying to climb up the professional ladder and in the process is manipulated into being cruel to someone who was good to him. I wanted to remove the names of both black characters to show how they are simply objects to the wealthy, not really people. I think it’s an easy trap to fall into.
A side note, the cigar was chosen because the investment firm, Lehman Brothers, invested in and profited from the slave trade in the 1850’s and admitted so in legal affidavits. It was the perfect cigar band choice!
This triggered a stream of consciousness that brought the movie, Trading Places, into my head. It’s an 80’s movie about two, rich, white, old men who manipulate a black character into behaving differently to make heaps of money and have a prestigious job. I merged the two and came up with the concept of one of two black friends trying to climb up the professional ladder and in the process is manipulated into being cruel to someone who was good to him. I wanted to remove the names of both black characters to show how they are simply objects to the wealthy, not really people. I think it’s an easy trap to fall into.
A side note, the cigar was chosen because the investment firm, Lehman Brothers, invested in and profited from the slave trade in the 1850’s and admitted so in legal affidavits. It was the perfect cigar band choice!
IMAGERY STARTING POINTS:
- A cigar shaped like a black man in a big ashtray with the head as the butt, and the feet half off as an ash
- A fat white man's face with a cigar in his mouth but a black face on the label
- Two cigars in the shape of black people in an ashtray, one light one dark
- A street crosswalk with a dark skinned black guy at one side and a light skinned at another
- Crumpled cigarette butts in the shape of the two men
DEVELOPING THE IMAGERY:
- The biggest challenge with this illustration was trying to find imagery that wasn't too sensational.
- The cracked ashtray as the face of a black person was an inspired choice by the illustrator, Miguel. It both spoke to the pollution of their minds and the victimization of them.
- There weren't a ton of iterations for this one, the most work went into the band and trying to make the Lehmann Brothers logo work.
READ: CANCER @tomorrowsvig
Weekly illustrated short stories from a Brooklyn writer/art director.
