August 21, 2006 | Filed under: Random Thoughts

I have been working with author and director Xavier Leret to convince him that he should abandon the old 'wait for a break' process of artistic career building and get into self-publishing and building an audience for himself. 

One of his creations is this character called Jimmy. This is the same Jimmy of Killing Seals that I blogged about last week.

It is a violent epic about a tough guy with no arms. Xav's original idea was to make it into a film but its difficult because the budget would be so huge. There is something cultish about Jimmy. He's like something out of a Quentin Tarantino or Guy Ritchie movie but with a freakshow edge. I have always seen it as a graphic novel because, like good anime, it can show some of the impossible pictures that are in Xav's mind.

This is why I was buzzed to read in Wired all about a HalfLife2 mod called gMod made by a guy called Garry Newman (no, not the eighties pop star!). 

GMod’s special tools help users go way beyond standard run-and-gun gameplay. You can use it to cobble together your own Rube Goldberg machines with any object in the game environment. Or force characters you redesign to assume strange poses, then shoot pictures of them through a plethora of effects filters. Sick of bullets? Reprogram weapons to spray beer or blood or bird poop at opponents. From Wired.

Like Machinima for video, one of the uses for gMod is to design and pose characters in custom environments to create comic books like this one - Concerned. Jimmy would be fantastic in a gMod world.

It is so exciting to see where the tools of creativity are heading. Think of a story > stage it in Halflife2 using gMod > print it on demand at lulu.com > sell it through Amazon... all at practically zero cost. All you need is talent. 

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