New Height Books

There are currently five copies of differing quality of Virtues In Verse available for sale at Amazon.com, one of then marked as “new.” Considered that most copies of this out-of-print book go for $60 or more, this is a good opportunity to own yours at well below market cost.

‘Twas the night before Capitalism Day, when all through the firm
Not an employee was busy, not even the interns!
The stockings were hung by the pay-roll files with care
In hopes that the Robber Baron, soon would be there.

The secretaries were twirling, each in her own leather chair
While they dreamed of a golden Bull, chasing away a black Bear.
And VP Smith in her pants suit, and I in my vest
Had just popped the cork on Coppola’s best.

When down in the lobby there arose such a clatter
I sprang from my desk to see what was the matter.
My key to the locked drawer I flew like a flash.
And brought out my silver pistol hidden ‘neath the petty cash.

The moon on the barrel of…. I call her the Duke
Gave a sparkle that went well with my black Armani suit.
When on the security monitor what should appear?
A tall, quick-paced Capitalist, and eight profiteers.

With a proud, scornful gaze and cashmere robes flaring
I knew in an instant it must be the Robber Baron.
The Producers of wealth, his partners they came
And he lifted his head and called them by name;

Bill Gates! Jack Welch! Steve Jobs! Sam Walton!
Walt Disney! Dave Thomas! Howard Shultz! Tom Watson!
To the top 5%! Till the market can’t take it!
While others have money, you’re the men who make it!

As small business stocks that before the opening bell tolls
When they meet a corporate merger, increase in value by ten-fold
So through every office the eight CEO’s traded
Until luxury filled the firm and work’s tire faded.

And then, like an order, I heard at my door
The knock of The Baron- The great Commodore
I invited him inside and Smith drew a chair
But he pointed behind my desk and said, “I’d rather sit there.”

His suit had the quality that so easily upstages
(And worth more than most men’s annual wages)
Fine jewels he rolled, like marbles in his hand
And he looked like a merchant admiring his brand

His eyes– so attentive! The intellect he must employ!
But his face showed no age… Like that of a boy.
His manner was all business, but his mouth became a smile.
He thought of this night’s earnings and the profit he’d compile

Without further ado he spread his gems before my eyes
Desire flickered across my face and he quoted the price for his prize
My face did not flinch though the number was high
He knew what he was doing, but then again, so did I.

We went back and forth as he countered all I offered
Until he revealed a ruby for which I would’ve emptied every coffer
He grinned as I surrendered and swept his hand through his silver mane
“Capitalism is all about trade,” he said, “and each man’s mutual gain.”

I smiled and shook his hand, then I cut him a well earned check
He said, “Next year it’s plastics, call me for the specs.”

Then he and his partners caught the Bullet to the New York Hyatt.
(Jack Welch liked the train so much, he decided to buy it.)
Then I heard the Baron call, as the train moved away with silent stealth
“Happy Capitalism Day to all, and to all liberty and wealth!”

Originally posted March of 2004

Table For One is the first truly heroic comic book, because it’s hero, William Howland, is an individualist, a man whose only justification for being is himself. Surrounded by the gray and morally ambiguous, Will is unfailing is his commitment to truth and to himself. The story is dramatic and bold, exposing the scope of society in one night at an underground Manhattan restaurant. The aesthetic is crisp and sharp, lending straight lines and smooth planes to the protagonist, while portraying the villain in curves and globes.

I look forward to many great works from Bosch Fawstin. And I’m sure that once you experience his work, you will too.

Until then, I give my e-mail interview with Fawstin: on his work, his philosophy, and his future plans.

BF: I was born on July 31, 1970 in the Bronx, NY. I went to P.S. 46 Elementary School and that was when I first realized that I was pretty good at drawing. It gave me a confidence to take it a little more seriously than those around me, which made me better at it the more I did it. I continued to draw over the years, winning contests all through Middle School and High School. I always knew that my future would be in the arts, but after High School, I didn’t really know what exact course I wanted to follow. I had so many interests that I considered acting/singing/writing/illustration/painting and film directing. Then, after a few years of indecision, I decided that I would follow my first love and life long passion and create comic books for a living. But I didn’t want to simply start on a small job and work my way up among many other people where my contribution would be overlooked or even lost among them, since most of the mainstream comic books being produced today are the end result of at least half a dozen people. I wanted to do everything , to make every line mine, and create a story that would come out of who I am. It was important to me to start on my own terms, as an Individual artist with an Individual vision, since this was going to be what I wanted to do for the rest of my life and I figured what better way to introduce myself to a medium that I loved. To that end, I studied writing and drawing to the point where I believed I was good enough to produce a graphic novel I would be proud of.

CD: When did you first become interested in comic book creation?

BF: When I was young my oldest brother Tony used to bring home super-hero comics and I just fell in love with them on a visual level. I began reading them on my own and started seeing them as something I’d like to be involved with in the future. But it wasn’t until my early to mid-twenties when I started seriously planning, step by step, my career in comic books.

CD: Are you professionally trained?

BF: I’m mostly self-taught, studying on my own at home with tons of books and making literally Thousands of drawings until they started to get to a level of quality where I was satisfied that I could draw a story. It’s been said that we have to get a thousand bad drawings out of our system before we start doing good ones, and I agree with that completely. As for professional training, I did take about half a dozen night classes that focused on the art of Comics within a few years in my mid to later twenties at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in Manhattan. I made it a point to sit at the front of each class (unless it was a figure drawing class, where our seats are circled around the model), concentrating only on the teacher and the lesson, to the exclusion of all else, including interacting with my classmates, many of whom weren’t interested in being there in the first place. And the ones who were as interested as I was, were too engulfed to waste time in anything besides getting the work done. I learned many things about storytelling, techniques and tools that would have taken me years to come across on my own. But no matter what we were taught, the idea that we were storytellers trumped any other concern. ‘To tell a story in pictures’ was the one constant that brought most of us there. By that time, I had already been writing over the years about things that mattered to me, keeping journals and making sense of what was going on with myself and the world and writing ideas for stories that I’d like to do one day. I read Many books on writing, and the one I learned most from when it came to understanding what a story is was Robert McKee’s perfectly titled book Story . I read the book, reread it, took a notebook worth of notes, went to his 3 day seminar 3 different times and to this day, still hold it above any book when it comes to, again, Understanding Story. I plan on going to his next seminar in NY to saturate myself with what it means to tell a story again. I don’t believe I can learn too much when it comes to my craft. I can’t recommend the book or seminar enough.

CD: How would you describe your artistic style?

BF: My artistic style is a form of stylized realism, even though I do use caricature for certain characters that I think need to be drawn that way. In Table for One, each character is drawn in a way that defines their relationship to reality. To a degree, the most realistic characters are drawn realistically and the least realistic characters are drawn less so. I’d say I have a clean, direct style that gets to the point very clearly, with as little clutter as possible, which happens to be the style that I admire in others as well.

CD: What other artists and writers do you admire?

BF: Ayn Rand is my favorite writer of all, and I’d say my favorite, most realized Artist of all as well. No one has affected my life on the levels that her work has and I doubt, without being a pessimist, that any other artist ever will. I can personally attest to the life-changing power and passion of her writing. She was, and is through her work, a phenomenon and my love and appreciation for her work has only grown and deepened over the years.

Alex Toth, to me, is the greatest illustrator to ever work in comics. There’s not been a finer artist than him in this field and his work is the standard of that which I aspire to. You can imagine how I felt when I received a handwritten postcard from him, with an original sketch of his attached, where he praised my book and my talents. He was kind enough to allow me to use his quotes on my book which has gotten me interest that I wouldn’t have had without it.

Frank Miller, a writer/artist whose work is influenced by Rand, is my favorite storyteller in comics. His ‘Batman: Dark Knight Returns’, Daredevil: Born Again and ‘300′ are my favorites of his and ensure his place as being one of the few cartoonists whose work has transcended the medium. When it comes to other artists outside of comics, I appreciate a work or two here an there, but if I can’t appreciate a whole body of work, it’s almost not worth mentioning, though I love looking at Norman Rockwell’s work. The way he illustrated caricatures in a realistic way made them breath in a way I haven’t seen anyone else do before.

CD: Tell us about the concept for your first book, Table For One.

BF: What sparked the idea for me was simply wishful thinking, even daydreaming. I was working at a restaurant and I wasn’t too happy about it at the time. I thought about how I’d feel if my first love walked in to see me, since she was still heavily on my thoughts and feelings at that time. I began to build a story around that spark, and then I started thinking about the restaurant as a microcosm of society where I could place an Individualist into it that would cause instant conflict among the majority of the people who populate them. I wanted to place a morally ambitious, black and white individual, William Howland, among morally ambiguous, gray non-individualists and have them forced to deal with one another in an underground restaurant in Manhattan and see what happens. It’s a simple concept that became richer by the day. And I wanted it all to take place on one night, to bring Will’s predicament to a sharp focus where everything that Can happen Does happen. I wanted to push the limits of how far I could take a story with the limited boundaries I’ve given it, where a battle of values between three people finally come to a head on one night. My synopsis:

“I walk through the crowded room……not a soul in sight.”

Meet waiter (writer) William Howland, who’s accused of being a misanthrope by those he can’t stand and admired by those he respects. Counting on Will’s temperament to trump him, his boss bet against him lasting a year in his underground restaurant in Manhattan. It’s now pay day for Will, but on this night, Will’s code to treat All as they deserve to be treated doesn’t serve anyone well, especially him, and he might not even last the night. Then She walks in…….

The story takes place on one night in one location in the fall of 2001, as blocks away, ground zero still burns…….

CD: What is Ayn Rand’s influence in your life and work?

BF: She created the kind of work that I respond to more than any other. It’s a kind of work that makes sense of life and which was even an anchor to reality at a time when I needed it. I first came across her work through watching the Fountainhead movie in my late teens and really liking the idea behind the film, but being young, I couldn’t say exactly why, on a philosophical level. Then a few years later, in a conversation with a female restaurant customer about Great movies, I mentioned the Fountainhead film. She asked if I had read the book, to which I said no, and since I already saw the film, I felt there was no need to. She told me, in no uncertain terms, that I would Love the book and that she’d lend me her copy. I was intrigued at her comment that I would Love it, so I read it and it changed my life. I related to Roark in many ways, least of all in that I’m a red-headed artist who prides his individuality. So my own work will naturally be influenced by hers in very important ways. But by now, a decade after first reading her work and Individuating it, I feel I can write and draw stories that are clearly in my own, unique voice and style, that won’t be dominated by “The Rand Influence.” The idea of how a moral individual maintains his ideals while living in a corrupt society that rejects him is powerful and evocative to me on a very personal level, and I think that’s a theme that will naturally find its way into much of my work over the years.

CD: Has Table For One been received well?

BF: Yes, I’ve gotten some very positive feedback from people who’ve read and enjoyed the book, from fellow cartoonists to readers and to reviewers. Though two recent reviewers, who praised my talents and most of the book, felt a need to express that they had a desire to physically beat my main character, citing how unlikable they found him. After laughing out loud about it when I first read those comments, I realized that Will affected them in such a visceral way that it made them want to beat up a fictional character. I think that’s just Great, and very revealing, after finding out that at least one of them is a self-titled “Deep Liberal” which would explain his dislike of Will, but not his violent desire to do him bodily harm. Since in the first place, Will doesn’t exist in reality, but in the second place, aren’t Liberals supposed to be tolerant pacifists? Anyway, they feel about Will the same way that the villains of the story do, and as I wrote in an early synopsis: “….William Howland is hated by those he can’t stand.”

CD: What are your plans for future works?

BF: I’m organizing my notes on a story that I’ve had in mind for a long time. It’s a much bigger, deeper story than Table for One. I don’t want to say anything specific about it, but it will take up most of my time within the next year. Though at the moment, I’m flirting with doing a short story that I have an idea for, while I’m working on the larger project. If all goes according to plan, I will have another story out by fall of this year. As far as career plans, I plan to work on and release a graphic novel every year to every few years for as long as I’m around. I’ve always loved the marriage between words and pictures and I can’t think of anything else I’d rather be doing. I want to thank you for this opportunity to share my thoughts with other like-minded Individuals, Chris. I really appreciate it.

Bosch

And thank you Bosch, this was certainly a treat.

See Table for One on New Height Books. You can learn more about Bosch Fawstin and his upcoming works at boschfawstin.com.