Correspondence with The Blake Society

“Night Startled by the Lark” (1820) by William Blake

The other day, I got in touch with The Blake Society (www.blakesociety.org) hoping to bring their attention to The Poet and the Flea and to ask them about next year’s Blake Society Tithe Grant.

To my surprise and delight, The Blake Society had already heard of my graphic novel and had made an announcement on their December newsletter as well as their Facebook page.

I think it’s really wonderful that The Blake Society seems to keep tabs on as many Blake-related projects as possible. They have a great website with many resources, including a full biography of William Blake and links to other useful sites.

If only I were in London, I would have joined this society long ago. But San Francisco is so far away and I’m unaware of any local societies here (although according to The Blake Society, there was a William Blake society in Palo Alto around 1940 ).

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Excerpt from The Blake Society December newsletter:

BLAKE IN THE WORLD OF GRAPHIC NOVELS

A  new graphic novel is being published in installments on the web.  The Poet and the Flea is written and illustrated by G. E. Gallas and a new page appears every Wednesday.  Gallas is inspired by Blake as ‘the junction between Dante Alighieri and Allen Ginsberg’.

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Excerpt from The Black Society on Facebook:

The Poet and the Flea is a new online graphic novel by G. E. Gallas which re-imagines the life of Blake. A new page is added every Wednesday; today we reach page 7, when William tells Kate about seeing a tree full of angels.

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For more updates, don’t forget to follow me on tumblr and/or twitter.

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Copyright 2012 by G. E. Gallas

Brainstorming

Ideas for future projects…

The following is a list of various works (literature, poetry, art, etc.) that have influenced me and may influence new projects in the future, as well as ideas that have been churning around in my head.

Also, this is a sort of semi-reading list for books I would like to read and re-read. Some advice for anyone interested in reading these books: Project Gutenberg, Bartleby.com, etc. are WONDERFUL for literature written in English. But if you are interested in Dumas, Hoffmann, Pushkin, or any other author who did not write in English, I would highly recommend Penguin Classics — their English translations are always BRILLIANT (although the very best, of course, is to read a work in its original language — for instance, I happen to hate Dazai Osamu and Yoshimoto Banana translated [no offense to the translators, it's not their fault], but I absolutely love them in the original Japanese)!!

In no particular order…

• Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin: about to read.
• The Tales of Hoffmann by E.T.A. Hoffmann: must read.
• The Moonstone, etc. by Wilkie Collins: must re-read/read.
• The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri: have read.
• The works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: have read/must read.
• Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther and his friend Karl Wilhelm Jerusalem: have read/would like to continue to research.
• Philipp Otto Runge, Romantic German painter: have researched.
• The Count of Monte Cristo, The Black Tulip, etc. by Alexandre Dumas: have read.
• The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and The Suicide Club by Robert Louis Stevenson: must read.
• Confessions of an English Opium-Eater by Thomas De Quincey: must read.
• John Singer Sargent and the Portrait of Madame X: have seen at the Met/must research.
• Lord Byron (“The Limping Devil”), Mary Shelley, and Percy Bysshe Shelley — the origins of Frankenstein: have read/must research.
• Harry Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: have researched/would like to continue to research.
• Franz Liszt (as a young piano teacher): would like to continue to research.
• Béla Bartók (and his research into folk music): would like to continue to research.
• David Popper (Bohemian cellist and my all-time favorite composer): need to find more information about him!
• The Love of Don Perlimplín and Belisa in the Garden by Federico García Lorca: have read.
• A Supermarket in California by Allen Ginsberg: have read.
• The works of Christopher Isherwood: have read.
• The Quiet American and The Third Man by Graham Greene: love movies/must read.
• Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and The Constant Gardener by John le Carré: love movies/must read.
• Hollywood stars like Barbara Stanwyck, Mary Pickford, Sessue Hayakawa, etc.
• The Stones Cry Out by Okuizumi Hikaru: have read.
• The works of Dazai Osamu: have read/must read.
• The works of Ibuse Masuji: must read.
• The works of Mishima Yukio: have read.
• The works of Kenzaburo Oe: have read.
• Okinawan literature: have read.
• Nikola Tesla, Serbian-American inventor: have researched.
• Hendrik Goltzius, the Dutch engraver: have researched/would like to continue to research.
• Morris Louis, American Color Field painter: have researched/would like to continue to research.
• Jean Cocteau, French filmmaker: would like to research.
• Philippe Halsman, Latvian-born American photographer: would like to research.
• The operas of Jacques Offenbach, Giuseppe Verdi, Georges Bizet, Giacomo Puccini, etc.
• …?

To be continued…!

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For more updates, don’t forget to follow me on tumblr and/or twitter.

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Copyright 2012 by G. E. Gallas

“The Poet and the Flea”: Research

The following is a list of research topics (and useful links) for my graphic novel, The Poet and the Flea.

(This is just a rough list for my personal use.)

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William Blake…

• Wikipedia
• The William Blake Archive
• The Blake Society
• The Friends of William Blake
• The Ghost of a Flea
• Catherine (Kate) Blake

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• The Industrial Revolution
• The 18th Century
• 18th Century Fashion
• The Kyoto Costume Institute Digital Archive
• Engraving
• The London Monster
• The Gin Craze
• The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri
• Paradise Lost by John Milton
• Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
• François-Marie Arouet de Voltaire 
• The Archangel Raphael
• …?

To be continued…

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For more updates, don’t forget to follow me on tumblr and/or twitter.

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Copyright 2012 by G. E. Gallas