LOOK AHEAD BUT KEEP ON TURNING

Experimentation is the heart of creativity. I read a wonderful quote the other day from George Bernard Shaw:

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man."

Of course, Shaw was also the man who coined the immortal line, "Those who can, do; those who cannot, teach", which is utter hogwash, but I find the first quote succinctly reflects a view I've held myself for some time.

Any definition of "unreasonable" will differ from person to person, but I think we can safely say Shaw was referring not to those who bully or threaten when faced with opposition, but to those who deal in the currency of ideas.

'The very nature of experimentation is that no-one knows if it's right.' History remembers many an "unreasonable man", though with the exception of mythical figures like Icarus - whose unreasonable obsession is a morally dodgy tale designed to teach us to know our limitations - it's generally only those who are later proved right.

Everyone remembers Galileo, declared a heretic and abjured for his firm belief that the earth was round (Galileo was by no means the first, but certainly the most despised for it), but history discards the names of people who believed man could fly if he strapped feathers to his arms, or that covering a dying man in leeches would somehow restore him to life.

Still, does that mean they shouldn't have tried? The very nature of experimentation - hell, the whole point - is that no-one knows if it's right, or will work, or whatever. If you know what will happen when you do something, that's not experimenting. If you have a pretty good idea, but aren't sure, that's experimenting. And if you have no bloody clue whatsoever but you barrel ahead and do it anyway, you're Brian Eno.

(Ah, Brian Eno, the man who said, "Culture is everything which is not necessary to humanity's survival". I have a fondness and respect for Oor Brian that teeters on idolatry. Not because I like everything he does, but because he pushes against the flow, perpetually experimenting just to see what happens. The results are variable, of course, but such is the nature of the pioneer - and any process which brings about movements like ambient music is all right by me.)

I've always liked art that surprises me in this way, and artists who do the same; people who refuse to retread old ground, or deliberately defy expectations put upon them by their audience, because they want to try something new. To be an artist, one must surely have passion - whether it's borne of fear or desire is unimportant - and there's no better way to ignite that passion than to do something completely new, to stumble about in the dark and have no sure idea of what the resulting work will be.

'To be an artist, one must surely have passion.' Few things give me as much pleasure as a piece of art that may as well have FUCK WHAT YOU THINK, THIS IS WHAT I WANT TO DO stamped on them. I'm sometimes given pause to wonder if this is simply an inherent contrariness on my part, as it often results in my happily listening to/watching/reading things everyone else is happy to dismiss as garbage. My only defence is that many years after the fact, I'm generally still listening to/reading/watching whatever it is. So either I really do like this sort of stuff, or I'm a contararian of extraordinary tenacity.

(To get me in the mood, I'm currently listening to A HISTORY OF BUDDHISM by The Burning Buddhists - self-released, 1997 - whose work I first heard on the absurdly-titled BUDDHISTS GO DANCE! EP. The instruments listed are guitar, bass, saxophone, percussion, drums and a drum machine, and samples. It is without a doubt the noisiest collection of seemingly tuneless, well, noise I have ever heard. Even better, all the tracks are live recordings from various gigs. It's brilliant.)

If any of you are wondering what this has to do with comics, the answer of course is: everything. The survival of any artform, even one as commercialised as, say, television, depends on progress. And that progress is only made by experimentation, innovation and novelty on the part of Shaw's "unreasonable man."

IT'S MY WORLD NOW

Another year, another San Diego Comic-Con.

Okay, it's a good line, but actually next week's SDCC (as it's rightly acronymed) is only my second, so unlike some world-weary creators I'm actually looking forward to it.

I'm going to be running back and forth between the Oni and Avatar booths all weekend (numbers 1805 and 5202 respectively) with scant time for a quick fag break, so if you see a short guy in black with a dodgy nu-metal beard galloping across the con floor, chances are it's me late for a signing. Stop me and offer vodka.

STRIP THE LAYERS OFF

I've been thoroughly enjoying Metallica's new album ST ANGER since it came out. (The fact that almost every other Metallica fan I've spoken to thinks it's awful was partly the inspiration for this month's column.) I think it's great - it has the same kind of energy as RIDE THE LIGHTNING, the main difference being that James Hetfield is now a much better songwriter.

(I'm also thoroughly amused at the fans' indignation upon learning that the band used digital cut-and-paste methods to rearrange portions of songs after they were recorded. Evidently this destroys their fantasy that songs spring fully-formed from a musician's head, and swapping riffs or lyrics around between songs is just not done, rather than helping them accept the reality that this is how songs are written.)

The band's decision to drastically cut short the year-long process they usually undergo when recording a new album has resulted in their freshest-sounding record since LOAD - an album which was also hated upon its release. Food for thought, as they say.

Antony Johnston is the author of JULIUS, SPOOKED and THE LONG HAUL. His new ongoing series WASTELAND begins in July 2006.

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