Sunken City: the Graphic Novel

An illustrated story painted at the Sunken City in San Pedro with black and white enamel paint.

Scripted by Michael Hanson

Starring: Badly Licked Bear,

with: Ed, Honee and the Viking

Sunken City: the Graphic Novel (The Illustrated Whole Draft)

 Page I: 

Title Page: Sunken City: the Graphic Novel

Prologue: Hypernormalization

Page II: 

It began as a non-linear war, a ceaseless shape-shifting that is unstoppable because it is undefinable.

Page III: 

The aim was not to win the war but to create a constant state of destabilized perception, in order to manage and control.

Page IV: 

It was unmanageable. The world was destroyed. Many died. Nobody thought they had won.

Page V: 

Most of the world was uninhabitable, riddled with radioactivity.

Page VI: 

All that stood was an empire of rats‑the others were dead or went mad.



The Saga of Badly Licked Bear

Page 1: 

Badly Licked Bear uses spikes to arrange his severed head collection.

Page 2: 

The car pool lane is the highest level of Los Angeles spirituality.

Page 3: 

You either are a fascist, an anti-fascist or you're a fascist's bodyguard.

D7K_1658.jpeg

Page 4: 

Badly Licked Bear said the late stage of capitalism is cannibalism.

Page 5: 

TL:DR Never read the manual. Trust your feelings. Buy the murder bird.

Page 6: 

I see a penguin and I want to paint it black #gothemperor.

Page 7: 

Swords are the new false eyelashes. Idling dune buggies with rams and spikes are the new Hitachi Magic Wand.

Page 8: 

The Viking. “There ain’t nuthin’ left of the nuthin’ left.”

 

Ed's Finishing

Page 9: 

Ed was driven insane.

Page 10: 

Because he knows how to live today.

Page 11: 

And he knows that is impossible.

Page 12: 

There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn't true.

Page 13: 

The other is to refuse to believe what is true.

Page 14-15: 

Ed photos that which doesn’t want to be seen.

Page 16: 

The planes fell to earth (the redacted version).


The Manchurian Candidate

Page 17: 

Honee makes poison tipped arrows.

Page 18: 

She was Manchurian royalty.

Page 19: 

Her first memories are in a French-Catholic boarding school in Saigon.

Page 20: 

Honee is a master of the healing arts.

Page 21: 

She has amassed a small militia.

Page 22: 

Honee wouldn't participate in barbarism.

Page 23: 

She would put the deal together for cash.

Page 24: 

The archer.

 

As It Is: the Viking

Page 25:

I wasn’t always this.

Page 26: 

I turned bullies into cowards.

Page 27: 

You didn’t bring enough guys.

Page 28: 

Before I was a bouncer.

Page 29: 

Then I was a professor.

Page 30: 

As it is, you are who you are.

 

Few Survived for Long 

Page 31: 

The Viking.

Page 32: 

Badly Licked Bear.

Page 33: 

Ed.

Page 34: 

Honee.

 

Geiger Counters and Canned Food

Page 35: 

Did your annuity arrive in time to buy, your bunker?

Page 36: 

Will the cracked-tooth bandit offering you clean water accept your VISA?

Page 37: 

They talked about spirits of metallurgy, sacrificial rites and cults of speed.

Page 38: 

Honee shared her meat with the Viking. Then…

Page 39: 

she stole his books. It was a fair trade.

Page 40: 

The deed was done. As usual, at the same moment…

Page 41: 

he became less and more human.

(End of Act One).

  

Ice-Cold Norseman

Page 42: 

No Sir, I ain't getting in somebody's business.

Page 43: 

Last time it almost killed me.

Page 44: 

Why did he have to go and do that?

Page 45: 

How did you know what order to kill them?

Page 46: 

I was lucky in the order.

Page 47: 

I've always been lucky killin' folks.

Page 48: 

Until I wasn't. Blam!

 

TomTom of Sinland

Page 49: 

Badly Licked Bear knows he's a thug.

Page 50: 

He had to become one.

Page 51: 

Survival wasn't possible otherwise.

Page 52: 

There was no difference between pleasure and pain.

Page 53: 

Badly Licked Bear preternaturally survived in the wasteland.

Page 54: 

He wrote until he forecast the future...then he continued. "When the Trinity Test took place in New Mexico it established total control of the environment and a capacity to use it."

 Page 55: 

Even a radioactive sunset reset a familiar but elusive essence, set in motion by ancestors he could not name.

Page 56: 

The submissive is the master of the wasteland.

Page 57: 

Where you think it will strike is rarely what kills you.

Page 58: 

If we have to go down this way I'm going snarling and bloody.

    

Ed’s Occurrence Up Shit Creek Bridge

Page 59-60: 

The Hanging.

Page 61-62. 

The Chase

Page 63-64: 

Revenge and Reuniting.

Page 65: 

Ed’s Occurrence Up Shit Creek Bridge

  

Honee’s Throne of Blood

Page 66: 

The wasteland was overrun with bandits.

Page 67: 

“Please make me your disciple.” “First get off your knees, we’ll talk as we go.”

Page 68: 

(Screaming hysterically)

Page 69: 

“All dead Honee. Again-we’ve survived.”

Page 70: 

“You shall not stir out of your house today Honee.”

Page 71: 

“Those who threaten me, they are vanquished.”

Page 72: 

The witch cackled, “Something wicked this way comes.”

Pages 73-74 

Assassins.

Page 75: 

Throne of Blood.

 

The Last Mx on Earth

Page 76: 

Language is a curse without an interlocutor.

Page 77: 

It is electronic media without electricity, an uncircumcised tablet.

Page 78: 

How many imaginary friends can you craft before madness?

Page 79: 

Becoming furry relieves the suffering of being human.

(End of Act II)

 

The Solitary Sower

Page 80: 

All that You touch, you change, All that you change, changes you.

Page 81: 

And people may rise, or people may fall/But the farmer, must feed them all.

Page 82: 

Good-bye horses I'm flying over you. Good-bye horses I'm flying over you

Page 83: 

I do not regret these experiences, reflecting on them has given me new insights into my real motives on the thousand occasions about which I have deluded myself.

Page 84: 

So here I am, all alone on this earth… cut off from them and everything else, what am I? This is what remains for me to find out now.

Page 85: 

The scavengers feed, on edge, as if their meal’s wrath may awaken.

Page 86: 

The plants continue to grow.

 

Texts for Nowhere

Page 87: 

Suddenly, no, at last, long last, I couldn’t anymore, I couldn’t go on.

Page 88: 

Someone said, you can’t stay here. I couldn’t stay there and I couldn’t go on.

Page 89: 

I’ll describe the place, that’s unimportant.

Page 90: 

The top, very flat, of a mountain, no, a hill, but so wild, so wild, enough.

Page 91: 

Down in the hole the centuries have dug, centuries of filthy weather, it slowly drinks.

Page 92: 

They are up above, all round. I can’t raise my eyes to them.

Page 93:  

Do they see me, what can they see of me? Perhaps there is no one left, perhaps they are all gone, sickened.

Page 94: 

To change, or, it’s not me, or fate, I feel that other coming, let it come, it won’t catch me napping.

Page 95: 

All is noise.

Page 96: 

To change, to see, no, there’s no more to see, the harm is done, that’s what possessed me to come.

Page 97: 

We’re of one mind, deep down, we’re fond of one another, but there’s nothing we can do for one another.

Page 98: 

The mist will clear, the wind freshen and the night sky open, including the Bears, to guide me once again on my way, let’s wait for night.

Page 99: 

I don’t try to understand, I’ll never try to understand any more, I won’t be afraid of the big words anymore, they are not big.

 

Post-Anthropocene

Page 100: 

Badly Licked Bear never knew of a half-brother who survived, barely as before the war.

Page 101: 

The people were spared by freak winds and geographic isolation.

Page 102: 

Genetic mutations were a common manifestation. Everything from before was lost.

Page 103: 

A new human emerged with no context for the ruined world they inherited.

Page 104: 

The landscape responded to their farming impulses and rewarded their diligence.

Page 105: 

They knew the tools they modified were made by people they would never meet. They sent offerings to those spirits.

Page 106: 

The world nurtured and savaged them with fickle, unpredictable behaviors.

Page 107: 

They found plenty of evidence of their antecedents’ mysterious writing. They understood of its impulse to preserve.

Page 108: 

They intuitively knew of writing’s failure to preserve anything.

Page 109: 

Writing was a bad magic, by turning language concrete it released a plague upon the world. They would never turn to it. 

Sunken City (The Graphic Novel) Notes and References

Prologue: Hypernormalization is from a film of the same title by Adam Curtis. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fh2cDKyFdyU

Page II: Quoted directly, It began as a non-linear war, a ceaseless shape-shifting that is unstoppable because it is undefinable.

Page III: Quoted directly. The aim was not to win the war but to create a constant state of destabilized perception, in order to manage and control.

Pages IV-VI: Are quotes from the film La Jetée by Chris Marker https://vimeo.com/309034119

 

 The Saga of Badly Licked Bear is based off posts, comments and other texts by artist Badly Licked Bear. I collect posts and use them directly in this section.

Page 1: I make Badly Licked Bear’s outfit from elements from the film Escape From New York and the boots are from the film Zardoz https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070948/mediaviewer/rm909847040

Page 3: Is a photo of teen students from Kentucky's Covington Catholic High School, mocking Omaha elder Nathan Phillips as he sings and drums. The students were taking part in an anti-abortion rally, while Mr. Phillips came for an Indigenous Peoples' March. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46935701

Page 6: Is a post by Badly Licked Bear referencing the Rolling Stones, Paint it Black. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4irXQhgMqg

 

Ed's Finishing is based off the artist Ed Giardina of his art collective Finishing School http://finishing-school-art.net

Pages 10-11: Are from his project Deep State. The image for page 11 is from an experiment with monkeys on isolation by Harry Harlow https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Harlow

 Pages 12-13: Are from his project Double Blind and use a quote from Søren Kierkegaard

 

The Manchurian Candidate is based off the fashion designer Honee https://www.houseofhonee.com

Pages 22-23: Are images from the film The Deer Hunter https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuGSXflBoWU

 

Geiger Counters and Canned Food

Pages 35-36: From a Facebook post by Badly Licked Bear.

Page 37: Paraphrased from a Facebook post by Badly Licked Bear.

 

Ice-Cold Viking

 Pages 42-44: The lines are from the John Wayne film Big Jakehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdQbsa5E4ZQ

  Pages 45-7: The lines are from Clint Eastwood in the film The Unforgiven .   

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mjkt4UgcTmg

 Page 48: The pose, the gun and clothes are from the final scene of the film Scarface.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRLKJ09JmGo

 

TomTom of Sinland is a pun off the artist Tom of Finland.

 Page 49: Is from a drawing by Tom of Finland https://www.davidkordanskygallery.com/artist/tom-of-finland

 Page 50: Small figure is a Crystal Gem from Steven Universe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTKEKTUkBlQ The bullies are from the film My Bodyguard. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QexN6K0kq5I

 Page 52: The Syringe wielding doctor is Robert Preston from the film SOB. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axzKFG0K4h0

 Page 56: The pose and costume are from artist William Pope L. from his performance Tompkins Square Crawlhttps://vimeo.com/190326648

 Page 55 and 59: Uses the clothes from the end of the film Conan the Barbarian. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qih55rWcsvM

 

 Ed’s Occurrence up Shit Creek Bridge is based on the film An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge. https://vimeo.com/163730099

 Pages 61-63: Is from the film Marathon Man. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4XuEDOtOkA

 

 Honee’s Throne of Blood is titled from the Akira Kurosawa film.

 Pages 66-69: Are quoted from the film Seven Samurai. mhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mw6LyyoeGE

 Pages 70-72 The lines are taken from the play Macbeth. http://shakespeare.mit.edu/macbeth/full.html

 Page 75: The image is directly taken from the film Throne of Blood. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GvVzvoEx4w



The Last Mx on Earth is a reference to the film The Last Man on Earth. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuPgXDWMB-Q

 Page 76: Is a Lisa Frank onesie: https://www.thehunt.com/the-hunt/CCTFTP-lisa-frank-onesie-

Pages 77: The image is a Robert Crumb Drawing. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/490329478165418429/?lp=true

Page 78: The image is from artist Hirsch Perlman https://frieze.com/article/hirsch-perlman-saved-avalanche

 Page 79: Is based on “becoming animal” from A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia by Deleuze and Guattari  https://www.sas.upenn.edu/~cavitch/pdf-library/DeleuzeGuattari_Becoming.pdf

 

The Solitary Sower

Page 80: From Parable of the Sower by American writer Octavia E. Butler https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iVGuMyKFgA

Page 81: Quoted from The Farmer by Amelia E. Barr https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nziA33FrhoI

Page 82: From film Silence of the Lambs, song by Q Lazzarus. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNcoHQrveEQ

Pages 83-85: Direct quotes from Reveries of a Solitary Walker by Jean-Jacques Rousseau https://archive.org/details/confessionsjjro01rousgoog/page/n37

Pages 84-85: Uses an Image of the overhead shot from the death of Walter White from the Tv show Breaking Bad. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AlEEcanbus

 

Texts for Nowhere

Pages 87-99: The entire scene uses direct quotes from Samuel Beckett’s Texts for Nothing (from section 1 and 2)

https://manoftheword.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/beckett-storiestextsnothing_3_4.pdf 

 

Post-Anthropocene

Pages 103-104, 107-109: The figures are based on models of Neanderthals and Homo_Floresiensis http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-fossils/species/homo-floresiensis