RICHARD VAN INGRAM
Who Is He and Why Should You Be Mindful of Him?

1. Something by way of a resume:
Richard Van Ingram has been an artist and writer for quite some time. He attended North Ga. College from 1984 - 86 where he received full scholarships three times, one academic and two for fine art. From 1986 – 87 he attended the University of Georgia where he studied printmaking, history, and philosophy. From 1987 – 1991, he attended Ga. State University (in Atlanta), studying printmaking and philosophy, graduating with a BFA in 1991. He showed his paintings and prints at an Atlanta gallery called Bella Museo for about one year until that gallery shut its doors. At GSU, he also wrote a series of art reviews for TUESDAY MAGAZINE which raised a few eyebrows or closed a few eyes…
Around this time he helped "Degenerate X" Frederick D. Noble and Dale "I don't have a nickname I like" Norris design the live-action RPG parody HECKLEVAMP (still available on-line at http://www.degeneratepress.com/foolin), which he also illustrated; the game was a response to idiots obsessed with making scenes at conventions while overindulging in White Wolf's VAMPIRE LARPG. In the end, Hecklevamp nearly got a group of satirists expelled from DragonCon one year and became the only game which could boast having its own security contingent.

From 1991 – 93, having pissed off the art department at GSU, RVI moved, with better results, into the philosophy department, studying ancient and medieval philosophy, and phenomenology and existentialism, eventually writing his thesis, "The Implicit and Explicit Metaphysics of Jose Ortega y Gasset," which weighs more than any other master's thesis on file at GSU and is as long as most doctoral dissertations (approximatele 400pgs.). This was just one of many effects of the mania and drunkenness that manifested themselves in those wonderful grad student years.

Graduating at the top of his class, RVI was accepted into the PhD program in philosophy at UGA which he was to drop out of in disgust merely a year later. Returning to his roots as a gamer and illustrator, RVI joined a local gaming club for entertainment and was quickly signed on by a local group self-publishing a magazine, LUMINARY, which ran 4 or 5 issues ultimately. After one issue, he became art editor and contributing writer, publishing the first 3 chapters of a comic he'd been toying with since 1983-4 (VENEBARA).

The LUMINARY was acquired by would-be game publishers called Quintessential Mercy Studios ran by two designers – one free-lancer and one experienced designer who'd created a game with gaming godling Gary Gygax. The LUMINARY editor-in-chief merged the magazine with QMS and everyone started working on their "game of theological horror," RAPTURE, THE SECOND COMING. RVI was verbally promised a great deal of input on the artistic design of the project and he was immediately put to work working on the background writing putting to use his philosophical, theological, and historical training. In the end due to a number of factors, RVI left the project before it was completed; his contributions are said to have played a role in the final execution of the game.

One positive effect from the RAPTURE episode came when the former editor-in-chief of LUMINARY(an honorable young man) put RVI in contact with another gaming company, one that turned out to be offering pay (MIND VENTURE GAMES). After signing contracts (paper, not verbal, this time) RVI went to work on the 2nd edition of the horror RPG DON'T LOOK BACK, TERROR IS NEVER HARD TO FIND. RVI contributed illustrations, writing, and edited material. This led to being hired for a second project, GIANT PSYCHIC INSECTS FROM OUTER SPACE, for which he wrote material and helped to edit.
Also, the first (and unfortunately last)episode of an underground comic strip called TALES OF RURAL DEGRADATION appeared in the Atlanta anthology DOG SOUP (#10, I think, 1995). A couple of independent comic companies expressed interest in RVI's work at this time – just as he sank into a long and debilitating illness in 1995. Only in the past couple of years has he recovered to the point that he has re-explored the world of visual art. In 1996, RVI published two issues of THE FOOL, an illustrated response to DEGENERATE PRESS' house organ, including a spoof on Peanuts and Rush Limbaugh-style libertarianism called "Chunky Brownuts."

He has exhibited his oil paintings and drawings publicly on a sporadic basis; he worked as a tattooist from 2000-2001; and his serious and pornographic writings have appeared in various places on the net, including Zoetrope All-Story and Library of the Erotic. His many essays on philosophical, political, and pop cultural matters have appeared in several newspapers and on the net, including Degenerate Press' Blasphemy Page. All this and he actually works for a living, to boot.

2. The style:
The style of the art in DAY ZERO is explicitly influenced by manga such as MAXXION, OH, MY GODDESS! YOU ARE UNDER ARREST! and LONE WOLF AND CUB; Frank Miller's comics; TORPEDO; anime like OUTLAW STAR, DIRTY PAIR, AKIRA, GALAXY EXPRESS 999, THE HARLOCK SAGA, and TENCHI MUYO!; also, movies like THE MATRIX, THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE UGLY (Spaghetti Westerns in general, actually), ‘70's cop pics like SERPICO and FRENCH CONNECTION, everything by Steve McQueen (BULLIT, for example, and THE GETAWAY), and a ton of other unlikely things by way of pop culture (like THE ROCKFORD FILES, for instance).
Maybe the story'll at least partway live up to its "parents."

As for the art, I deliberately chose to sketch most of the pictures loosely with a pencil, color them with watercolor, rather than make tight, pen, brush and ink drawings for each illustration in the "orthodox" fashion. This, I felt, gave the images some immediacy and made them a little more like "movies" – the comic TORPEDO was an influence here, though the artist there does the same loose technique with brush and ink. That is also why I, in the first chapter at any rate, did away with the use of standard panels, a technique learned from the "recent" works of the great graphic storyteller, Will Eisner, whose approach to comics is completely "cinematic."

Also, the "direct" approach allows me to create the story quickly and tell it without belaboring and pretending it is a creation akin to a Fabrige egg – it is more the sketches for a comic book than a finished work, visually. Which is not an apology; the virtue of the thing is the fact that it's quick and dirty, grungy, with no pretense or claim to "perfection." I'll save that goal for professional work – this is just a dilettante's sloppy and exuberant foray into storytelling with pictures.

For more of Richard Van Ingram's works, check out:

Richard Van Ingram
Writer, Artist, Philosopher, Agent Provocateur

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