MAD LOVE PUBLISHING AARGH 'THE MIRROR OF LOVE' (8 PAGES) PAGE 1, (PANEL) 1. OKAY, THIS STRIP HAS FIVE PANELS IN EXACTLY THE SAME LAYOUT UPON EACH PAGE: THERE ARE FOUR HORIZONTAL PANELS DOWN THE LEFT HAND SIDE OF EACH PAGE AND A TALL VERTICAL ONE DOWN THE RIGHT. SINCE I'VE HAD TO FIT THE ENTIRE OF KNOWN GAY HISTORY FROM PREHISTORIC TIMES ONWARDS INTO EIGHT PAGES, THERE ARE ABOUT TWO HUNDRED AND TEN WORDS ON EACH PAGE AND SOME RATHER LARGE CAPTIONS. SINCE THERE ARE NO BALLOONS I FIGURE YOU'LL BE ABLE TO LAY OUT THE PANELS TO ACCOMODATE THESE. THE HORIZONTAL PANELS ALL RECOUNT SCENES AND EVENTS FROM GAY HISTORY, WHILE THE VERTICAL PANELS ARE DIFFERENT. USING BEARDSLEY'S HERMAPHRODITE ANGEL FROM HIS PICTURE 'THE MIRROR OF LOVE', WHAT WE DO IS SHOW TWO SUCH FIGURES AGAINST A BLACK BACKGROUND, RENDERED IN SOME FASHION THAT HEIGHTENS THAT SENSE OF PRE-RAPHAELITE CLASSIC SENSIBILITY. THE TWO FIGURES ARE IDENTICAL WINGED ANDROGYNES WITH DUAL GENITALIA AND THEY ARE ALWAYS POSITIONED ALMOST PERFECTLY SYMMETRICALLY IN THE TALL PANELS SO THAT THEY MIGHT BE MIRROR IMAGES OF EACH OTHER, EXCEPT IN THE PANELS WHERE THEY PHYSICALLY INTERLOCK. THE HORIZONTAL HISTORICAL PANELS COULD MAYBE BE DONE WITH A DUOTONE BOARD OR SOMETHING, TO DIFFERENTIATE THEIR RUGGED HISTORY IN FEEL FROM THE ETHEREAL PANELS WITH THE WINGED, ANGELIC HERMAPHRODITES AT PLAY. IMAGINE IT IN A SORT OF E.C. DOCUMENTARY STYLE, ALTHOUGH RENDERED BY ONE OF THEIR MORE EXPERIMENTAL ARTISTS, LIKE KRIGSTEIN OR SOMEBODY. SEE WHAT YOU THINK, ANYWAY, AND I'LL OBVIOUSLY LEAVE THE FINAL STYLISTIC DECISIONS IN YOUR MORE-THAN-CAPABLE HANDS. RIGHT..THIS FIRST PANEL IS A SEA BED SHOT, SHOWING TWO DOLPHINS AT PLAY. THEY ARE SWOOPING DOWN PLAYFULLY TO GRAZE THE OCEAN'S SANDY BOTTOM BEFORE SWOOPING UP AGAIN IN A GRACEFUL CURVE. THEY SWIM SO THAT ONE IS SLIGHTLY BEHIND THE OTHER, BACK TO BELLY ALTHOUGH PERHAPS NOT QUITE TOUCHING, THEIR BROAD HEADS THROWN BACK AS THEY SWOOP BY WITH THEIR BELLIES TOWARDS US, A CLOUD OF DISTURBED SEDIMENT BILLOWING UP WHERE THEY GRAZE THE OCEAN BED. THEY MIGHT BE MATING OR JUST PLAYING... WE CANNOT BE SURE, BUT ON THEIR FLAT CETACEAN FACES THEY WEAR WIDE INHUMAN SMILES, ECSTATIC IN THE DEEP-SEA TWILIGHT, SILVER BUBBLES RISING ALL AROUND. CAP. : Even preceding landfall, things loved freely once, ignoring gender. Blind desire made pond-slime fish, turned fish to apes with sex, life's glorious engine, churning in the mud. CAP. : The animals remember: Dolphins still rotate their matings between their own sex and its reverse, their raptures echoing for miles.