tori amos: “comic book tattoo”.

I always hesitate to tell people about just how much I love Tori Amos. The inevitable reaction is something along the lines of incredibly insightful comments like “she’s weird!” or “didn’t she write a song about cornflakes?”

It’s not always easy being a Tori fan. Misconceptions abound, although I think the main problem is that in a world that loves its little boxes it just hasn’t been hasn’t been able to figure out to do with someone as expectation-busting as Tori. She doesn’t fit in anywhere. The woman simply defies all limits of what we consider to be an acceptably predictable famous person. She is, in all true senses of the word, an artist. This is not only because she’s talented, not only because she has an uncompromising vision of what she’s creating, but most importantly because she doesn’t give a fuck what any of us think.

The groundbreakers, the true thought provokers, never do. Jackson Pollock, Keith Haring, Andy Warhol, Damien Hirst, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell – none of these artists could give a shit if we thought what they were doing was valid or not. They knew it was. In their blood, in their nerve endings… they fully believed that what they were creating was honest and true. And so the rest of us could either give them their due and examine what they were doing, or refuse and be left behind in their wakes. In this pantheon of great artists, I wouldn’t hesitate to include Tori.

All pics © Image Comics and their respective artists

Her fearless pursuit of new artistic horizons is being proved again with “Comic Book Tattoo”, a 480-page, foot long, full colour anthology adapting her songs into, as quoted by the book’s publisher, Image Comics, a “lush volume of sequential art”. Show me someone that doesn’t want to check out a “lush volume of sequential art”, and I’ll show you a total fool.

Some of today’s greatest graphic novelists and comic book artists have each taken one of Tori’s songs and transformed it into a visual story. The name of the collection itself comes from a lyric in her song “Flying Dutchman”, and even though I don’t know much about comics, all the comic blogs are saying that the list of contributors to the project is a who’s who of that genre. To check out the whole list, there’s a big-ass article at Comic Book Resources.

I don’t own any comics, I’ve never read any, but this whole thing has me freaking out a little with anticipation. Because, as we’ve come to expect from her, it’s just so different. Amos recently said about the growing reaction to the book, “I have been surprised, excited and pleasantly shocked by these comics that are extensions of the songs that I have loved and therefore welcome these amazing stories of pictures and words because they are uncompromisingly inspiring. It shows you thought is a powerful formidable essence and can have a breathtaking domino effect.”

C’mon! “Thought is a powerful formidable essence” – how can you not love this woman?

All pics © Image Comics and their respective artists

“Comic Book Tattoo” is being released on July 23rd, 2008. Now I’m going to have to find a comic book store near me. And I’m going to have to buy a tent. Because I will be camping out…