A link to the creative comic genius of Cal Rhodes of Telluride, Colorado

www.savepilgrims.com

 
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posted by Unknown at 1:57 PM

 

Calvin, We Never Knew Ya

The online comic Cal Rhodes may be a genius, but never let him near your office phone

By Douglas McDaniel
Mythville MetaMedia

Maybe you have had the good fortune and bad luck to run into someone like Cal Rhodes. Maybe you have just met someone like him. You know the type, if you get around enough in the world. He's a total slob. When he speaks, it's a wild and rambling monologue that is certainly funny, but you never quite get what he's getting at.



And then, that day comes, much later, after his infectious viral code clicks in. Suddenly, you get it. Well, that suddenly has come.


Mr. Rhodes is actually too good for this world, and he knows it. Really, that's part of the problem. The artist, photographer, filmmaker and flim-flam man who is the comic wizard behind the online strip Savage Pilgrims is simply too sane. It's the rest of the world that's insane.



Now that his Savage Pilgrims project, a year-long odyssey stemming from his adventures in Telluride, Colorado and points inbetween (a lot of points inbetween), Rhodes is living proof of one of the leading principles of Mythappropriation: Although it may not be apparent, everything is in order.



Certainly, his comic strip consisting of the many characters that he has been able to draw into his misshapen circle in Telluride is proof enough of his creative genius. It's strange and whimsical and viscerally entertaining to browse through, if perhaps a little slow to load on your computer screen. He's no techie. Although, after a year of this, maybe even that is starting to change.


Certainly, when it comes to how he goes about his day, it's clear that his reality in real space is part of the performance. Rhodes dresses like a scarecrow in leather pants and an off-kilter baseball cap and oddly colored shirts that really need washing. But if he keeps up with this, he just may find the dream he's been gunning for since, perhaps, the day he was born. That is, to save the planet by making it laugh at him.


So, my best advice in dealing with this strange soul is the following: Give him food and shelter, treat him with respect and love, but keep him at a distance. Most certainly, let him photograph you. That's how you end up in his comic strip. Even more certainly, be careful about how he uses your office phone. He's a chronic phone-a-holic. But with results like this: Maybe we should all give him a line.

Go to: Savage Pilgrims, early and often. Tell him William Blake in Cyberspace sent ya.






posted by Unknown at 3:57 AM