Thread: Win! Molly Crabapple's Book

Win a signed copy of Molly's long awaited book - 'Scarlett Takes Manhattan'.

All you have to do is design and describe in one paragraph: if time, money, training (and the laws of physics) were no restriction - what would be your dream act...?

The most entertaining and innovative answer will win a copy signed by the gorgeous and massively talented Molly herself! You have 3 days starting NOW!

Post your answers in to the thread

About the book:

Fugu Press presents..

Scarlett Takes Manhattan
Illustrated by Molly Crabapple

Written by John Leavitt

Lettered by Chris Lowrance

Designed by Nicola Black


For adults only
$12.95

Scarlett Takes Manhattan: Electronic Press Kit

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Scarlett-Takes-Manhattan-Molly-Crabapple/dp/0982340907"]Amazon.com: Scarlett Takes Manhattan (9780982340905): Molly Crabapple, John Leavitt: Books[/ame]

Scarlett O'Herring: Dancer, fire-breather, courtesan, and the star of Molly Crabapple's first graphic novel from Fugu Press.

Written by long-time collaborator John Leavitt, "Scarlett" follows the rise of Miss O'Herring from tragedy (her mother crushed by copulating circus elephants) through her grand entrance on the stage (accidental and sans costume) to her triumph as the fire-breathing queen of burlesque. It's a sexy, decadent romp through the slums and palaces of New York's Gilded Age.

Scarlett Takes Manhattan brings to life a character from Molly and John's long-running web comic "Backstage" from the collective Act-i-vate.
As Molly says, "It has Tammany Hall and bad politics and early-lesbian culture in it. And it's very dirty."

Quotes

Molly Crabapple is THE artist of our time. I am desperately in love with her vision, her world, her characters, her art—and I want to live there!
— Margaret Cho

With its tongue in several cheeks at once, Scarlett overheats the Victorian erotic memoir into a madly funny firepit of debauchery. Disgustingly wonderful.
— Warren Ellis, author of Crooked Little Vein, Transmetropolitan, etc.

If we look below Molly Crabapple's exuberant colours and pretty, sensuous linework, at its heart Scarlett Takes Manhattan is pure punk: ebullient, bawdy, irreverent and libertine.
— Bryan Talbot, writer/artist of Grandville

Scarlett Takes Manhattan is erotically charged, funny, imaginative and stylishly antiquarian. It makes me want to climb inside the pages and close the book behind me forever.
— Trav S.D., author of No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book that Made Vaudeville Famous

What can a pair of retro-eyed hipsters do with our long-hidden, nasty, turn-of-the-century world of popular entertainment and its wondrously depraved political environs? Well, they could have concocted some limp-legged fantasy novel with Dickensian touches and 19th-century slang. But that's not what Molly Crabapple and John Leavitt's approach: they have created an outré graphic novel series about a saucy waif vamping her way through the stagedoors of the Big City vaudeville scene. Their Scarlett Takes Manhattan nods knowingly to the phantasmagoria and transsexualities of The Yellow Kid, Winsor McCay, Little Anny Fanny, and R. Crumb. It is an erotic and historical visual hoot. We can only hope that their twisted storytelling and nipple-bearing characters continue to appear in print form. Get it before the cartoon censors lower the curtain on their orgasmic heroine or it manifests itself in Off-Off-Off Broadway production.
— Mel Gordon, author of Voluptuous Panic: The Erotic World of Weimar Berlin

WARNING

Warning: This is an Old Thread This discussion is older than 60 days. information contained in it may no longer be current

Laws of physics I can live within but as I dance like the archtypal "your dad" and have been known to maim bystanders with flailing limbs and psychologically scar them with sheer horror you may have to suspend the laws of good taste instead. With that caveat a quick dream performances:

The "We all know it's sublimation" burlesque:

Enter stage right - stereotypical far right bigot (shaved head, England t-shirt, Harrington jacket). Enter stage left - stereotypical mad mulla (big beard, robe the works). See each other. Wave placards. Wave fists. A punch is thrown. Then another One grabs the other round the neck. The other grabs a hand. Suddenly they stop, gaze deeply in each other eyes and slightly adjust their hands for a quick tango. The part. The (now ex) biggot grabs a topper and tails drop out of the back of his jacket. The mad mullah opens his robes to reveal a wedding dress and they both exit stage centre arm in arm to the strains of the wedding march.

Salacia - performed with minimal gravity!!!!

On stage: A string quartet. They play a re-arranged version of Follow The Map by Mono.

Defying the laws of gravity, I'd enter from above, dropping slowly to the stage as if on a wire.

Costume: Lengths of billowing silks and chiffons in deep green, midnight blue and turquoise. Akin to a dress, but as the fabric's always moving, it's a bit difficult to make out the precise shape of the costume.
Hair: Waist length, rich brown, in perfectly round, soft ringlets.

Act: Playing with the theme of the sea, the act is predominantly dance-based, focusing upon the shapes and imagery created by the marrying of lush costuming, ballet-based movements and zero-G (or should that be nearly zero-G? I wouldn't want to be completely out of control...). The act finishes with a reverse confetti drop - millions of sparkly silver pieces falling from the ground up to the ceiling. I float upwards with the confetti, leaving only a few bubbles behind.

Inspiration:
- The album artwork for Mono's Hymn To The Immortal Wind
- My long-standing desire to encorporate use of a wire into a burlesque act
- A beautiful act I saw as part of a fashion show at The Clothes Show Live about 10 years ago
- My love of live classical music
- Angie Pontani's Burlesque Hall of Fame 09 Farewell Performance (available on YouTube)
- My dislike-come-fear of snorkelling and scubadiving!

--

I do adore Molly Crabapple and can't wait to get my hands on this novel!

I’ve written burlesque routines into some of my stories – mostly credible ones that could be budgeted –1/. if budget was no limit a swimming pool with a glass viewing window for the audience would be something I’d like to see – girl falls in pool, floaty dress rising to reveal detail, items slowly peeled away etc, -
2/. Balloon dance with a difference – girls in a hot air balloon within the stage arena, having to throw everything over the side to gain height, eventually including their clothes

Hey that was the same question Gala Darling used to give away this book!

I would like lots and lots of magic. And faeries. To be able to change costumes in a click, make things appear and disappear, fly, put people under spells...woo it'd be fantastic!

Originally Posted by Tiara The Merch Girl

Hey that was the same question Gala Darling used to give away this book!

I would like lots and lots of magic. And faeries. To be able to change costumes in a click, make things appear and disappear, fly, put people under spells...woo it'd be fantastic!

As a routine? Or, would you just like this in general?

As a routine...ooo it can be a fairyland one! where i use a ritual to summon dancing faeries and we all do a routine that they have taught me. And we all fly around and give everyone magic sparkles that makes them happy. And when they leave the room everyone gets really good luck for a week.

Take it I've missed the deadline. But it would be an ode to Lay Hamilton.
A ship sailing onto the stage (1/2 size scale of the Victory...well you did say no rules). The ship slowly vanishes into mist, a part at at a time until only the figurehead remains. The figurehead slowly begins to move into the classical poses, each balletic movement revealing more and more. Before a shot rings out and the figurehead sinks into a onstage tank.

Very very different to my normal stuff so would require a time travel machine to give me time to learn Ballet as well :-)

But love Beatrixs idea. Quick - someone invent a low gravity theatre.

Something with lasers would be good too - a Star Trek / Star Wars spoof appeals to the geek in me

Wow, thanks so much for all the creativity. It's a hard choice, but I love EvilDrNeil's clever and subversive idea. Email me at molly@drsketchy.com and I'll hook you u with a book.

To answer Tiara's observation, I did ask the same question on Gala's forum. For me, it's fascinating hearing dream vaudeville acts.