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The Eyes of MIDI was one of a few comic projects that arose out of a
host of injokes between myself and high school partner in crime Andrew
McGinty. This one was interesting in that we simply took turns in
writing it - Andrew began by drawing a page; he passed it to me, I liked
it, and drew another page back. This back-and-forth continued
through twenty-one chapters, when the comic expired from an absence of
plot. It was a lot of fun, though.
The story, set up brilliantly by Andrew in Chapter One (Everlargo), concerns two students modeled and named after Andrew and Myself. One day in MIDI keyboard class, they try to stave off the boredom of learning Dvorak's "Largo" (from the "New World" symphony) by eating some Altoids. Unfortunately, these Altoids have been mysteriously replaced by No-Doz pills, and the two heroes are sucked into a strange alternate world in which Dvorak is an evil tyrant bent on their destruction. In their efforts to escape the mad composer and his "ungodly music," the boys run into representations of various song lyrics, who either help or hinder them on their way. References to the Beatles dominate, although our favorite alt-rock acts get in on the game as well - the Smashing Pumpkins and the Foo Fighters contribute significant chunks of the plot. (Hey, it was 1997!) I've always felt that the following dialogue (written by Andrew) pretty much encapsulates the injokey fun of this little series: Andrew: The long and winding road will take us to Norwegian Wood, west of the Black Country. Addison: I've got a feeling that it's Two of Us going Nowhere, just like Nowhere Man, the guru of keyboardists! Andrew: Then LET IT BE. In the madcap rush to pursue more inside jokes, our heroes got thrust into a variety of ridiculous situations, none of which were ever fully realized or treated with any manner of seriousness. In the end, the series quietly trailed off and we moved on to other things. But it was all fun while it lasted. |
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TTEOM's cover art, being the most presentable thing, visually speaking, to arise from this piece of work. From left to right: (top row) Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds, The Man on the Flaming Pie, Robert Glor, David Grohl, the Sun King; (middle row) The Blue Meanie, Andrew McGinty, Addison Godel, Bill E. Corgan; (bottom row) Mean Mister Mustard, Rocky Racoon, Dvorak, Largo, Nowhere Man. |
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