Big update in the Steven Grant’s My Flesh is Cool section today — a sampling of the powerful, moody interior artwork of Sebastian Fiumara, plus an essay from Grant about the development of the series. A sampling:
I’m not sure how far back to trace the evolution of MY FLESH IS COOL. Certainly it goes back at least as far as 1978, when I heard the British rock band Ultravox sing “Artificial Life,” containing the following verse:
“So we drink and sink and talk and stalk
with interchangeable enemies and friends
trying on each other’s skins
while we dying to be born again”
That image always stuck with me. The band used it metaphorically; I made the jump to a literal interpretation. That’s the “line between the dots” thing I was talking about. It took years, but the idea slowly formed and festered in my head and became something else: what if you could jump into someone else’s body, do whatever you wanted, then leave without a trace and without any risk of blame or punishment for what you did there, because no one would ever know it was you and not the person whose body you wore? (…more in the My Flesh is Cool section)