Mark A. Lester

ALTERED EGO chronicles the life and mind of a struggling artist whose reality is influenced by his own creations, every thought and idea reshaping the world around him.

One of the great things about creating ALTERED EGO is that I am restrained by noting. The style of art I use can change panel by panel depending on the effect and / or the point I want to achieve. The same can be said for the genre. Because the strip takes place in both the “real world” as well as inside Mark’s head, anything can happen. And does.

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The drawing above is just one, fun example of an altered art style that appears in the AE story. A book that not only breaks the forth wall, but doesn’t even know one exists. Just one alternate version of the character of Mark.

In or minds, our fantasies, or dreams and our imaginations anything can happen. Worlds exist outside of the physical universe. Worlds made wholly of thought. One of the most amazing things about these “other worlds” is how real they can seem while we’re in them. Dreams can range from normal and ordinary to overly surreal and bizarre. Dreams can have varying natures, such as frightening, exciting, magical, melancholic, adventurous, or sexual. All the while seeming as real as every day life while you’re experiencing them. Often times we are unable to tell that even the most bizarre dream is not real until we wake up from it. How cool is that?!

Thanks for your support and encouragement. It’s what keeps me going.

How ripe is this for exploration? Especially when discussing the mind, and dreams of an artist. Someone who is more often obsessed with his imagination than he is real life? The possibilities are endless when there are no rules to follow.

Fun.

Speaking of fun … The AE app is still being tweaked and worked on. As soon as it is finished not only the app, but the strip as well, will be released. In the meantime I’m taking advantage of this wait creating pointless posts such as this one, AND getting quite far head of schedule with the art. So, time is not wasted. Just patience tested.

ALTERED EGO chronicles the life and mind of a struggling artist whose reality is influenced by his own creations, every thought and idea reshaping the world around him.

This post could better be titled as, “The Girls, Guys and Small Creatures of ALTERED EGO” but that would have been too long a title to fit. A little chopping, a little censorship and a little creative maneuvering had to be done to make it fit. Which is how the ALTERED EGO strip plays out.

Nothing is off limits when I’m creating ALTERED EGO. Not language, not nudity and not situations. We ARE inside the mind of an artist, after all. Surreal situations, fantasy, dashed hopes and desperate desires abound.

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* EDIT: The above artwork is a statement about the over sexulization of women in comics. A parody. Showing how rediculous the practice has become. You’ll have to read the story.

When I decided to begin the new adventures of AE, I knew that I wanted to take the gloves off. I didn’t want to feel confined. Not by anything. Not by art style, not by genre, not by content. I wanted to have the option to do it all. Of course I also wanted AE to have as large a potential viewership as possible. Enter the “black box”. As I write and draw, I do as I want. Characters behave and think and talk as any average “real” person would. Then those little black boxes come out and I censor my own work. Nothing big. Nothing that distracts from the story, or what’s going on. For those interested, and old enough, what is censored is obvious. It is quite easy for the mind to “fill in the blanks”. For those not interested and / or not old enough, the work stands just as entertaining. Nothing is missed.

I know there will be two schools of opposing thought on this and that no one will be happy. There will be those who feel that I shouldn’t include this “stuff” at all and those who feel I should not censor anything, even myself. No one will be happy. Whatever. I’ve tried to please everyone. It’s impossible. You end up pleasing no one. Not even yourself.

No. Nudity, sex and obscene language do not play a large roll in AE. I’d go so far as to say that they do not play ANY roll in AE. If such a moment does come along in AE it is either important to the story and / or character … or it’s funny.

Like life.

People think, say and do things they wouldn’t want advertised to the rest of the world.  This doesn’t mean we DON’T think, or do, these things, it just means that we don’t want people to KNOW we do. AE is all about the mind, and life, of an artist. The good, the bad and the ugly. The odd, twisted, lonely, confused, desperate and creative mind of a struggling artist.

It is ALTERED EGO.