The character of Brian Slade (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) was modelled after David Bowie, depicted from the beginning of his career to the Ziggy Stardust phase. The famous guitar licking scene, featuring Slade and Curt Wild (Ewan McGregor; this character was inspired by Iggy Pop) is still one of the most sexually powerful scenes I’ve ever seen in a film. No wonder I started questioning the concept of gender after watching it at the cinema.
The scene was inspired to a similar routine David Bowie and Mick Ronson did on stage in the early 1970s.
Discussed with my wife that Scarecrow is probably collects clothes for himself from bodies and from other people's dryers. I also really wanted to draw something funny 'cause I feel tired 🎀
I had the idea to do this for a while to explore my hc of Jon. I draw characters out a lot first instead of write things down since that’s how I “get to know them”. Anyway, I like year one’s canon but I found it to conflict whenever I wanted to draw him with crows since he’s scared of them. But when I drew him at age 12 holding up a crow, I think I figured out a storyline.
[TW child abuse, childhood trauma, self harm]
He used to find comfort in them at first, as he considered them his only friends. Granny Keeny didn’t like that he was happy so then the events of year one followed, in which she would make the crows attack him. Because of this, what once was a source of comfort became a source of fear and trauma. I think this would further hammer in the idea of how powerful fear can be.
Later on in life he still grew up with that fear. He was scared of a lot of things. I also really like the comic that portrayed him as someone who was addicted to fear (Batman: Black and White - Fear is the Key)
Eventually, he sought to surround himself with crows and take care of them as a way to relive the traumatic event. On a surface level, it’s because he feels addicted to fear and controlling when and how it happens to him in order to study and use it to then control people the way it controls him.
On a deeper level, I think he does it to self harm, and in a strange way, to self soothe. I think here the crow is a symbol of his relationship with fear just as much as the scarecrow. In the sense that, even if something or someone has brought you feelings of hurt, trauma, and fear, they can still be comforting. Because it’s familiar, because it’s all you know. And fear is all Jon knows.
