Creativity is a Spirit...

(Aiko's Drawing of the Armour of Light)

“Every example of genius has a tincture of our neglected madness,” read one quote in a millennial encyclopedia. We always fall in love with movies, stories or songs when they relate with ideas or events that have happened in our lives. It’s the natural way our spirits get lifted. Ask yourself why you enjoy action movies? Maybe it’s because you were born to be a stuntman or you are just energetic.

Wednesday 7th May 2008 was not only exactly one year since the first issue of The Standard – UCU’s bi-monthly Community Newspaper (where I am Editorial Cartoonist) came out but also the day ‘Ironman’ was released in the United States. I had been stalking this movie for half a year while it was still in production (watching trailers and a few clips) but up to today when I posted this blog, I must confess that even if it is already in Uganda, I have not yet watched the whole of it. [Anyway, I finally got Iron-Man, on Tuesday 15 July 2008, from my friend Bashir K. who trades Music and Video Disks somewhere on Wilson Road] What I like most about this character is that he reminds me a lot about the whole Armour of GOD described in Ephesians 6: 10-20 [Truth (Belt tight around the waist); Righteousness (Breastplate); Readiness to announce the good news of peace (Shoes); Faith (Shield); Salvation (Helmet); and the Word of GOD (Sword which the Holy Spirit gives)]. In Ironman’s case, the sword would be force fields from the palm, missiles or bullets from his arm.

In September 2001, I had an idea to produce a comic about GOD’s armour entitled “Armour of Light: Ironclad” (though I made the first drawing copying a Batman image without the sharp ends above the head but a modified helmet on 7 November 2001. I re-drew it on Saturday 19th April 2003)…My comic would feature a man called Michael, actually the arch-angel in human form just like Jesus came to earth in human form, wrestling for humans against Lucifer’s snares. He would announce (as the Trumpeter) the return of Jesus on the Last Day of this Age...My first seven episodes would be: The Devil Must Die, Introducing the Armour of Light, Runaway Devil, Soul of an Angel, The Good Fight, Lucifer and Judgement Day.

Unfortunately somehow I never developed my project fast enough, and wrote the plot only on Valentines’ Day 2007. But there is a saying that “dreams come true”, (if we keep dreaming). Macos Old Boy Simon Wamahe once told me that you may have an idea but if you do not work on it, the spirit of the idea will depart from you and influence another creative mind. UCU Alumni Jude Muyanja also told me, “You dream and other people bring your dreams to life.” That’s very true because I did not know about this Ironman character but thanks to Jon Favreau and the artists at Industrial Light & Magic, the film’s vision is almost like mine (No wonder I also love Vin Diesel’s 1995 ‘Iron Giant’). Even though I noticed the similarities between AL:I and Ironman as late as 2007, I was very happy and YouTubed a soundtrack by Apologetix for the animated version of Ironman. This song was just another rendition of Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” Oscar-winning Song. It highlighted the spiritual theme of this super-hero epic. I love heroes whose transition powers are believable and seem GOD-sent possibilities like Ironman, Batman, Fantastic Four and maybe Spiderman to some extent.

“Life sucks but the only way we can come out on top is to get our robes (like Wonder Woman), go out into the world and be heroes, using the extra-ordinary talents GOD gave each one of us…” The Psycho said so (though he borrowed the idea from a Nelly Furtado song). Despite tampering with the plot a little (The cartoon had villains from the Far East while the movie has villains from Afghanistan), I guess the whole film is a masterpiece. I was very excited when only after one month, MTV voted ‘Ironman’ as the Best Movie of the Summer 2008 So Far…Wow, check it out tonight!