Jasper's recent wise comments on art have me thinking.

[matt_zimmer]

I don't precisely view The Un-Iverse as art. I see it more as literature.

Am I wrong?

Yes, books and prose are art, but I don't have the possessiveness over the project's integrity most artists do for their art. I take the work seriously, I have firm lines I will and will not cross in both telling and producing the story, but I'm the guy who doesn't want anyone to think comic books and fandom are deeper than they are. My artistic truth and integrity can be boiled down to Gilda sending Augatha a box of giant underwear that she apparently made Meek fart into every pair.

I love theories. I love searching for deeper meanings and truth. But box of smelly underwear is the essence of the saga for me. The ambiguous mysteries and pathos are gravy to that. The Narrator worried about the amount of sexual power Gilda would hold over Meek if they were a couple is the actual reason I do this.

I don't call The Un-Iverse a graphic novel or even a webcomic. It's a comic book plain and simple. I am more comfortable with the term funnybook for it rather than those first two terms as well.

When it comes to how I create the project I am FILLED to the brim with integrity. As far as integrity and the reader is concerned? Don't overthink things. Augatha's underwear won't fart into itself.

Comments

[jasperhansen]

The distinction makes sense to me but I wouldn't define 'art' as anything excluding the Un-iverse or literature broadly. I'm not the guy who's gonna use that word based on how something is meant to be read. Art is harmonious contradiction and beyond that has no clear definition to me, so on some level the Un-iverse's presentation is what makes it artful

[matt_zimmer]

Beautifully put. I love that.

[jasonderoga86]

Jasper's words ring true. And I love the character designs and overall art style of The Un-Iverse -- it gives off an awesome vibe of authenticity proving that a story (or in this case, a comic book) can both have super-cute looking characters and a deep overall theme expressed with unashamed maturity. It reminds me of some animated "kiddie" films I saw as a child that had serious themes in the background, displayed in a way that clearly communicates those themes while being non-traumatizing.

[matt_zimmer]

There's definitely some traumatizing stuff in The Un-Iverse. It's the mixture of that and the hopefulness that interests me.

[jasperhansen]

As a kid I was always into the mixture of friendliness and hopelessness. I like your mixture better as an adult though.

[matt_zimmer]

I think good drama sorely needs both. The problem with modern projects is they believe they ONLY need the traumatic stuff for the drama to land properly. They are wrong. Good things gives the correct context to why the bad things are actually bad. Nihilism isn't actual drama.

I'm convinced the reason George R.R. Martin writes the tragic stuff he does isn't because he believes that's what makes good drama. He simply isn't talented enough to write his heroes out of the fixes he puts them in. The dude has absolutely no sense of narrative foresight. It's amazing his fans haven't realized this about him yet.