Talkback for Gilda And Meek And The Un-Iverse! Read an issue and discuss it here!
TWO Articles below!
THE MULTIVERSE IS OVERPLAYED IN POPULAR CULTURE. WHY DRAG GILDA AND MEEK INTO IT? First of all, the significance of the Multiverse in The Un-Iverse was decided on LONG before the MCU and DCEU ran it into the ground. It is in fact one of THE most central themes of everything.
Regardless of the fact of the concept turning into a total assfire everywhere else, should I rethink THE central theme of The Un-Iverse just because the notion has gotten unpopular and poorly regarded?
Other creators might do that, but I don't dictate the story based on what is popular.
But still, the idea could weaken and overly complicate things in a franchise where it is TOTALLY unnecessary (to the layman, at least). There is a single continuity for The Un-Iverse, and it's not like we can have awesome explosive crossovers based on different beloved iterations of the characters. Only one actually exists. So why do it?
Well, aside from being able to map differences between a Lucky Universe, and ones that AREN'T inherently lucky, I suppose the thing that makes it the right decision for the story is I use the idea for an entirely different reason than comic books and science fiction. Yeah, we'll get around to seeing bizarre Universes where Gilda and Meek are evil, or even grosser, MARRIED to each other, but that's window dressing. Fun to explore the premise, but not the reason the premise exists.
The premise exists to tie OUR Universe to The Un-Iverse.
The Multiverse in Gilda And Meek is a LOT bigger in scope than Marvel or DC's, which tend to believe each Universe is changed by various different decisions. Regardless of Earths in DC during the first Crisis being supposedly Infinite, they actually aren't if that's the only thing that changes from Universe to Universe. For The Un-Iverse, the Infinite is FAR broader in scope.
As the mysterious Beautiful Woman explains to Gilda in the short prose story "A Foot In The Door":
"Gilda, my child, you think too small. You assume decisions are binary, or that they are all in your control. A Universe isn't merely created whether or not you decide to brush your teeth. If you brush your teeth a Universe is created where you brushed for 30 seconds, one where you did for 17 seconds, and another a full minute. Some Universes you brushed hard, some you brushed fast. But every brush stroke you took created an infinite number of Universes from that, some of whose differences boil down to your toothbrush having two fewer atomic units of toothpaste from the other, or brushing a millionth of a millimeter to the left. Infinite Universes are created not just from your decisions, not just everyone else's decisions, but every being in the entire galaxy and galaxies of galaxies' decisions. An amoeba splits, a Universe is made, as are infinite versions where it went down slightly differently. You want proof for the existence of God? Just the fact that it is possible that there is a Universe out there created by an intelligent design means it happened somewhere. And if there is a God looking out for one Universe, there is probably a Mega God out there taking it upon Himself to look out for ALL Universes, even the ones He Himself didn't create. The fact that God COULD exist, means He does. And yes, somewhere out there the Flying Spaghetti Monster is very, very real. Fear him. He is still more plausible than Scientology."
--The Beautiful Woman, A Foot In The Door.
New Universes aren't just created by split binary decisions. Universes explode in infinite directions based on toothpaste molecules. Maybe because other Multiverse stuff has a lot of big crossover shit to excite their readers with, they can't really get down into the mindblowing nitty-gritty like I do here.
The way the non-binary rules of The Un-Iverse work means that if it's POSSIBLE to have happened ANYWHERE, it DID happen somewhere. The Beautiful Woman nonchalantly just proved the fact that God exists in this story, and I want the reader to question if that logic would actually work for OUR Universe too. That's an open question.
What isn't is the fact that the non-binaryness of the Infinite in the story suggests that if ANYTHING could happen, and if that goes for OUR Universe too, that means The Un-Iverse is actually real far out there in a Multiverse we cannot fathom. As is potentially every fictional story. Or even every widely debated belief system. The Un-Iverse's Multiverse doesn't simply make a bunch of different interpretations of Gilda And Meek canon with each other. It makes the story canon with every single thing in our Universe that ever was or ever will be.
Also it suggests when the Multiverse is at risk in a Gilda And Meek story, WE are at risk too, and have a personal stake in the story. If Gilda And Meek don't save the day, the Reader could potentially die or cease to exist. Ever see Marvel and DC do that? No? That's why it's still a thing in The Un-Iverse. Because nobody is thinking through how cool the hard sci-fi is and are more interested in cashing out huge paychecks to legacy actors who viewers haven't seen in their famous roles in years. Not a shabby use of the premise of all, but I'd argue since that appears to be the ONLY use of the premise so far (outside of the excellent Everything Everywhere All At Once) it's still not using the premise to its fullest.
I look at the infinite Marvel and DC have tapped into, and they seem more interested in appealing to long-time fans with famous crossovers instead of exploring the hard sci-fi, and yes, FANTASY elements baked into the premise. So even IF The Multiverse is played out elsewhere, my take is still singularly unique (at least so far). I still have the entire field of this wild idea to myself (for the time being). I might not always.
STATUS UPDATE FOR GILDA AND MEEK "ENTER TORK" SPECIAL EDITION I said last week if the Special Edition to "Enter Tork" didn't hit the site this week something will have gone very wrong.
I was wrong. Something went very RIGHT instead. I absolutely LOVE the artwork. I am only unsatisfied with TWO pictures out of the 28 pages I've drawn so far (and one is weirdly the cover). I am SO excited I HAVE managed to step up my artistic game RIGHT before The Dark Child Saga: The Fall Of F.I.S.H. and The Terran Wars, but it is a total relief to me I did.
I'm gonna take my time to get the rest of the artwork right (perfection IS something I am going to strive for in The Terran Wars, and it would be good to attempt it earlier in a less taxing issue) including redoing the cover and fixing the one panel I don't like.
Gimme another week or two, all right? I promise it will be worth it.