I drew this after a week of absorbing myself in Chris Ware's minimalist linework, and I worried at the time that I might be straying beyond homage and into theft. And then I finished and looked down at the result and laughed and laughed at what an idiot I was. Ware is a genius and makes each line with such meticulous care. I generate dogshit. There's no comparison.
Still, was striving for simplicity, to give the reader something simple to follow, in allowing for less filler in the frame. I'd give myself an A on this one. I think the joke is a good one, at least, although I'm not clear on whether anyone else would find it funny. (This is a large part of my life, if I'm honest.)
I had been listening to X-Minus one, or a similar 1950's sci fi radio anthology, and was grooving on the overacted saucer attack on a 'sector' being relayed by what seemed to be a HAM radio. Love it when those actors pour their guts out on some hack script; it always makes me wonder what their lives were like. For example, did they make a living on acting alone, or did they all have other jobs as well? Did they have houses, or were they all crammed into tiny apartments?
Anyway, here is an operator who is trying to find out what they have lined up for lunch, but has picked an awkward moment to ask because they are under devastating attack. Still, it's not stopping them from going ahead and asking.
First of all, if these are 'sectors', then they likely cover a large geographical area. Why would there be one canteen? Or, if not, why would all the canteens in all the sectors serve the same lunch? Even if they do (due to a centralized bureaucracy), that's a funny concept to me. So, either outcome is funny.
And of course, second, it's funny because this person seems oblivious to, and unaffected by, the swift and total destruction of what is now three sectors, presumably in a growing, comprehensive attack that will reach sector 9 shortly. Lunch is probably not in the cards today.
The vintage styling of the tv monitor and intercom, and the little antenna beanie seemed too-closely borrowed by Ware, but, as I've said, my version is so sloppy as the concern to be insignificant. ...I'm thinking there was a NYT feature some month's back that used an artist's diagramming that was straight from Ware's textbook, and I'm guessing that's why this concern of plagiarism is worrying me here.
It wasn't until I had published here and on Twitter that I looked down and realized I had seven panels. Seven. I remember making the "Boltzmann Brained" comic (#196), and had thought I'd somehow bent the laws of physics by fitting six panels in that one. When I realized this had seven, it was kind of like defeating the Matrix. Anything was possible.
I drew this after a week of absorbing myself in Chris Ware's minimalist linework, and I worried at the time that I might be straying beyond homage and into theft. And then I finished and looked down at the result and laughed and laughed at what an idiot I was. Ware is a genius and makes each line with such meticulous care. I generate dogshit. There's no comparison.
ReplyDeleteStill, was striving for simplicity, to give the reader something simple to follow, in allowing for less filler in the frame. I'd give myself an A on this one. I think the joke is a good one, at least, although I'm not clear on whether anyone else would find it funny. (This is a large part of my life, if I'm honest.)
I had been listening to X-Minus one, or a similar 1950's sci fi radio anthology, and was grooving on the overacted saucer attack on a 'sector' being relayed by what seemed to be a HAM radio. Love it when those actors pour their guts out on some hack script; it always makes me wonder what their lives were like. For example, did they make a living on acting alone, or did they all have other jobs as well? Did they have houses, or were they all crammed into tiny apartments?
Anyway, here is an operator who is trying to find out what they have lined up for lunch, but has picked an awkward moment to ask because they are under devastating attack. Still, it's not stopping them from going ahead and asking.
First of all, if these are 'sectors', then they likely cover a large geographical area. Why would there be one canteen? Or, if not, why would all the canteens in all the sectors serve the same lunch? Even if they do (due to a centralized bureaucracy), that's a funny concept to me. So, either outcome is funny.
And of course, second, it's funny because this person seems oblivious to, and unaffected by, the swift and total destruction of what is now three sectors, presumably in a growing, comprehensive attack that will reach sector 9 shortly. Lunch is probably not in the cards today.
The vintage styling of the tv monitor and intercom, and the little antenna beanie seemed too-closely borrowed by Ware, but, as I've said, my version is so sloppy as the concern to be insignificant. ...I'm thinking there was a NYT feature some month's back that used an artist's diagramming that was straight from Ware's textbook, and I'm guessing that's why this concern of plagiarism is worrying me here.
It wasn't until I had published here and on Twitter that I looked down and realized I had seven panels. Seven. I remember making the "Boltzmann Brained" comic (#196), and had thought I'd somehow bent the laws of physics by fitting six panels in that one. When I realized this had seven, it was kind of like defeating the Matrix. Anything was possible.