I’ve been using my sketchbook as an experimental zone recently in an attempt to get stuff out of my head and onto the page as quickly as possible, with as little anxiety as possible, yet as much freedom in expression and line as I can. Basically, I sketch and ink and try not to worry too much about the result.
Readers who’ve been with me a while will have seen my Enter/exit the Simulation post with a similar exploratory little comic.
With this new one, drawn mainly on vacation in Rehoboth, Delaware, although its conceptual genesis was a while ago, I’ve been trying to push forward on tackling more controversial, adult material. This, in part, is a growing fascination with the genre of body horror, but also because … Well, I’m not entirely sure.
Because of a growing cultural reluctance to discuss difficult topics that make us uncomfortable? Because comics are the kind of vehicle in which such concepts can be presented effectively? Because I feel nothing should be off limits, artistically? Because these concepts manifest in strange, twisted ways out of that subliminal mindspace in ways I feel compelled to exorcise through the artistic process?
I honestly don’t fully know. I’m not sure if it entirely matters, or if I even want it to matter and would rather it remain, untrammeled, in that subconscious part of my brain.
…
So, setting my odd psychology aside for now, I did try posting this odd little comic to TikTok and they were having none of it, the post being removed for violating community guidelines (and probably rightly so).
You may want none of it, either, which is why I’ve wasted a few inches of column space to hopefully hide what’s coming “below the fold,” to use an old newspaper phrase. I did post this to the Awesome Comics Podcast community Slack, and they responded thusly:
“🤮”
“Everything OK Cliff? DM me hun.”
“Look at them shine”
“Nah, that’s absolute… junk”
“Bloody brilliant cliff … It’s funny, poignant, clever and well made. It may not be gentle but it’s a million miles from offensive so that should be exactly the response it gets from any grown-up reader”
So, last warning.
Disturbing imagery and graphic male nudity start soon …
Last chance to bail …
Here we go, then.
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