21 July, 2008

Hey hey, so exciting news!: the print version of "Pumpkin Patch Horror" has been selected by the IPRC to be October's ZINE OF THE MONTH! Thanks, IPRC!

If you would like a copy of this zine, you can buy it for cheap at Tender Loving Empire, Floating World Comics, or if you don't live in PDX you can email me and I'll send you one. Or you can check it out from the IPRC's zine library!

16 July, 2008

I would like to extend my thanks to B. Shur and Etch Coli for the beautiful guest cartoons.

Here's an interesting topic for your consideration: a few years ago some people made a horror movie that, as I understand it, more or less showcased an excruciating sequence of staged atrocities. It caused a stir when Roger Ebert gave it a rare zero-star rating along with a review in which he objected to the film's neutral, stand-offish tone toward the brutality it depicted. The filmmakers wrote a response, and Ebert responded even to that--you can read those here, if you wish. A large part of Ebert's argument was that the filmmakers had failed a moral duty as artists, and that although their film worked, it did not serve an admirable purpose.

Near the end of the nineteenth century, Oscar Wilde wrote a preface to his recently released novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, partially as a response to criticism that the novel had received. In it he says that "There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all." I think it is not too much of a leap to suggest that this idea, if it is true for books, can translate to film, or for that matter any art form, as well.

Where does this leave the artist? Does the artist have a moral obligation, or a duty of any kind, to society? If not, what ought society to do about art that is reprehensible, perhaps dangerously so, e.g. blatantly racist or sexist art, or work that is destructive to ecosystems, etc.? If so, where do we draw the lines? Where does this duty come from, and what are its implications on creative expression?

11 July, 2008

Hey dudes, I am on vacation! I might post guest comix if you send me some. Otherwise, see you Wednesday!

07 July, 2008