“God (TM)” is not your usual comic. Sentient cappuccino machines stuck in Guardian mode, singing Min-Mei’s songs from Robotech. Robot Mormons. Intentional pixellation of corporate names & likenesses. Swear words substituted by the repeated face of the friend of the creator. In fact, it’s not so much like your usual comic as it’s like trying to watch tv while your dog chews the remote. You leave it maybe a little scattered but having watched a few things you wouldn’t normally flip to… while thinking just maybe if you had the perspective, you’d see the greater pattern to it (left incisor always pressing for channel 5, 55, or 555, for example).
Yes — not your usual comic. The title alone should make this clear. Though it’s abbreviated as “God (TM)”, the title in full reads: “God™ © 2XX8 *** ***** ****** ******* Incorporated. All rights reserved. God and all related characters, titles, names and documents are trademarks of *** ***** ****** ******* Incorporated. No similarity between any of the names, characters, persons and/or institutions in this deity with those of any living or dead person or institutions is intended and any such similarity which may exist is purely coincidental.” Sort of sets the stage, doesn’t it?
But don’t let this betray what I’m trying to say here — I love it. It’s pure dadaist fun.There does seem to be an intentional narrative to it — many pages of the story’s first part introduce the protagonist, Joeb Kim, an “ordained minister in the Sacred Order of Accounting”. But even this introduction is in a scattered order, pairing panels of Joeb’s future nervous breakdown with scenes from his mundane visit to a coffee shop. And then, it just starts to go off on its own journey; where you’re going, you have NO idea. It’s like driving through a field at night with the headlights off by your uncle that no one really knows how he’s related to you, and you’re scared you might hit something, but then you realize it’s not a car you’re in, but a helicopter, and it’s the far side of Jupiter and what’s there to hit there, anyway? Best to just enjoy the ride.
That’s possible because Elan seems to know just how far to take the randomness before returning you to something familiar. Whether that familiarity is found in returning us to the main character or teasing us with one of many present-day cultural references he’s bastardized into this new world, what matters is that Elan seems able to take the temperature of how much to meddle with the mix of surrealism to keep things both fresh and sane (more or less).
Other random points:
• It’s my favorite of his art styles to date. The style is well suited for color, but works when he’s willing to go monotone in sections, for selective (and effective) emphasis. The montage of styles in Part 3 is useful for his expository history lesson, but I look forward to seeing more of the beautifully illustrated world drawn around Joeb Kim.
• I love the voice of the unreliable narrator.
• The usage of low-resolution pixellation in the comic is a brilliant touch. I’m sure more than one person will think it’s a problem with their browser. He employs this approach on a number of corporate names and logos, and it seems to walk hand in hand with the contractually obscured nature of the comic’s title. Legally, I’m sure Elan couldn’t stretch the copyright concept of “Fair Use” far enough to use the real St*tb*cks logo in every instance he has it obscured in the comic… but artistically, why would he want to? If copyright laws don’t allow him to do it, it’s their shortcoming he’s illustrating, in their bold and clunky pixellated matrices. Elan’s work is crisp and clear in all its high resolution. By contrast, the obscured logos convey the concept of wealthy corporations, one assumes wiling and able to defend their copyrights… but just as likely seen as cheap, as if not having paid full price for speedy bandwidth. It also give a sense of mystery to these entities, especially for the ones not legible at all (at least yet) — what’s behind the veil of squares?
All in all, it’s a hell of a start, and having heard hints of where he’ll be taking it, I can’t wait to read rest. The first three parts are online now, and more will come.
For part four, I’m expecting to get angry letters.
Sort of a response to your review -
http://theoryofeverythingcomics.com/2009/05/godtm-because-its-115-in-morning-and-i.html