Dave Sim and Jim Davis, a contrast and analysis
Graphic novels? What’s so graphic about ’em, do they got tits or what
I have recently watched 2017 internet phenoma “lasagnecat”, a satirical video series about Garfield and it’s creator Jim Davis, the masterpiece of which being, a one hour review of a hired actor overanalysing a comic strip. It’s unironically very good. In the same sense as the Redlettermedia Mr. Plinket character of Star Wars fame was a kind of ritual self humiliation to engage in critique, to critique the critic - so in turn is lasagnecat not really a critique of the supposed pretentiousness or “unfunnyness” of Jim Davis, but a critique of themselves, of the critic and the audience, and the critic’s audience.
I have also recently familiarised myself with cult classic weirdo outsider artist comic book series “Cerebus the Aardvark” by one Dave Sim.
Both Garfield the cat and Cerebus the Aardvark are anthropomorphic animals who are selfish, mean and rude, and who’se character flaws are played for laughs. Cerebus is a longform epic narrative that interludes deconstructive, ironic commentary on other comic books, ending up writing entire manifestos about politics, God, Women, Sex and other Big Important Things. Garfield the cat is a three panel comic strip about a snarky cat who hates mondays and likes lasagne, that’s been rewriting the same barely bad jokes for 40 years, making Jim Davis a Billionaire.
Garfield is a better and more sincere work with higher artistic value.
Jim Davis knows exactly what he is. He is a sleezy used car salesman who lucked into a money printing machine. He has open indifference to his art and contempt for his audience, he doesnt give a shit, and doesnt pretend to be anything more than what he is. A sleezy fat boomer. A picture of the true american dream; lucking into a comfortable sweet gig that pays a ridiculous amount, and then just sort of playing along with it and not rocking the boat too much and not stopping the gravy train. “These fucking idiots want a fat cat making passive aggressive comments? Then I’ll give them the fat cat making passive aggressive snark, for 40 years. Thank you for the one billion dollars.“
Dave Sim is a pretentious hippie nerd who is overly impressed with his pedestrian observations on theology, sucking his own dick because he’s read half a book once and has done a lot of acid. He is a ”dude weed lmao” failed seducer, a man born too early to be a red pill blogger and monetise being a vapid provocateur and talking about his penis in public while thinking coming on to teens makes him look cool, with a ridiculous inflated sense of his own artistic potential. He draws good and he’s very good at structuring comics. Very good at Panelling. And he’s a good businessman, the whole self publishing thing is extremely impressive for the time and circumstances. I think he’s a shining beacon of hope in regards to things like copyright and his general approach to rights, distribution and monetization. I would maybe even call him a hero in this regard.
He’s a fucking horrendous writer and artist though. Cerebus is the worst comic book I’ve ever read. I was hearing good things about it and had it recommended as being unique and ”weird :^)” and this high point of potential showing that the genre can be “more than just video games”, etc, but it’s all just homestuck or CTRL+ALT+DEL webcomic level. I was very disappointed with it.
The notoriety Dave earned in his time was being supposedly a “misogynist”. 80’s era gender war stuff. anti feminism blah blah blah, you know the drill. the same thing you’ve seen repeat a million times in the last ten years, in all media, on every platform. I am sad to report that this is in fact not the case. Dave Sim is not a misogynist. If he were, he could have made something of genuine value.
Every single artistic choice made is wrong, and self indulgent, and counter to the higher potential of his technical craft – which is admittedly there. He is his own worst enemy and drags his own work through the mud, by filling it with overwritten pedestrian observations, no better than the marvel super heroes and Neil Gaiman comics he ”parodies”. Neil Gaiman is, of course, even worse. A million times worse. Let it be stated for the record that I hate Neil Gaiman, he is a hack. Neil Gaiman is probably one of the worst people in the world currently drawing breath, although not quite in the same class as Joss Whedon. But I digress.
Dave Sim’s creative attitude is youtube irony phenomenon ”lasangacat” played straight, with absolutely no self awareness. It’s the product of a psychedelic loser with no genuine insight or interesting perspective, it’s literally all just stereotypical acidhead primitive perspectivism bullshit. The insights you have on acid are not really actually intellectual insights – it is a simulation of intellectual insight, created by turning you retarded and tricking you into chemically reacting to everyday observations with the chemical response you are evolutionarily designed to get from solving a difficult puzzle.
As the series progresses Dave Sim incorporates not one, but several author self inserts, until eventually just actively speaking, as the author, to the main character in the story. But it amounts to nothing and the ”wow cool meta” effect is a sleight of hand to hide that he is a horrendous, horrendous writer, and has to speak directly to his main character, and tell him what his character arc should be, and literally convince him in an argument, convince him with facts and logic, to change his mind and character, because he can’t just write it, as a natural response to the plot. Because he cant write it naturally and make it flow organically, and has to brute force the story. Because he broke his brain doing acid and, I presume, trying to fuck sluts, and comic book floosies, getting artist pussy. And ruining his marriage.
Half of the comic is just pathetic coping about divorcing his wife, translated into Cerebus cringing and whining for a girl, who the god-voice of Dave Sims later has to explain to him(self) (Copingly) “you wouldn’t have been happy together anyways actually”. Deus ex machina? Wow never seen that before. comics are real art now.
Quick writing advice: If you formally insert yourself (the author) into the story as a character, that is not cool and clever and humanizing, it is turning yourself into a God and extremely arrogant. Looking at you Stephen King. Fucking quit it you nerd.
The notoriety of the series is that it’s starts as a parody of Conan the barbarian and then gradually becomes this manifesto on religion and politics and sex and women, and it’s all just, shit. Barely thought out, childish, primitive, self indulgent, pointless nonsense, that has significance only to the author himself, and to the audience only insofar as they sympathise with the author. It only seems like having any worth at all to the audience, because the audience, the comic book audience, the audience it is written for, are mouth breathers who have never read a book without pictures in their lives.
If you want transformative art, if you want something higher and noble that soothes the soul, here’s my advice: read high art. Read noble art. Try grapping some russian literature, very easy obvious starting point. I just have to say ”russian literature” and you already know what I mean. DO NOT attempt to find some kind of ”mainstream media” thing that has ”hidden layers” and ”secret substance”. Don’t try to find some anime with ”hidden profound meaning”. Don’t try to find the Secret Meaning of [Marvel Super Hero Movie]. Don’t try to find something ennobling to the human spirit in you analysis of Star Wars. Just fucking read a book. Russian literature, go, you don’t have to learn anything you don’t have to study it you don’t have to have context you dont have to think about it go go go russian literature read the idiot read crime and punishment read notes from the underground. Just go. Before it’s too late. Go now. Stop wasting your time reading my pervert sex blog and just go. Go. Go. Go.
There is no such thing. There is no such thing as, finding the profound in the midst of the vulgar. It’s a spook. It doesnt real. It no there. No such thing. We made it up. Not this time. You got tricked.
There is no such thing. “mainstream media”, “mainstream culture”, these things are very recent innovations in human history. This concept did not exist before the last 200 years, arguably as little as 100. It is not the norm. There is no value there. It’s a trick. they tricked you. There is no value in the middle. it’s trash. it’s lowest common denominator - it’s explicitly aiming to be trash. what you want, the good stuff, is things that aim and fail to be, any good at all.
IT’S BAD ON PURPOSE TO MAKE YOU CLICK. Sound familiar? This wasn’t invented with the internet.
There is a great deal of anxiety, culturally, in the 21th century, of appearing insincere, of being a poser, of being ”pretentious”. The anxiety is such that we are unsure even as to what amounts to pretentiousness. Luckily, I’m here to clear things up.
Reading russian literature, reading don Quixote, reading old books, NO MATTER WHAT REASON you do so, EVEN IF YOU DO IT ONLY BECAUSE YOU WANT TO APPEAR COOL AND WISE AND HAVE SEX, is LESS PRETENTIUS, than trying to find the Profound within the Profane.
Deliberately setting out to be a poser and a larper, deliberately going out of your way to insincerely pretend to be more intelligent and profound than you are - is LESS pretentious, than trying to find the profound within the profane.
Finding the profound within the profane is a post-modern obsession, for reasons I’ve discussed elsewhere.
The reason Cerebus is so offensive to the sensibilities is that Dave Sims knows all this. The process he underwent in his life, alongside running his own company and becoming a self made man outsider artist, involved spiritual awakening and genuine personal growth. At the crucial point of choice, the leap of faith, in giving up on his stupid irony parody comic book that’s very clearly an expression of his own ”worst desires”, ”worst aspects” - the titular cerebus is a vulgar, violent, cruel murderer and rapist whose stuck in a rut of feeling sorry for himself and is a self destructive hermaphrodite who underwent a hysterectomy – wow so copmlex and genuine wow someone call a psychoanalyst I can’t do this one on my own, someone call zizek and lacan please I need help I need backup help hlep me zizek send backup I need exfil
Anyways the reason it’s so bad is because Sim insists on staying within the framework of the comic book – no amount of meta narrative drawing himself drawing the comic strips excuses this. He is refusing to break with it and just, write the fucking manifesto he actually wanted to write. “MY EX WIFE IS A B ITCH AND I LOVE HER HATE BITHC FUCK”, something, anything. There’s nothing honest there, and his pursuit of anything noble is deliberately obscured by his own framework.
Everything that is noble about him and his pursuit of truth, is dragged through the mud of vulgarity, because he has a chip on his shoulder about proving that ”comic books” can be ”art too”. When talking about God in his comic book, his comic book takes precedence. His comic book is more important to him, even as he’s discussing the deepest questions of the universe and existence.
Dave Sim’s leap of faith was the choice between doing his most sincere introspection and trying to atone with God to find peace of mind, moral awakening and personal transformation, by just making it sincere, writing the schizo manifesto he feels in his heart about his stupid bitch ex wife, or - he could try making a point about the artistic potential of drawing pictures next to the words, flustering because he’s upset about his stupid bitch ex wife and not aligning his work with his being, and becoming a minor cult classic outsider artist who made something a bit weird, of zero artistic value. Because he wasn’t focused and wasn’t following his heart.
Now take Jim Davis. He doesn’t give a single shit about Garfield. He’s like a fat autistic american money buddha. I love him. ahahaha the cat is fat. delightful
finding the profound in the midst of the vulgar is basically how i justify the wasting of my time and mind, so it is good that you are calling it out.
Kanye West was an art school dropout. When asked about why he quit, he said that he would spend days drawing something and people would spend maybe 5 seconds looking at it, go "that's cool," and move on. But when he mixed a good track, people would listen to it all night long. That's when he decided to switch life pursuits.
I am haunted by this.
If you want to impact the world, long rambling diatribes like what you and I write will get read by maybe a few thousand people if we are lucky. But a meme or a dope track becomes the collective consciousness. I used to think the answer was to turn my ideas into memes. But by its nature, a meme is incapable of engaging at the level that a post does, so I found myself writing long diatribes to explain them, which is even more useless than just writing a damn post.
Another thing: I write pop culture critiques because my parents wouldn't buy me "trash" like comics or sci-fi/fantasy novels, but a library card was okay. So I checked out all the comic book encyclopedias and academic deconstructions of Batman, Conan, Harlan Ellison, etc. I could. I rooted for the side that said this stuff was legit art and cheered when they finally put "The Dark Knight Returns" on the library shelf. Nowadays, all urban public libraries have at least two shelves devoted to graphic novels: one for teens, and one for grown-ups.
But I'm realizing too late that this isn't a victory for literacy or art at all, it's a decline. The other day I saw a little girl with her family, a thick book in her hands. She reminded me of my wife who used to bring David Eddings books to family functions. Except instead of a fantasy book she was reading the best-selling manga series, "One Piece".
Both works are schlock. They have equally preposterous premises and aren't "serious art". But one requires more intellectual work and offers greater psychological depth by nature of the fact that you can get far more across in 300 pages of text than you can in 300 pages of captioned pictures.
I wonder whether that girl will put the comics away at some point and uplevel her reading materials like my wife eventually did, or whether she's going to go on reading cartoons her whole life the way I mostly consume cultural critiques.
Either way, the world definitely feels like a less literate place than it once was.