The God That Wasn't There

I recently watched this documentary that questions whether Jesus actually existed and explores the gaps in the historical record to this effect. It had some interesting points, but could have benefited from even more exposition in the details and expanded commentary about the consequences of its conclusions.

Of similar nature is this episode of Penn & Teller’s Bullshit. I post it not only ‘cause its interesting and entertaining, but because it gives me an excuse to say that Penn sat at the table next to me at dinner in Vegas over the weekend.

I've found mythology, religion, and philosophy to be among my favorite of scholarly topics (lest people forget I studied Buddhism in college), and in a couple months I'll be posting a piece for comixpedia about their relationship to superheroes (I know, the rare interpretive piece, but with a linguistic twist!).

Digital Creation

As evidenced by my work in A Love Story and the Meditations series (like the now updated "Karuna" story), I have embraced digital tools with open arms. Though, I have some thoughts on their use, especially integrating them with line art and, shall we say, “techniques from the hand” (i.e. non-CGI produced).

Essentially, I think that digital tools should be embraced, but used in careful moderation. Often, digital graphics are extremely pristine, smooth, and uniform. Comparatively, “hand done” works are messy, imprecise, fallible, random. And I think that at least some level of inherent "mistakes" are important.

For instance, I generally can’t stand 3D CGI art in comics when its used dominatingly. I think it just looks wrong, mainly because it lacks a sense of randomness. It is too clean. Human beings make mistakes, and those mistakes are part of what make us human. Without those elements reflected in our “art,” the results seem cold and artificial (unless that’s the aim of course).

More so, on a level of theory, using a completely CGI creation lacks the cultural conventionality inherent in a “drawing style.” It is the epitome of striving for iconicity, though here at the expense of rooting graphic creation in cognitive structure.

Personally, given the available tools, I strive for a balance of these elements. Context dependent, I want the randomness of line art, the precision and naturalness of photography, and the clean smooth uniformity of digital graphics.