An interesting problem you pose. The fish was truly better off where he started, but I have to question the overall message.
It's kind of like 'The White Sails' by H.P. Lovecraft. A short story about a light house worker who is taken away by a magic ship to a land where he is completely content; everything he wants is given him. However, he hears about a land that is far more splendid the one he resides in now, and against the better judgment of the crew, he charters the magic ship to take him there, only to discover that this new land is a myth, leaving both him and the crew to sail off the edge of the world and into oblivion. He through the void until he lands back at the light house and is trapped in misery and sorrow for the rest of his days because he could not appreciate the happiness he already had.
It's a decent message about being content, however, one has to consider that there is also an argument that remaining content can lead to complacency. Wall-E is a good example of this other line of thought. In the movie, the humans aboard their spaceship give up a life of ease to struggle on the surface of the earth and do things for themselves. They were obviously content on the space ship, but sought something more. I won't say better, because despite the film's 'fluff' ending you know they had to battle horrendous conditions to restore the Earth, which probably resulted in sickness, pain, and death.
Of course, sickness, pain and death are part of life and again there is an ongoing philosophical argument about how fulfilling life would be without those hardships.
Now we come to your strip. Fish Simmons evolves, walks on land, suffers a car accident and is sent to the hospital. While it is sad (to say nothing of ironic and morbidly humorous (my favorite kind)) one has to wonder if the fish will give up or decide to press on. After all, nothing worth having is free. Pain is the expected price of adaptation and/or progress. It's a very interesting and complex idea you've shown, in a very simple (if not simplistic) comic.
I thoroughly enjoyed this strip and hope that you return again to dumm. I'd like to see more of that fish, and BTW, he is a big one isn't he? I don't think anyone's commented on this, but man! He's as big as that car! Talk about catch of the day.
I am honored to present Dirk Erik Schulz, today's guest artist on 1930 Nightmare Theatre.
The talented Mr. Schulz (AKA Themrock) hails from Germany and is one of the most unique and visionary artists I've ever had the pleasure to work with. Check out his Deviant Art gallery and prepare to have your mind blown!
This week sees the 13-part Strawberry's Quest come to an end. This was sort of an improv experiment in comic form: I wrote part one, and from their John and I took turns writing each part until the comic came to a "logical" conclusion. It was a lot of fun, and I like what we came up with. We won't be doing it again anytime soon, however. We've got other fish to fry. We'll do more multi-parters in the future, possibly just as long, but with the story figured out beforehand. In the meantime, we'll be here with some gag strips, though we're going to take a three-week break after Valentine's Day. We've got some incredibly awesome guest strips for those weeks, so look forward to them.
In other news, all the old stuff in my Etsy shop is on über-sale, and I've added the piece above. Check it out at http://www.etsy.com/shop/TVsKyle
Awesome job, LFW. I concur with Fred, I want more Fish Simmons!
Great comic, by the way. Awesome to see some Australian talent recognised.
It's kind of like 'The White Sails' by H.P. Lovecraft. A short story about a light house worker who is taken away by a magic ship to a land where he is completely content; everything he wants is given him. However, he hears about a land that is far more splendid the one he resides in now, and against the better judgment of the crew, he charters the magic ship to take him there, only to discover that this new land is a myth, leaving both him and the crew to sail off the edge of the world and into oblivion. He through the void until he lands back at the light house and is trapped in misery and sorrow for the rest of his days because he could not appreciate the happiness he already had.
It's a decent message about being content, however, one has to consider that there is also an argument that remaining content can lead to complacency. Wall-E is a good example of this other line of thought. In the movie, the humans aboard their spaceship give up a life of ease to struggle on the surface of the earth and do things for themselves. They were obviously content on the space ship, but sought something more. I won't say better, because despite the film's 'fluff' ending you know they had to battle horrendous conditions to restore the Earth, which probably resulted in sickness, pain, and death.
Of course, sickness, pain and death are part of life and again there is an ongoing philosophical argument about how fulfilling life would be without those hardships.
Now we come to your strip. Fish Simmons evolves, walks on land, suffers a car accident and is sent to the hospital. While it is sad (to say nothing of ironic and morbidly humorous (my favorite kind)) one has to wonder if the fish will give up or decide to press on. After all, nothing worth having is free. Pain is the expected price of adaptation and/or progress. It's a very interesting and complex idea you've shown, in a very simple (if not simplistic) comic.
I thoroughly enjoyed this strip and hope that you return again to dumm. I'd like to see more of that fish, and BTW, he is a big one isn't he? I don't think anyone's commented on this, but man! He's as big as that car! Talk about catch of the day.