A wise man once said, “if you really want to kill a joke, make sure it has inside elements that only you understand. If you want to drive a stake through the joke’s heart, to make sure it will never rise again … attempt to explain it.”

So here is what I was thinking concerning the Lindenium comic:

I invented Lindenium as a fictional element to explain how everyone on this world flies, floats, and teleports from place to place. Linden Labs created the virtual world Second Life. Although I do not mention Second life by name inside the panel, I allude to some of its major components as a basis for discovery on one of the worlds that Artiste visits. In a sense I am asking the question; what if virtual worlds were real?

Fatalism is a submissive attitude about the events that unfold around us in life. A belief that becasue it is out of your hands, or out of your control, certain things are inevitable. An avatar in real life is just an expression of the the person who created it. In the comic, the floating girl is expressing the fatalistic belief that her life is not her own and that certain things are inevitable or out of her control. The Hmmmm factor is “the devil made me do it” correlation; “I am my creator’s avatar.” What if we are the avatars or expressions of a greater power that controls our destiny?

Of course if this were true that would mean, that our creator has billions of alt accounts and half of the avatars he plays are female. Which upon reflection, makes perfect geeky sense. (Another inside joke for another day.)

In an episode of The Office (the American version) Dwight explains to Jim: “Second Life is a multi-user virtual environment. It doesn’t have points or scores; it doesn’t have winners or losers.” To which Jim replies. “Oh it has losers.” Yep. We are a proud lot.

Lets see; Second Life, web comic loving, blog posting, tech saavy computer nerd, Whos favorite mail order catalog is ThinkGeek. Sigh. There really is no hope is there?

Huh? Not making any sense? Because of the nature of these little flash fiction vignettes, I thought it would be helpful to index previous back stories and journal entries. Although Artiste’s tales are non-linear, it can help to read some pages in groups by threads of associated content. Of course you could just read them randomly, and trust that it will all come together at some point.

The beginning back story is always a great place to start:
• The Artiste Gullible back story

For this particular installment it also may help to read: (Something random?)

I also saw an opportunity to make some design changes. I have been searching for a typographic solution for my little pieces of flash fiction for quite some time. I was really stuck on keeping the journal idea intact by using a handwritten font. The problem is; handwritten fonts are really meant to be used as display elements and not meant for long body copy. I finally opted for an old-world Garamond, which still has character and flavor but infinitely more readable. Another plus is that it has a full character set, so punctuation is not a compromise anymore. I also changed the title font. I liked the fantasy feel the other font had but it was poorly constructed so that all the hinting and spacing (font metrics) were a mess and I ended up resetting each letter by hand each time. This new font still has a fantasy feel, but it is professionally constructed and a dream to use.

I hope the new changes make it easier to read, make it look more professional, and contribute to the over all success of the work. Thanks for reading! I am working on a mermaid panel and a panel inspired by a MMORPG game called Second life — that ought to be interesting.