Ah, the people...

As the dictator said, "I have succeeded. It's the people who have failed."

Driedger on Mearsheimer

This was an interesting counter-point to John Mearsheimer's claims about the war in Ukraine. 

Mearsheimer has made the same claims repeatedly for years now. I can't say I've seen evidence of a CIA coup, but then, I wouldn't necessarily expect to. 

Mearsheimer has not held back in criticizing into Biden and Harris, calling them warmongers, and has repeatedly lambasted US foreign policy. 

I've never heard Mearsheimer criticize Putin, however.

Maybe I've missed it. 

On the other hand, I've heard Mearsheimer claim that Putin is a savvy politician and smart operator, that Putin is trying to avoid civilian casualties in Ukraine, that he did everything he could to avoid the war, that Putin is deliberately avoiding frontal 'meat' assaults to minimize Russian casualties, that the US should ally with Russia against China, and so on.

Even though the opening act of the invasion was a fiasco, featuring a thoroughly thwarted airborne assault and a massive armoured convoy that literally ran out of gas, Mearsheimer hasn't, as far as I have seen, criticized any of this. 

He's likely right that Ukraine's cause is doomed in light of the recent US elections, and I suspect he's also right that (given the disparity in artillery between Russia and Ukraine) Ukraine is suffering much higher casualties than is generally known, but his seemingly selective silence is a little... odd.

Exercises in the quixotic: The Max Zing pitch deck!

Once upon a time, I was invited to pitch my comics to film and TV studios.

So I did up a number of pitch docs, based on my limited understanding of the format, and gave it a shot. I'm not a natural presenter, alas, and you're up agains the best of the best. 

My stuff went nowhere, ultimately (in other words, I would advise taking the above pic as a lesson in what NOT to do! Obviously should have a picture of Emma Appleseed on it, but doesn't... I have no excuse).

Everything got jumbled around.

I eventually realized this ever so convoluted, complicated, nuanced, long, arduous and challenging path was not for me. I won't be climbing Everest, either. 

Graphic novels are so, so, SO much simpler.

Page One of Warlord of Io!

I'm pretty happy with how the style of Warlord of Io turned out. 

If you look close, you'll notice that there are very few lines in it.

Everything is defined with gradients. 

Works well for some things, not so well for others. 

There's nothing else out there quite like it. 

Zing, coups and the nature of power

Max Zing oblivious to the world

Running a vast totalitarian empire is like riding a T-Rex: it's great while you're on top, but heaven help you if you fall off. 

I have no doubt Putin has given that possibility more than a passing thought of late. 

The instability and suppressed violence of a dictatorship was one of the things I was trying to get at with Warlord of Io, where a cabal of power hungry generals overthrows the new, ostensible supreme leader, Zing, who's oblivious to the danger he is really in. 

He just thinks everyone will obey him Because Fancy Title.

I got that impression from many people I talked to at the time, who felt a Supreme Leader was just accepted by everyone, and had their orders automatically obeyed. It struck me as a mind boggingly naive view of power structures and how they are maintained in dictatorships.

The politics of totalitarian states are complex, but the mechanics are submerged beneath a facade of Everything Is Wonderful All the Time (unless they've got a purge going on, in which case wonderfulness is suspended until The Wreckers can be lanced), and results in periodic outbursts of extreme violence. 

As a result, dictators rarely retire.

Except for Diocletian, who went and grew cabbages.

The Bitter Adventures of Jett Lagrange, Ex-Astro Legionnaire

Times change, even for famous space legionnaires. 

I forget what the impulse was that drove creating this particular strip, it's now lost to the mists of time, but I suspect it had something to do with getting on social media for the first time...

Available at Indigo?

 Apparently Warlord of Io is available at Indigo. Who knew? I thought it was strictly direct market.