Biped, you're probably right, over time my comic style will probably change. All the same, I am pleased with the ones I've done so far... for what they are. That's not to say I don't have room to grow... just that if I made some people scratch their heads and say "huh?" or made someone laugh over something like "eggplant salad steroid bagpipes" because they just couldn't see how anyone could come up with that, that's all I intended to do with them. Kind of like how Andy made the people at home get up out of their chair, mess with their TV antennae, and try to figure out why their screens were going all fuzzy.
At the same time, as much as I think some of Andy's ideas about pissing off or confusing the audience is applicable to comic strips, I'm not necessarily limiting myself to that. Like you said, Andy never just went off on schizoid rants. I'm not straight up just trying to rip off Andy Kaufman, you know. One has to develop one's own style. So I'm trying to combine a bunch of different factors into something no one's ever done before... maybe I'm failing at that, but that's the attempt. To combine feigned contempt for audience the with random shards of things that may or may not make sense, but when taken together are somewhat beautiful in their chaos. That is the central theme I'm trying to convey, really. Nothing makes sense. Existential nothingness. Randomness conveying only one meaning... there's no meaning to anything, and ultimately nothing makes any more sense than the randomness of my comics. And once people realize that, maybe they'll stop working 17 hour days trying to kiss ass or sucking the boss's dick for a promotion. Maybe they'll just learn to live for the moment and be happy, without worrying all the time. Basically, it's my feeble attempt to change the world by conveying the emptiness of what we see as having meaning (money, fame, power, sex). Because that system only leads to people being used and exploited by others... there's always some young stupid girl who's trying to get ahead, and there's always some old perverted boss who will take her panties off if she lets him. And she'll let him about every time if she thinks she has something to gain... so she can buy more clothes to attract better men with more money. Don't you see how pointless it all is? But it makes sense to them. To me, my comics are a metaphor for that phenomenon... getting caught up in something that makes no sense at all, and acting like it's the most important thing in the world.
And perhaps you see the subtle irony in my explanation? It's all part of the theme. For those who have accused me of being mentally handicapped, I agree. I am just a dumb ox, like Saint Thomas Aquinas. Pay me no mind.
Everson
