An answer's value can only go down...

August 5, 2013 7:51 PM

"A Day at the Park", a long scrolling comic that features two interestingly designed characters having a discussion of their respective collections: one of questions, the other of answers. By illustrator Kostos Kiriakakis as the start of a series titled "Mused", along with "Lost and Found", about names and games and stuff...
(thanks to Fleen, which just yesterday scooped us on Boulet's Long Journey).
posted by oneswellfoop (6 comments total)

I was planning on posting this too! Its lovely. Somehow I imagined the old fish guy to be a Republican.
posted by destrius at 10:27 PM on August 5, 2013 [1 favorite]

I imagined him to be a Skeptic. Or an engineer. Whatever he was I wish he'd been a better debater. Maybe he could have pointed out the dangers of questions, because there are some. Groups of worthless questions can stick together sometimes and cloud your vision.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 5:40 AM on August 6, 2013 [1 favorite]

Wow, first things first: that art is amazing; just look at the depth and detail in the "They usually kick and scream" or "That's enough young man!" panels for a while. A lot of the panels are neat compositions, the faces and postures are wonderfully expressive, and they mostly work in a dynamic ebb and flow of close-ups and wide shots, borders and no borders that helps the thing flow past the (sometimes) overly wordy story. Just about every decision the artist makes - e.g. the three panels where the goat walks its fish by the two conversationalists - is thoughtful and fun. Bravo.
posted by mediareport at 6:51 AM on August 6, 2013

Actually I was a bit irritated by the smugness of all the answers from the "eye" guy. For someone who treasured questions, he seemed very prompt,detailed and sure of his answers.

If I was the fish guy, I would have said that i love searching for answers a lot more than treasuring questions. And its not necessary that questions prompt our search for answers. Most of the times, we don't even know or recognize the question when we stumble across an interesting answer.

A beautifully done art work. Loved the effort and the way it has come out. I wont call it a comic as I assume comics to have some sort of ... "comical" element in them. This was more like an art depicting philosophical conundrums.
posted by TheLittlePrince at 7:52 AM on August 6, 2013

Yeah, the whole questions v. answers thing is too binary for me, but as an allegorical-ish short story it works for a while.

I wont call it a comic as I assume comics to have some sort of ... "comical" element in them.

Relatively minor point, but the term "comic" hasn't required some sort of comical element for ages now. Kiriakakis' work is clearly a comic, and comics can be about all kinds of serious things.
posted by mediareport at 8:13 AM on August 6, 2013

I wont call it a comic as I assume comics to have some sort of ... "comical" element in them.

Don't let the folk who publish Batman comic books or syndicate the Mary Worth comic strip hear you say that... well, okay, there are comical elements to Mary Worth, as The Comics Curmudgeon frequently remind us, but even Prince Valiant is considered to be in "the funny papers". Which would make webcomics "the funny paperless", right?

And if you'd ever been to an 'open-mic' night at The Comedy Store in the '80s, as I was, you'd know that even "stand-up comic" has plenty of room for interpretation.
posted by oneswellfoop at 9:18 AM on August 6, 2013 [1 favorite]