It’s been 15 years since my first post on this website. The embedded video in that link is broken. Possibly lost to time. Things come and go although I didn’t think so much about that back then. Such is life…even in the digital age of bandwidth.
I wrote a reflection 5 years ago, on the 10 year anniversary of ChrisDoesComics.com. It’s still very relevant to how I’m feeling today. I started this blog back in August of 2011 as a means to evolve my skills and ramble about my niche passions. Groundbreaking, right? At first, ChrisDoesComics was a weekly diary of unpacking life’s journey (or lack thereof). Broadcasting thoughts into a public void I built. Very much a reflection of who I was at the time: self deprecating, cynical, and ignorant. Yet ChrisDoesComics stood as a personal reminder that I didn’t want to lose sight of who I am (or wanted to be): My name is Chris. I do comics.
In the 15 years since I’ve purchased the domain name, “ChrisDoesComics” has become a pseudonym for myself as a professional artist. Not a “brand”…more of an identity. By day I did boring corporate design work; but when creativity struck I’d sprint to the nearest phone booth and come out ChrisDoesComics: lowbrow artist and retro enthusiast. I’ve sold over ten thousand art prints, stickers, and comic books credited as such. The name is printed on packaging, Halloween masks, signage, t-shirts. The past couple months I’m freshly credited with licensed merchandise of punk band The Misfits as well as the honor of creating Superman illustrations featured in Metropolis, Illinois. As an artist, I’ve only continued to grow since the inception of this blog way back in 2011. Sometimes there were steps back…or even to the side…but eventually I’d burst forward.
As this website stands, I don’t use my hands just to draw…I write as well. I’ve written about so many trivialities here. Dozens of articles delving into nostalgic bottom-feeding respites of American pop culture. It almost seems like a pointless waste of time…almost. I have an odd sense of pride concerning my stacks of articles. It’s become the main reason why this site exists. Why put so much effort and time into examining 30+ year old fast food toys and comic book advertisements? Why?
Because it’s a great way of letting go of it. To memorialize an old part of you.
I’ve changed a lot since I started ChrisDoesComics 15 years ago, but I boldly claim I have changed the most in the past 5 years. This is no longer a place where I have to prove anything to myself or anyone else. ChrisDoesComics is simply a place to see what I’m working on, whether it be art or nostalgic long winded articles. A self built monument to who I am at the moment. As of this writing, I feel myself slowly slipping away from this “lifestyle”. These interests and hobbies. I do not think this part of me will ever be gone…but I can tell my pull into these niches are waning.
There were times where I felt I could do this forever. What is “this” exactly? Drawing and writing about old junk maybe? There were even a couple times where I wanted to pull out completely; recede into the fog never to be heard from again. Ditch the online world; and find out if that was even possible in today’s age. In fact, the last time that happened was pretty recently. And it was because of the mindless automated elephant in the room: A.I.
Recently, I’ve lost artistic opportunities over A.I. I’ve been passed up for A.I. There are artists and writers I personally know that use A.I. regularly (and don’t have the stones to admit it). It’s frustrating and deflating to see so many mindlessly trade in their integrity for convenience. But that seems to be a theme in western civilization lately. Comfort matters above all else apparently. Grandma’s home cooking has been replaced with spoonfed frozen ignorance.
It disappoints me, as an artist, but it also emboldens me more so. Understand, ChrisDoesComics will be here for the foreseeable future. And I’ll be drawing (with my own damn hands) and writing (with my own damn brain) and creating without artificial “intelligence” cuddling my ambitions into a vegetative state. They’ll be articles concerning comic ads like tombstones in newsprint, vapid Halloween activities, and the yearning for times when the most important decision was which fast food restaurant has the better toys this month. Oddly enough, I can’t seem to quit writing about all that entirely. Because it brings a comfort A.I. cannot match.
The act of creating art (drawing or writing it) is important for one’s soul. The journey of “working” passionately on something to unveil it in whatever way you do so…well…there’s nothing quite like it. When I hang a piece of art in a gallery or get a finished sample of it in the mail or hit “publish” on the internet…it feels rewarding. The journey of creating it; another brick in the foundation in whatever the hell I call myself. Whether one set of eyes sees it…or a thousand. It’s all mine. It represents me.
To have a computer do that for you…even just a little bit…robs you of your soul. And insults mankind as a whole.
I closed my ten year reflection with a quote from Sarah Connor without realizing, just 5 years later, Skynet would be more real than ever. Those at the top of this have no morals. And there will be too many artists that eventually trade in their principles to the machine that creates for the creativeless. Despite all this, you’ll always find organic human made humor, art, and cozy comic culture here at ChrisDoesComics.com
I’ll never be a robot. Human is all I can be. And I prove to be human again and again. To quote Sarah Connor one last time with a quote more relevant than ever:
The unknown future rolls toward us. I face it, for the first time, with a sense of hope. Because if a machine, a Terminator, can learn the value of human life, maybe we can too.
ChrisDoesComics.com 