psst christ
Do contrário da ciência e forças materiais que tudo regem à religião e as condições materiais dos mercados: comix edition. Caso-às-alminhas, Jack Chick 1924-2016, cartoonista e "a bigot and a religious zealot", cujas obras "is well-placed within the category of 'hate literature' [com] some of the most authentically hateful and malicious content seen in the comic book format".
Obviamente, uma instituição norte-américas com um longo historial wikipedia, influenciou autores consagrados no meio ("many underground and alternative comic artists admired him"; "cartoonists including Jim Woodring and the celebrated underground cartoonist Robert Crumb mimicked Chick’s blunt storytelling style. At one point, a rumor circulated that Chick was in fact a pseudonym for Robert Crumb" 25 out 2016) e conseguiu até algum reconhecimento explícito entre esses (Daniel Clowes: "Chick deserved a place in the comics pantheon"; "Clowes drew his own parody of a Chick Tract, called Devil Doll, for the first issue of his own indie comics series, Eightball"; 25 out 2016).
Como o autor da peça que vos sumarizamos — godsend! — temos um "great deal of interest" nas redes e métodos de distribuição do fanático em missão. Produzindo milhões de "little black-and-white books about the size of a dollar bill" num "right size for a Tijuana bible" às quais sobreviveu quando essas começaram a rarear até desaparecer, é apontado por muitos (e pelo próprio) como "the most widely read theologian in human history" 25 out 2016. Na Vox como influenciou a direita evangélica americana 8 nov 2016, e segue-se o que dele vos queremos persuadir: $$$ e os meios.
The history of comics is the history of distribution: how it has changed and how the models of distribution create a value relationship between the reader and the comic they are reading. It would be possible to make a historical statement on the nature of the Direct Market, the rarification of each individual book, the reality of instantiating each and every consumer into an “archivist”, and the class divide that constructs between those “with rare comic books” and those who “can’t afford rare comic books”. I do think it is obvious that the creation of an industry that prides itself on limited-time, limited-run artifacts is doing its consumers no favors. And while Jack Chick was a vitriolic racist, the model of distribution of Chick Publications displays a possible scenario in which things are meant to be shared when they are purchased and that the content, itself, is the object of inquiry rather than the elevation of that content into an artifact for resale. Readership, and the relationships formed through readership, should be the goal.
in "Chickstrobution: Proliferating a Message in Images" 15 dez 2020
Os mais treinados de vcs — reações pavlovianas adversas vêem-nos à cabeça (double pun!) — reconhecerão algumas bandeirinhas vermelhas: relações históricas, lutas, classes, criação de valor, massas e individualidade, consumidores, archi-ti-vistas, aqueles de posses e os que nada podem, o raro, limitado e único e o mass-produzido, lixo descartável e o artefacto elevado acima mas invariavelmente destinado à venda, yadda. Fuck it: podemos meter a web up in this bitch e re-martelar os drums pelo barato — grátis! — e descartável em missão? Podemos sim senhor e obrigado por perguntarem! O portal online da distribuidora envangelizadora do racista-por-jesus acima vende diferentes pacotes com todos os seus cartoons, "always available to be read, in full, before you purchase", com um propósito manifesto:
They operate, explicitly, in quantity. The basic assumption is that you order these comics in order to give them out for free.
in "Chickstrobution: Proliferating a Message in Images" 15 dez 2020
Segue-se a comparação a fazer aos comics comerciais: os chick são tão trash que elevam os heróis em spandex a categorias mais rarafeitas de arte erudita e estatuto, pelas mesmas razões de sempre que igualmente determinam a importância de qualquer artefacto cultural que se preze: raridade de olho no after-market. Ó, ironias!
The distribution network of Chick Tracts places them in an interesting conversation with the distribution of popular American comics. While the latter is based on a scarcity model, the former is based on oversaturation to the point of disposability. They are virtually worth nothing. They are continuously reprinted and have almost zero resale value. They are meant to be thrown away, given away, or, in some manner, displaced from your possession to be consumed by another person. By contrast, the aftermarket for comic book publications is its own small-time industry. What I see are two fundamentally different approaches to the comic book as an object that have been gradually formed by the material conditions of an industry that considers the third party aftermarket a necessary aspect of its existence. The Chick model is based exclusively on content and readership, while the normative model hedges its bets on the concept of the artifactual object that is valorized in the implementation of “rarity”. As a culture product, the model of disposability does, by its nature, attract more readership. It spreads, as Chick well knew, the message. Instead of purchase and hoard, Chick Tracts prompt the consumer to purchase and share: to spread. It is somewhat ironic that he happened to construct a model of distribution that is, essentially, more communal than the hoarding impetus prompted by the common American comic book.
in "Chickstrobution: Proliferating a Message in Images" 15 dez 2020
No espírito das ironias, não vamos deixar de notar outras comparações...:
Where I see this spirit most commonly enacted is in the sphere of webcomics, daily comics,
Instagram comics, or comics otherwise posted on the internet bound for almost certain obscurity. Furthermore, the polemical instinct of Chick is linked to the disposability of his work and this, too, is true of internet comic creators (*) "This is not, however, to say that hate literature a la Jack Chick should be recreated or an object of admiration. Plainly: it shouldn’t be.".
in "Chickstrobution: Proliferating a Message in Images" 15 dez 2020
...mas, cenas.
