Completing the Transmission of the Ibis Head People Planet's 10 Commandments
Chapter 3 of a series introducing an upcoming web comic.
See chapter 1 here.
See chapter 2 here.
Richard King coughs and presses his fist against his chest, that hit of weed just a moment ago was not particularly harsh and it was not the worst of coughs. A sip from the tiny Mountain Dew can calms it down.
He doesn't understand why, but he selected Fleetwood Mac's “Rumours” for his channeling session with Thoth this afternoon to finish his receiving of the rules that would operate this goofy AI-fueled web comic he had agreed to create.
Richard hadn't even invoked the ibis-headed creator of writing, math, science, technology, magick, Judeo-Christian-Islamic-Enlightenment traditions, and profanity yet the music had already drawn him out and he was again dancing, going around in a circle on Richard's two yoga mats lying on gray and blue carpet overdue for a vacuuming.
The song shifted to "Dreams" and Thoth slowed down.
"OK," are you ready to continue now?
Richard bopped to the beat in his seat, swaying back and forth as Stevie Nicks hit the notes.
“Great,” Richard said, as he and Thoth now were moving back and forth in synch.
"So what it's going to be then, eh?"
Well,
While you will include strategically-dropped profanity in some strips, there will not be any gross-out, toilet humor or explicit sex jokes. On Ibis Head People Planet, people do not need to go to the bathroom and they do not need to have sex either. Time does not actually exist. Time does not pass. People do not age. Everything is a perpetual present, and you receive only snapshots of this parallel universe.
"Hey," Richard stopped in annoyance. "Enough with the theological diversions. I got it. Nothing icky but it's still fine to drop an F-bomb when needed — I get it, one of your proudest creations — and there can be some sexy humor and vibe but lets be sophisticated and smart about it. And on that point…”
Humor will not be the only vibe or point of the strip. There are other feelings that can be hit in order to gain an emotional response from the viewer. First, in particular in response to the point above about ibis people sex lives… many ibis head people images could more seek to invoke "cute" or "warm" or "romance" feelings. A couple going out on a first date at Applebees. Two pre-schoolers playing in the sandbox while swapping Schopenhaurerisms. Similarly: YUM, pics of Ibis head people eating tasty food, sexy but tasteful - attractive ibis head couples, and also just artistic nature shots, and scary things too like dark monster ibis head people, classic goth, artistic.
"Yeah," Richard said. “That makes sense, I've enjoyed doing the ones that are different like that.”
Ibis Head People Planet is a land of Paradox and Meta Awareness. Meaning, the characters will often express their knowledge that they are fictional images being viewed by people and they will address the viewer directly. Likewise, the viewer's mind will be inverted and scenarios twisting.
"Hey, how's that coffee coming, Richard?" Lydia called from the bedroom where she was lying out on their bed, stretching her leg which she'd injured in a fall on their wedding day two weeks ago.
"Oh crap! I'm sorry! I totally forgot about that, let me go get it! Sorry, I was so into this piece I was writing that I forgot about it."
Thoth chuckled as Richard darted back through him, passing like he were a puff of mist, which in a sense, he was, a mist of the mind, making an impression like how dew in the air feels on your skin. Definitely there, but somehow transcendent and mysterious.
Richard pulled out a pink coffee cup for Lydia from the cupboard above their sink and lids from Tupperware spilled out onto him. He cussed mildly, put them back up, and poured the coffee for Lydia, spilling a splash of it on the hot surface that kept the pot warmed. This was a cup of Salty Siren, Lydia's favorite that had a salty caramel flavor from their beloved indie coffee company Bones Coffee.
"You want Italian Sweet Cream or Caramel?"
He knew the answer but thought he'd check.
"Caramel!"
He grabbed the bottle and opened it and splashed in a dollop, wondering at first that it might not be enough but figuring he could bring the bottle back to the bedroom if she needed more. But no, it was fine. Lydia thanked Richard and asked him which of his articles she needed to edit next for the day and he suggested the one about kids and their smartphone addiction.
Then he returned to his library, sat back at the Freewrite, and sipped some Mountain Dew from the tiny 7.5 Oz can.
"The Chain" by Fleetwood Mac began and Thoth re-materialized, again dancing in rhythm—“I can still hear you saying never break the chain.”
"I really hit it with this one,” Thoth said.
Richard frowned for a moment. "Wait, you just take credit for everyone's songs?"
"Certainly."
Richard just sat there, not sure how to argue with the god who invented writing and music, insisting that we shouldn't really take credit for these things that we write with our own fingers.
"Well, shall we finish this thing up?" Richard asked. "I've still got a lot of work to do. I need to write all those publishing company emails."
Distracted for a moment, Richard grabbed his phone and scrolled through emails and Substack Notes.
Thoth stood silent, considering the final two rules for how the series should operate.
"OK, I've figured it out," he said. "You get to pick the last two."
"Me?"
"Well, you were just anxious about not getting proper author credit, so go ahead, make your picks based on what you've most enjoyed so far with playing around with this and then we'll make it canon. I know you've got a little list around here of some of the ideas you've been considering. So no need to rely on me. You can choose the last two.”
Richard felt a sense of sunshine in his chest. He pulled up his phone from where it sat on the second shelf above the ground, on top of War and Peace and The Gulag Archipelago, heavy hardbacks Richard had found for a buck apiece at the library's for-sale room.
Each image will incorporate the spirit of the four magician's weapons, the four suits of the Tarot, the four elements: Wand, Cup, Sword, Disk. A strong attention-grabbing spark, an emotional hit, an intellectual twist, and a relatable, nostalgic hook. The GPT is programmed to do this with each image already.
Keep it simple. These are memes to be consumed in an app or an email. They can't have a lot of text or be too high concept. People need to be able to read them and get them quickly. No more than a newspaper strip's complexity, usually just a single image for now.
OK, that sounds great, thanks. And then a sense of exhaustion and disillusion came over Richard. He panted for a moment.
Thoth had disappeared, and the world seemed to shift back into black and white, slow, quiet, mundane.
He closed his eyes and rubbed his fingers around them. He pressed his left hand atop the brass ankh on the desk and then rose, looking at the little altar to Thoth on the middle book shelf above Tolstoy and Solzhenitsyn, three candles with seven wicks total alight, a black, gold and white statue of Thoth, about 10 inches tall, holding an ankh. He stands in front of a wide open eye painting 12x8 sitting inside the open lid of the portable record player where Fleetwood Mac's "Gold Dust Woman" creeps out into the room, starting slow at first.
Richard blows out the candles.
So, the Ibis Head People Commandments Simplified:
Everyone and all animals have ibis heads.
The timeline concludes on Dec. 31, 2000.
The planet is essentially a utopia.
The visual style will perpetually evolve from the mediums and arts of all visual culture.
The power will be in invoking the nostalgia for all of late 1900s culture, particularly ‘60s-‘90s.
While you will include strategically-dropped profanity in some strips, there will not be any gross-out, toilet humor or explicit sex jokes.
Humor will not be the only vibe or point of the strip, also: cute, warm, romantic, delicious, beautiful, spooky
This is a land of Paradox and Meta Awareness.
Incorporate the spirit of the four magician's weapons: Wand (will), Cup (emotion), Sword (intellect), Disk (reality).
Keep it simple.
Continue on in the story with chapter 4: