moral obligations + reflection

I feel morally obligated to link you to two things.

First is Three Panel Soul, created by Matt Boyd and Ian McConville. Those of you experienced at the webcomic-scene might recognize them as the creators of the insanely funny Mac Hall, which, sadly, ended a while ago.
It's a mish-mash of styles, a lot more random (if possible) than Mac Hall was. It's more mature, too, but in a good and funny way.
Master McConville, as always, impresses with his mad photoshop skillz and artistic ability, and Matt Boyd's scripts are clever as ever.

Second is a webcomic called "Minus", created by Ryan Armand. I found it, incidentally, through a link of Matt Boyd's at Three Panel Soul.
What can I say? It's storytelling at it's very best. It maintains a sort of childish innocence, coupled with a strange sense of melancholy... A hopeful melancholy. It's hard to describe, but it is awesome. Do go read.

I'll be putting up some proper linkage in the link-section soon enough.

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Moral obligations out of the way, here's a reflection...

I'm actually happy with "Girls Only" as it has developed so far. Sure, the art has major suckitude from time to time, but I do like the story and the storytelling. It works, I think.

This is... well, I'm ranting about it because that's actually very unusual for me. Usually when I look back at anything I've done more than a couple of weeks ago, I will hate it with a passion because I'll be seeing 4,8 million billion things that could have been/ought to have been improved and done better and I'll hate the fact that I wasn't as good and experienced "back then" as I am now, because I could have done something decent about it.

Not so now. With "Girls Only", I actually LIKE my work.

It's a strange feeling.

Not a bad one, though. Let's look back in a year of time and see if not I'll despise it with a passion such as it is my habit.

Jagtvej 69

UPDATE SCHEDULE FOR THE NEXT LITTLE WHILE:

I figure this is more important to you guys, so here it is.

There will be updates with Random Comics Monday, Wednesday and Friday, as if it was a normal week. After that, there's an undecided period of time for about a week or two before I take my leave of Denmark for Ireland, on a trip with my school for a week. I'll give you more precise dates as I have them, but for now:

• Update Mon/Wed/Fri of next week.
• Possibly a sporadic period after that.
• Hiatus coming, due to me not being in the country.
  

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(DISCLAIMER: This is the story of Jagtvej 69 as I've come to understand it. I may very well be wrong on many crucial points, but I feel my point still stands.)

It's an infamous address, Jagtvej 69. It's been on CNN, even.

I'll make it brief. The young anarchists, autonomous, punks, metal-types, goths, far leftists and other alternative cultures have for a number of years had a house at Jagtvej 69 in Copenhagen called "Ungdomshuset", directly translated; "The Youth-House". It's a place where they gathered, mingled, talked, got drunk, played concerts and generally used as a hang-out. It's got a lot of history. For instance, it was and is the focal point of the beginnings of a large feminist movement that swept over Scandinavia back in the 50s and 60s.

Well, the young people have also for a number of years had the rights to use this house as they please. There's a lot of legal mumbo jumbo, but the essence of it is that the youth were promised this house as "theirs", that promise was not entirely legally binding and the government went and sold off their house to a pseudo-christian religious sect or cult of sorts called "Faderhuset".

I won't claim to know much about "Faderhuset", but what I do know is that it has one prominent authority, a woman called "Ruth Evens" or something to that effect, who pretty much runs that community.

Faderhuset kept Ungdomshuset for 4 years, not really doing anything about it except trying to set up a mission in the house (which was ejected forcibly, I am told) and generally been somewhat indifferent to it.

Then, recently, Faderhuset decided they wanted the young people to leave.
Or so I understand it.
Now, naturally, when anarchists and punks are given orders by an authority to do something they don't want to do - and that authority is of all things a religious authority - they do not react favourably.

There were protests. And rocks thrown. And a lot of commotion. A trust was set up that offered Faderhuset TWELVE MILLION KRONER - about four times the amount of money they paid for the house and more than six times the house's actual value - but Faderhuset (and this didn't suprise me) did not want to sell the building.

The building has... or had, for it's demolished now, very little real value. It was a fire-trap. Run-down, broken, shaggy, craggy building. It only really had affectionate value to the youth.

Now, things are said and done and Ungdomshuset on Jagtvej 69 is no more. Faderhuset had it torn down.

I won't go into the legal jibber-jabber of whether or not they had the right to do that or whether or not the government ought to find a new house for the youth and all that nonsense.

I will say this, though, and the point of my tale begins here:
The leader of Faderhuset popped up in the newspaper "Nyhedsavisen" recently. What happens in the comic for today is actually more or less an accurate description of how I felt when I read that article.
It is described through the eyes of an eye-witness, and therefore not a journalist with an obligation to stick closely to the truth, but as the speech is described, Ruth Evens (or whatever her name) not only gloats that her "society-transforming power" (and yes, she actually calls it that) has managed to destroy Ungdomshuset, she asks her community: "what's next? Abortions, incest or homosexuality?"

She asks them who they're going to destroy next.

She also often cites that Faderhuset - a community of about 40 - is the very small, very special group of "proper" christians, who know what to do and how to uphold God's Word. Other christians are "luke-warm", I think is how she describes them.

I'll reiterate: the eye-witness was not a journalist, the speech was recorded from memory and he or she had a negative disposition towards Faderhuset. It's important to keep this in mind when I say that I fucking hate Faderhuset and any and all religious organizations like it.

Big religions, now those I don't mind. They have a certain responsibility to uphold a good and tolerant image, otherwise the greater part of the Earth's population will freaking despise them. It's small groups like Faderhuset I think are dangerous. Small groups with one or two strong leaders.

They're how things like Nazi Germany get started.

And you can look that up if you want to. Go on.

What really ticked me off with Faderhuset is... What they did to Ungdomshuset, they did for malice. Pure, unspoiled malice.
They did not purchase that house to re-sell it (although believe you me, THAT venture would have been profitable), nor to restore it and USE it. They didn't even buy it for the novelty of owning a house.
They bought it for the purpose of kicking the people who used it OUT. And nothing else. And then they made damn sure it was never ever used AGAIN by tearing the shit down.

It's like a child who steals a toy from someone else, not for jealousy, just to make damn sure that the other kid doesn't have that toy.

Malice. Malice and nothing but.

It gets even better when they won't even god-damn admit to it.
"Oh no. It wasn't malice. No no. We were saving them, don't you see? From the great big Satanic influence in that house. Oh yes, we've done society a favour by releasing a horde of angry radical elements into the streets."

I just can't help by leap on the irony here. Faderhuset believes the youth in Ungdomshuset are a bunch of lost souls, tempted by Satan and acting on his orders. And then, of course, it is in everybody's best interest that they now have to walk around the streets for lack of a place to be, all the while being really fucking pissed off at everyone and everything for the loss of their place.

I mean, doesn't it say just a little bit about the amount of thought Faderhuset put into their little hostile takeover?


Faderhuset committed intolerant malice - and that's a sin, if I read the Bible right - and they won't own up to it. This, I consider objective fact (so far as my subjective perception goes).
And therefore, they suck. RAAAAWRGH STANDS FOR RAGE!