22. Gilda And Meek "Timeline Trilogy: Part One: Destiny Deferred" (Un-Iverse #35)
Rating: PG-13. Some blood, violence, and gore at the end as well as a suicide and sexual harassment. Honestly, this one is kind of upsetting. Be wary of it. But it's also important. Don't skip it either.
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Author's Note for Gilda And Meek #22 "Timeline Trilogy: Part One: Destiny Deferred" (Un-Iverse #35)
Creatively, this is the most significant issue for me since UnComix One-Shots #2: Narf-Narf And Chirp. I posted the first 34 issues on BlogSpot and they stayed up there for a couple of years (without much traffic). I saved every issue past that, including the series finale of Gilda And Meek, and first couple of issues of F.I.S.H. and Lace Doilies, in case I ever hooked up with a professional artist and was able to sell the story to a legit epublisher. But the shitty state of the industry (and it REALLY rapidly declined from the time I posted those initial issues) told me I was never going to sell the project. As long as an evil businessman could choose to write off everything I worked on for taxes nobody else is getting it. And doing so is an explicit admission this story will never make me rich. I personally think it is good enough that it potentially COULD have. But I am not risking the integrity of the story or my ownership of it while creative types and their projects are being treated so shittily by executives.
But I always considered this issue, and every issue past it, the "Spoiler Issues". Basically, it and everything from this point forward starts revealing the biggest twists of the saga, and that becomes a constant. 34 issues of set-up occur for pretty much non-stop pay-off for the remainder of Gilda And Meek, and the upcoming finale "The Terran Wars". I was going to keep these secrets to myself until I finished the saga, and found a publisher willing to take a chance on it. Those dreams are gone (at least until copyright laws and tax loopholes are changed) and you get the story unfiltered without either professional editing, or great-looking artwork instead. You are about to see the rest of The Un-Iverse as envisioned by me with absolutely no creative compromises with anyone else. You reading this means The Un-Iverse will ALWAYS be entirely down to me and a one-man operation. This is The Un-Iverse Un-filtered and In The Raw. And that is what makes the issue a turning point not just for the saga, but my decisions about my professional cartooning career. Basically, the only money I will ever make is a few bucks here and there on Ko-Fi. And that's something I've accepted. But I truly believe if The Un-Iverse HAD found a major buyer it could have potentially taken pop culture by storm, and I could have potentially lived the rest of my life comfortably. The industry essentially cratering in the last five years or so means I'm not willing to risk the saga on that. But really, I'm letting you know I think the stories in this issue and everything past it are pretty damn great. Regardless of my artistic failings, I stand entirely by the project for that reason. The story is good enough to be confused for a GREAT professionally written comic. I'm not saying the comic is great (the artwork and format will be a dealbreaker for many purists, and understandably so). I'm saying the story would be good enough to confuse it for a great comic if the artwork were better. I'm not actually jiving you here, but as promising as this issue is, I don't think you'll believe me yet. But I hope to prove skeptics who have stuck with it up to this point for whatever reason wrong, and show I CAN deliver the mythology goods. "Timeline Trilogy" will be my first ever pay-off of that.
Next Issue: Gilda And Meek #23 "Timeline Trilogy: Part Two: Hammer's Time" (Un-Iverse #36)
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