9. F.I.S.H. "One Shall Fall" (Un-Iverse #64)
Rating: PG-13: Nudity, violence, sexual situations, adult themes.
Author's Note for F.I.S.H. #9 "One Shall Fall" (Un-Iverse #64)
I don't like this issue that much. Honestly, it could have been a LOT worse, and I was sort of robbing Peter to pay Paul in putting off Timmy's loathsomeness a bit in "The Society Of The Broken Egg" and "Druth Hunt" to now, but even if I made it so I didn't have to make the issue deliberately suck (and it doesn't) I still don't love it.
Why? We are SO damn close to "The Terran Wars" now I can fucking TASTE it, and this issue makes me antsy as hell, and impatient to get to the good stuff. My dues are almost paid. It makes sense the last of them go especially hard for me. SO close!
"We're gonna need another Timmy," IS the best Dinosaurs reference in The Un-Iverse. Partly because that line is sort of fringe, but mostly because it fits entirely and is perfect.
Let me level with you. Rereading the Timmy stuff at the wedding and ending, I feel it's kind of clumsily written. I'm not saying the saga never was before that, but mostly that specific failing occurred in the early issues of Gilda And Meek and The Pontue Legacy. I've gotten a better ear for dialogue over the years, and it's possible Timmy's utterances and behavior is TOO trite and obnoxious here. But you know, it's SUPPOSED to be, so if there is a writing failure on my end, it isn't remotely noticeable or even evident. Timmy is supposed to be the poorly written character by design. Me writing him poorly in actuality is almost no different than me writing him perfectly. That's why there wasn't a last minute polish despite me being unhappy and little embarrassed. Both those feelings fed into the scenario properly. So they stay.
F.I..S.H. is a title that does nothing but disappoint me, but it's also pleasantly surprised me at times. I DO feel that this specific issue is the most narratively unsatisfying out of all ten issues, which is quite an achievement for a title where the heroes ALWAYS lose, rain or shine. The ending is frustrating because we understand the heroes are fucked. Just not how or in what way yet. Each of the other losses are easier to define and quantify. Timmy's weird behavior at the end puts everything about his death and what it means for Lance and the crew up in the air. We just don't know. Normally single issues of The Un-Iverse read pretty well by themselves. This feels like cutting a book off in the middle of a sentence and only getting the second, REAL resolution in the final part of F.I.S.H. The irony? The next (final) issue ends on a cliffhanger too! But it's an easier to quantify bit of dire jeopardy so you won't feel the discomfort you do here.
I think the art itself is great. This was my first real crack at drawing a bunch of Porcinese characters, and the conspiracy room gave me a couple of cool designs. One of them looks like Bebop from Ninja Turtles because I am not freaking made of stone. But it's the female queen / governess in the opening scene I love. She has a very exotic and ethereal look, which is something I always wanted to channel with the Porcinese. I wanted the incongruity of them looking identical to fat, slovenly animals, but having the same sense of light magic about them as elves. I wanted both of those opposite things to be true. The Governess is a good start there. Very happy with that.
In hindsight my biggest regret in the story is describing Guilenese's ideal beauty by giving her long and flowing, wavy, blonde hair, thereby telling readers that white Euro-ethnicity is the standard of ultimate beauty. That is pure bullshit and me being a poor ally. Unfortunately, the cliche worked better for the narrative. I felt the Narrator's description about that worked better by feeding into and pandering to that bullshit instead of pushing back against it. And yes, I am a white male and I will fail as an ally sometimes. But no matter what, I refuse to tell the story or characters differently than how they insist they be written. I'm not shirking responsibility there or acting like I'm helpless about that sort of thing. The writer ultimately has veto power. But I did not feel the pressing need to write the scene differently even if it was untrue from both a beauty and political standpoint. I ALMOST said she had bright pink hair, but I couldn't square that with the rest of the cliches I was feeding into. As a compromise I described her tanned skin as a pleasing, milky caramel color, but that doesn't remotely mitigate the damage of the hair thing. And I'm aware of that.
Lance's final line "Dear Lord! I've killed Timmy Thruster!" is not just funny. It's not just subversive. I think it's one of the most iconic moments in F.I.S.H., if not THE most iconic moment. For good or ill, when people think of F.I.S.H., that moment will probably be one of the first things they remember. And it occurs in the second-to-last issue! I mentioned I don't like the issue. I don't. But the ending is exactly as effective as I planned it to be. It's getting there that is a bit of a slog.
Next Issue: Lace Doilies #9 "47%" (Un-Iverse #65)
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