Aaron Diaz
Updates very rarely, although a new arc has begun
2005-2010
Beautiful, smart, funny, wonderful.
Well, off to get wasted. Cheers!
…okay, fine. I suppose I should elaborate.
Frankly, if you have never heard of Dresden Codak, I am ashamed of you. Such wonderful media, and you sit here reading my drivel? The link was at the top of the page, the fuck are you still reading for?
/sigh. Fine, fine.
Dresden Codak is a “intelligent humor” comic, which is fancy-speak for a comic with plot or humor based in academic studies. Hark! A Vagrant was one of these for history. Codak goes more for scientific and philosophical humor, borrowing heavily from the fields of physics, psychology, and robotics. As I said in Vagrant‘s review, you might not get all the humor without research, but it’s well worth it. It’s well-written, clever, and fairly brilliant. Perhaps it is simply because I am a nerd, but I adore it.
There’s two kinds of comic in Codak. The singles, all (mostly) sovereign pieces, are done mostly for humor and feature drastically different art styles in every piece. These are good, but they are not what sold me.
The best part, the meat in the sandwich, the cream in the Hostess Cup Cake, the golden idol in the temple… I’m rambling. And hungry. Anyways, the greatest work is the Hob arc, a fairly epic sci-fi story that Diaz created over quite a time period. The arc, and many of the singles, follows the story of Kimiko Ross, a true scientist (Some people would call her a sociopath, I say she’s a scientist) who makes Nikola Tesla look like he needs a helmet to walk around. Accompanied by the Tokamak siblings and Tiny Carl Jung (he invented Tiny Dream Analysis), Kimiko is thrown into a grand story of robotics, human nature, ethics, and the singularity.
I suppose I should explain the singularity, it is key to the story. As you probably know, technological progress has grown exponentially over the years, accelerating quickly. However, the quality of the machines that humans can make is limited by our meager human intellects. After all, even geniuses have limits. However, if we were able to develop “wetware” and augment ourselves and improve what the “human mind” is capable, then we could make a better computer. We could then use that computer to make better wetware which would allow us to make a better computer, and so on and so forth. In a nutshell, once we find a way to make ourselves smarter than human the quality of our technology will skyrocket.
And that’s all I’m telling you about the Hob arc. It’s a grand adventure and I am not spoiling it.
Now I need to mention the art. Like I said before, I refrain from mentioning the art itself, since my work is simply horrid. The only time I do say something is if it’s truly horrible or utterly beautiful. Dresden Codak falls into the latter category. The characters are expressive and well-drawn, the creatures are imaginative, and the backdrops are utterly gorgeous. I see a lot of art, and I think that the only true competitor to Codak is probably Romantically Apocolyptic, and Codak still wins. Romantically may have realism, but Codak has a wondrous, creative style that I like a lot more.
Codak is now starting a new arc called Dark Science, and I am at the edge of my seat waiting for the next page. And that’s saying something.
Let me quote the beginning: “Beautiful, smart, funny, wonderful”. Codak is, without doubt, my favorite comic. If I ever met Mr. Diaz, I would probably shake his hand firmly, smile broadly, then start screaming “I’m not worthy!” and offer a blood sacrifice. Read Codak, I command it.
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