---
###### tags: `PV Comic #1`
---

# Pluriverse<>Supermodular Comic #1

### Content/Background

- We recognize a tension in how we are thinking about the comic series in relation to communicating the complexity of the metacrisis.
- This has to do with orders of complexity in relation to orders of complication.
- **Complexity**: the technical fidelity of the concepts. They have a lot of detail, infinitely cascading minutae that we are trying to connect.
- We are trying to understand a complex concept, understand it will, then relay the simplified story that prioritizes relatability so they can assimilate it to "influence the hearts and minds" of a population.
- **Complication**: human drama. This is what people relate to the most.
- Character development, relationships between characters, and the inherent tension are essential.
- This has been a missing element in Gitcoin comics #1 and #2. They were so impersonal, abstracting good and evil. No humans, except Anon, who was an opportunity to map more personality.
- Comic #3 introduced characters as an invitation for the community to develop them. This ultimately failed, partly by design.
- Comic #4 wrapped the entire Gitcoin/Moloch universe into the interior dream space of Anon's imagination. This allows us the opportunity for a fresh start.

 + 

### Problem

- Characters were not rendered at a high enough fidelity ∴
- Characters were not relatable ∴
- Characters felt arbitrary to the reader ∴
- Characters and world elements caused more confusion rather than helping to elucidate the narrative, left readers questioning rather than curious ∴
- We missed out on the essential human drama element, storytelling tech that allows audience to immerse into the complicated/complex content we were trying to discuss.

### Hypothesis

- If we need to balance complexity with human complications/drama, then:
- We reference a familair narrative archetype
- We place the characters (human or otherwise) in the center and map the drama over their lives
- We remove all extraneous elements
- We focus on the primary goal: that we have a complex idea that we want to disseminate to an audience with limited bandwidth and low attention spans
- Any formal/aesthetic strategy should optimize for the assimilation of this definition (resolution + fidelity + velocity)

### Proposed Solution

- We develop 3 characters, 2 primary and 1 NPC
- No storyline, just their conversation
- The conversation is reflexive: about the problem of complexity +/- complication and the frictions that proliferate from this dichtomy

### Proposed Narrative Context

- We return to the Greeks!


- Greek philosophy/politics remain highly relevant to our contemporary discourse. They identified problems so early that continue to be problems today.
- For anyone investing deep acute attention on the problem space, we can easily track back the roots of these problems to the Greeks thousands of years ago.
- Specifically, we quote the form of [Plato's Dialogues](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Dialogues_of_Plato)


- 2 characters will be developed to loosely represent KO and TW:
- KO thinks and speaks in the style of Plato: essentialist, idealist, [dialectical](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialectic)
- TW thinks and speaks in the style of Socrates: proto-skeptic, rogue-like, thoughtfully questioning


- 1 additional character with no back story that is there just to ask questions.
- Socrates may not actually exist, but could be a projection from the mind of Plato as he walks around talking to himself.
- The dialogues are allegorical fictions for illustrating complex philosophical ideas to the (relatively) illiterate masses.

### Story

- Plato is lounging around the retrofuture cypher/solarpunk School of Athena circa 1000 years into the future (in the Quadratic Lands).
- Anon enters and asks a question.
- Socrates begins a heuristic line of questioning to understand the problem.
- Plato addresses Socrates and the two walk off through the Quadratic Lands to think about it more deeply. Anon is left behind confused.
- P + S consider a series of images in a variety of environments while unfurling a complex dialogue about various concepts. They make illustrations, mental models, analogies, etc., to explain their ideas to each other.
- P + S find their way back to Anon, who is still confused. They draw a simple picture in the sand that gives Anon satisfaction. Anon leaves. P + S realize that this solution has brought up new problems, which they immediately start considering as they walk back into the infinite courtyards of the quadratic gardens.

### Conceptual Content

- [Punctuated equillibria](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punctuated_equilibrium) with examples:
- Wright Bros. inventing human flight
- Nuclear fission
- PoS/PoW blockchains
- Sybil resistance and privacy preserving web3 identity with examples:
- Can we devise multiple examples besides Gitcoin passport?
- [Schelling points](https://) with examples:
- Hope, solarpunk values
- Successful coordination (too vague)
- Avoiding the metacrisis (too vague)

### Initial Questions

- Do we try to cram all this into 1 comic? Do we need to cover all of this territory now, or space it out over a series?
- Might we focus on 1 topic and provide numerous scenarios/examples to really drive that learning home?
- How might we prioritize these concepts to understand what is a must have, what is a nice to have, and what is optional content for the story?
- Are there other concepts (besides those 3 listed above) that should be included, or are maybe even higher priority to lay out first (if we think of this as an infinite series)?

---

# Production Schedule

### Rough Timeline

- April: Ideation on story
- May: Art direction, begin sketching art illustration
- June-September: Full art production, ~1 inked page every 2 weeks
- October: Coloring and lettering of all pages, cover inking and coloring
- November: Layout details, prep for printing, print production
- December: Finalized books are delivered

### Rough Backlog

- [ ] Ideate 3 characters
- [ ] Mood board
- [ ] Art direction for Horacio
- [ ] Approve sketches
- [ ] Ink + color
- [ ] Create backlog of concepts > storylines
- [ ] Collect concepts from KO
- [ ] Write into dialogue
- [ ] Distribute across pages
- [ ] Create backdrop and world elements for storylines
- [ ] Mood boards
- [ ] Art direction for Horacio
- [ ] Map storylines onto worlds
- [ ] Ink + color
- [ ] Ideate release strategy
- [ ] Condense economic model from previous notes
- [ ] Get KO to sign off on it
- [ ] Kick off with 3 intro articles