Review: Dark Side of the Moon

Dark Side of the Moon by Blutch
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Rating 3 out of 5| Grade: C+; Bizarre, Arthouse, Hard to comprehend.

It seems that years upon years of consuming mainstream comic titles, particularly those rooted in the superhero mythos or the action genre, have left us as readers incapable of venturing out, and exploring the lesser known 'out there' stories in the medium.

We almost forget that Graphical novels, such as Maus & A Contract with God, had at one time, elevated the medium to more than just entertainment & pulp, to genuine reflections of the human conditions.

I say this, not because I think Dark Side of the Moon, by French author Blutch, was able to emanate the same feelings in me. Frankly, I don't know that exactly to make of, in this story with apparently no rhyme and reason.



Just when you think you've gotten a hang of the narrative, it throws, not a curveball, but a mallet or a Mallard at you, for no freaking reason. At the end of it, you're left with your head scratching, the same way one might feel, having stared for hours at some 'modern art piece', which everyone says is the next coming of Picasso, but to you, seem like finger-painting gone wrong.

Premise

On the Surface, the story is set in the distant future, where, and emergent technology known as the Eurofice allows humans to relegate creativity to automation. One only needs to shove their arms into two orifices within the machine, turn off your mind, and let it wring you of all creative thoughts, essentially transforming creativity to a product on the industrial line.

The Story focuses on Lantz, a comic book writer, tasked with writing the updated version of something called the New, New testament, which is the end all be all of this world. Unfortunately, the jaded author is facing with a blank page, and is unwilling to muster up the willpower to even attempt this task.

On the other side, we have the sweet & doe like Liebling thrust into the world of corporate creativity, and is increasingly finding herself incapable of going along with the mindless masses of current time. This leads her to be rebellious & miserable.

That is of course what happens on the surface. We follow two characters named Lantz, one, young, cocksure, wide-eyed & ambitious; the other, middle aged, sagging, catatonic, neurotic, drained of whatever passions kept his alive in youth. We begin to suspect that this might be the same person, viewed side by side, once during the infancy of his career, the other during its twilight.

Only, we see him passionately loving the same girl Liebling, who doesn't seems to have aged a day, or even indicated that any time has passed. Which leads me to believe that she might not be his actual lover, but a metaphor for his muse, one which came freely with warmth during the time of innocence, and the same idealistic version which the old Lantz years for after years of soul crushing experiences in life.

The whole world, with its creativity sucking machines, and Corporations which aim to profit off it, seem to be an allegory of the current times, when much like the same creative minds are underappreciated, underpaid and abused, all so that some rich executive can cash in his million dollar bonus.

As I right this, I'm reminded of the increasing dissent and news about the deplorable conditions of animators & visual effects artists working for Disney-Marvel. In a way that life imitates art, we see a whole crop of talented minds, being turned to mush, given very less profit or incentive, forced to churn out one after the other, mediocre movies of some cinematic universe, which keeps getting more and more stale after every installment. Kevin Fiege & co. having turned them from a creative enterprise to a bland production line with the only purpose of making money.

Much like that, in the story, we see how Liebling is shackled to the Eurofice machine, unknowing of the passage of time, for her skills in crafting the New, New Testament. It wouldn't have been more clear if she was literally being milked to the bone, to feed the greed of corporations.



It is also a reflection of how, in this age of social media, short attention spans, lowered IQs, our generation has morphed into one which lacks Emotional Intelligence, Empathy or patience, which were once the breeding grounds of rich creative works. It's all tik-toks, NFTs & mindless self gratification via technology.

Parting thoughts: Boy, for someone who said he didn't understand the story all that well, this was quite a long analysis. I guess it's because this story, while not having connected to me a reader all that much, nonetheless forced me to enquire & analyze those seldom used parts of my intellect and comes to terms with the changing times, in art & society.

I can't recommend this book to you, for I still don't fully realize what it is. But you are free to dip your toes for your own benefit, and hoping you'd get something out of it, wholly different from what I did. Ciao.

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