we don’t have time for a cold open, chat. I’m going to tell you a story. about art, inspiration, and substitution.
Heathcliff has been painting and sculpting robot nudes at least since 2018. he’s been exploring this subject for 8 years now. if you go digging, you can see other comics where people struggle reconciling the idea of a naked robot whenever he displays his artwork but that’s not our discussion point. we are going to examine the two most important women in heathcliffs life: Grandma Nutmeg and Sonja
you see, Heathcliff has a long-term situationship with Sonja. they’ve known each other basically since the beginning and they are always chasing each other but it’s not exactly what you would call a dedicated monogamous relationship. I don’t even think they are official. so it’s no surprise that Heathcliff the artist sees a dedicated area for one of his artistic subjects and he gets a little curious. at first, the idea is so foreign and repulsive that he walks away in disgust. but that doesn’t stop him from producing his robot nudes.
he even starts incorporating Sonja into his process, into the creation and display of his work. in order to express a new robot, without a direct nude reference in front of him, he works to translate Sonja into the robotic form. he is projecting a naked robot onto his will-they-won’t-they. as he approaches the art gallery, you can see how he is eating up the attention, how he is being affected by success.
this is how we end up at today’s comic strip. rather than being present and loving with his girlfriend, he is obsessing over the robotic image that he projects onto her. and we know he did not use to think this way, he seems to keep a firm separation the first time they are strolling with their robots together but it really does seem like his experience at the beach changed his appraisal of the robot form.
as for Grandma nutmeg, she serves as the explainer for the feelings of Sonja , a source of sympathy and a voice for the voiceless.
she also serves as the sort of original sin. there are panels where the robots do not have fig leaves over their crotches. she is the one who puts the initial concept of nudity onto the form of a created life, literally mirroring the outcome of the original sin. we see that play out here with Heathcliff gaining the knowledge of true robot nudity at a natural environment rather than the sterile studio space of his art. the image never leaves his mind and he keeps working to refine his art over and over through the years and eventually fully supplants his girlfriend’s identity in his own mind.
this is actually the earliest example I think I have in my little compilation here and it is one of the ones with no leaf.
it’s truly a messy situation, it reflects a particular reality of heartbreak among artists and getting truly damagingly lost in the sauce.
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