Pages read: 8/27/2000 - 5/26/2003; 1,003 pages; all of it
Reason for selection: This is the first webcomic I was ever personally into, although I didn’t read it until long after it finished. It’s an extended philosophical discussion between the author and their characters, with no fourth wall and total awareness of the medium.
Original run: Updated daily for exactly 1,000 strips (plus three April Fools guest strips), then stopped forever. Author Mason Williams continues to make other, unrelated webcomics.
Content warnings: Lots, and I can’t guarantee I caught them all. These may not reflect the author’s views today, as I haven’t yet read his more recent works, but might affect how enjoyable 1/0 is for present-day readers.
One rape joke
Occasional use of slurs
Frequent misogyny, gender essentialism, and objectification of women
Antisemitic character tropes
Occasional racist and Islamophobic jokes
Occasional homophobic jokes
Lesbian character who ends up in a heterosexual relationship
Heavy focus on Christian theology and morality
Overall thoughts:
1/0 is a comic about the entire lifespan of a universe on the smallest scale imaginable. The universe is created on page one, and destroyed on page 1,000. It is composed of a single landmass – the corpse of a bear – in and endless, empty horizon. A total of twelve characters live here at some point, explore the meaning of life and death, and eventually, leave. These characters are one human man, one rib, one eyeball, three molecules, one atom, one earthworm, one strawman, two golems and a running gag. Almost as soon as the laws of the universe have been established, its end is foretold. The characters know it is coming, are aware of the comic, and have 1,000 strips to live the best life they can.
In concept, I think it’s really, really beautiful. In its execution, I have more mixed feelings.
The concept of the Fourth Wall is used throughout 1/0 as a metaphor for atheism. Early in the comic, the characters request a fourth wall, which is installed for a week (a ‘4’ in the corner of the panel signifies this). It ends up being a failure. Later, a character (Marcus) is so upset at the death of his son – perhaps caused by the author – that he loses faith in him and gains a personal fourth wall (indicated by a tiny ‘4’ in each eye). Some characters accept his different views while others try to convert him, but he is constantly positioned as the fool for not seeing the greater truth of the author, readers, panels and strip.
Of course, in 1/0, the author can be conclusively proven, and talked to directly like a friend or mentor (his speech bubbles are the rectangular text blocks, and all characters can hear them). The metaphor is imperfect. Taken in a vacuum, it’s reasonable for the comic to criticize Marcus’ objectively wrong interpretation. Taken as a piece of media written in a Christian-dominant society where alternative religious views are actively and legally discriminated against, it’s uncomfortable, no matter Williams’ intentions. And while Williams, on his personal website, claims to respect other viewpoints (including atheism), he also says that ‘the goals behind atheistic morality will always have an air of arbitrariness that religious moralities transcend’ (2002), a statement I don't agree with that's very telling about the ideology he brings to the story.
The 1/0 characters invent basic concepts of modern Western society, such as ‘personal property’ (the only possession in the strip is one hat), 'workers' strikes' (against the author!), ‘units of measurement’, ‘the justice system’, ‘supply and demand economics’, ‘copyright law’, and even – accidentally – ‘top surgery’. (Even though it’s unintentional, the trans representation is not bad for 2001 – the author’s ‘no girls in the strip til I get a girl’ that precedes it is far more questionable).
But the characters also have a working, yet incomplete knowledge of Earth via the author. They know what Portland and the CN Tower are, and one character can even recite poetry, but they’re more familiar with the surface trappings of Earth than with its complexities. What they know is sometimes inconsistent and is generally dictated by the logic of ‘what makes an interesting strip?’
1/0 also establishes other fictional universes – early on, the characters portal into the universe of different webcomics, and later, they organize an ‘impressions’ contest where they pretend to be other authors' characters. The laws governing other webcomics, and their differences to 1/0’s laws, are discussed. In this way, Williams has an excuse to organically link to other comics he’s reading, promoting those authors’ works and acknowledging his influences, which is pretty delightful in an early internet way.
I think the overall question 1/0 is asking is, ‘what if God was a benevolent kindergarten teacher?’ The author – whose in-strip character and online persona is known as Tailsteak – spends much of his time patiently explaining basic moral lessons to the characters, who have just come into existence, and don’t have a pre-existing society or ethics system to work within. At times the author scolds characters for their views – one character, Junior, is designated ‘the evil one’, expresses problematic opinions, and feuds with the other characters and author.
In the moment, he’s told that he’s wrong, but he ultimately doesn't face serious consequences. In the end, the characters leave the comic for the human world, and the author gives Junior arguably the easiest life of everyone – a football scholarship to a college where he’ll be in a position of privilege and won’t have to worry about money. This is the last in a series of apologies from the author for forcing the character into the evil archetype early on, but Junior has never really stopped being an asshole. His ending gives him a chance to be evil all over again, only this time with free will. In this way the comic legitimizes human social dynamics, where physically strong and emotionally immature white men are offered forgiveness and unearned success while others are not.
I'm focusing on the negatives, but I overall like this comic a lot. It's filled with moments that are emotionally satisfying, contemplative, unexpected, and funny. Reading this in the present day as a marginalized and non-Christian person leaves me really intrigued by most of what it's doing, and wishing its ideas were explored without the accompanying prejudices. There's other works that do that, of course, but I haven't yet found one with the charming simplicity of this one - and even if I find it, I won't be able to go back in time and make it important to my younger self the way this was.
Relevance to Homestuck: [ooc - contains spoilers for Act 5]
1/0 is a creation myth. It explores what it takes to make a universe – can anyone simply say ‘once upon a time, there was a universe in which everyone was happy, the end’ and create one, over and over? If so, does what happens in that universe mean anything, if there’s no nuance or complexity to its existence?
Although 1/0's world is on a tiny scale and Homestuck deals with the entirety of reality, they’re asking the same metaphysical questions about stories and existence. Do characters have feelings and experiences outside of what is seen by an audience? Can a character be ‘duplicated’ from one universe into another, and if so, do they know about the other versions of themself? What does it mean to have free will or your own personality when you're a character in a story? What happens if an all powerful figure who isn’t the original creator tries to take control of the comic?
1/0 just barely experiments with art style and medium, dipping its toe into the ocean Homestuck would leap into.. Williams admits he ‘[wasn’t] as adventurous with 1/0 as [he] could have been’, a choice that was partly intentional - but there are moments when he invites guest contributors, draws in somebody else’s style, or turns the comic into an RPG and rolls for a character’s action. In a stylistic parallel, each 1/0 character types in a unique font that represents their personality, giving their speech a sort of ‘quirk’.
Finally, both Homestuck and 1/0 could be read as a metaphor for the birth and growth of the internet, for spending your adolescence online and then leaving to enter the ‘real world’. In 2002 Williams said the following about spending his time online, which may or may not intentionally parallel his characters’ experiences in the comic, but feels poetic either way.
‘I get to be here as this new world cools from its primeval fires. I get to watch and, in some small way, participate in the infancy of a radical new society. Life is changing, and I get to be here in the middle of it.’
Continue reading? I reread the whole comic in two evenings. Despite my problems with it, I will probably return to it in another decade for a third read.
Anyone else remember 1/0? It was an old webcomic with ZERO fourth wall. The characters have regular conversations with the author all the time.
The cast includes:
A rib taken from a guy from another webcomic who then escapes into its own thought bubble
One of the eyeballs of that rib who has telekinesis and hates the author.
A molecule from the eyeball that splits into two other molecules and comes back as a ghost
A person made out of grass
A couple of dirt golems
An earthworm
Oh and they all live on the corpse of a bear taken from yet another webcomic
*whispers* 1/0 is pretty misogynist, homophobic, transphobic, and racist at times, but holy heck it’s still one of the greatest explorations of the fourth wall, self-referential writing, and the nature of creation i’ve ever seen
Illaman and One Over Zero - Thanks, I've Been Dave [Audio]
Here is the full length album “Thanks, I’ve Been Dave” from London pairing of Illaman, produced by One Over Zero. Its ten tracks of poetical and emotional discharge with several interludes and comes off like an experimantal mix-tape. Its full of a few things that have haunted Illaman in past and recent years including subject matter across addiction, loss, depression, death and finding…
