Omega: The Unknown

The jacket copy on this one opines,

Beneath the quirky veneer of Omega the Unknown is a sensitive meditation on friendship and the emotional subtexts that make it an important asset to navigating the world on your own terms.

That blurb makes this book sound way more boring than it actually is. I don’t think that came out right. What I mean is, this book is not boring. But that blurb is. And this book would be boring, too, if it were just about the stuff that blurb says it is. But I don’t think it is.

There are a few exchanges & soliloquies about franchising that I think are closer to the core of the book. The most illuminating example comes in chapter seven, when Alex is wondering what the fuck is up with all the robots.

Fenton explains over several panels,

It's called 'Franchise Theory.' It's like the difference between White Castle and, you know, McDonald's, or Butterdog's. See, White Castle built all their restaurants themselves. They used to have the burger market locked up. Problem was, any failing restaurant dragged down the whole company. It's impossible to manage so many stores from a central office. When franchisers came along, they kicked White Castle's butt. Franchising means you get other people to build your outlets for you. They do all they [sic] work, they take the risk -- while you expand you [sic] brand all over the place.... See, the downside of franchising is quality control. You can't know what people are going to do with your brand, once you hand it over to them.

And Alex responds,

I have noticed that when people are quite hungry, they become less selective about what they eat.

I’m reading that as a nod toward mainstream comics & independent comics – it doesn’t work out perfectly, but I like the idea of it, and reading the book through that lens was fun for me, so fuck you.

With big publishers, you might to get watered-down superheroics, one character over ten titles, inconsistencies in quality. With indies, you might get less product less frequently, but you might also get a more passionate & unified vision. These are massive generalizations -- just because something's indie doesn't mean it's better, and just because something's mainstream doesn't mean it's worse. I mean, Marvel published this, and I kinda dig it.

The franchisers here are the big publishers, superheroes are their brand & White Castle is everything indie. Mink is the downside, the vulgar result of reckless franchising. Omega is the pensive intellectual, an island. Franchisers sacrifice heart & soul for quantity of output. Indies maybe alienate, what with their aloofness & reticence & often annoying arrogance, but at the same time tend to remain true to a more pure and stringent DIY creative code.

So I dunno if it’s there or not, but that’s how I read it. Sprinkle some Omega salt on your bland franchise burger, see how that fucker tastes.