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Blue Today -
A story about villainy
May 2022

Boxes rain across the sky in the cover of Blue Today No. 1. Each box has a door and a date.  In the foreground, 52422 –  May 4, 2022 – recalls the day of the mass shooting in Uvalde, TX, which had just occurred and influenced the cover. Two bison warily inspect this newest box, with its door cracked slightly open. They are scared of the unknown villainy that might issue forth. 

In comic books, villains have a reciprocal hero: The Joker has Batman. Lex Luther has Superman. And antagonists – of all kinds – drive story lines, stirring conflict and raising the possibility of resolution. The classic Krazy Kat comic of George Herriman, which ran from 1913 through 1944, used to great effect the foil between protagonist and antagonist – with a twist: Herriman’s imagined villain, Ignatz, is a brick throwing mouse aiming always at Krazy Kat’s head. Yet, Krazy Kat remains inexplicably in love with Ignatz.  Blue Today is not that comic.

In the Krazy Kat series, it is unclear how or why Ignatz began his brick throwing. He is a villain without an origin story and the senselessness of his crimes makes the villainy more penetrating. Yet, despite the constant ill-will from Ignatz, Krazy remains imperturbably upbeat. In one strip, after receiving a brick to the head, Krazy says, “In spite of the damaging evidence, I guess ‘All’s Well.’” In real life, this attitude is hard to maintain; sometimes impossible. 

In Blue Today No.1 there is no hero, or even antihero, present, what is lost is lost, there is just villainy and a truly unsatisfying flood-of-blue ending in want of a hero. 

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