Everyone Draw Muhammad Day

Today is Everyone Draw Muhammad Day, a day which began as a peaceful protest against the censorship of a recent South Park episode which depicted the prophet Muhammad dressed in a bear suit.  While only the bear suit, and not the prophet Muhammad himself, was depicted (in the cartoon in question, South Park did depict the prophet Muhammad sans costuming in a previous episode) the episode was quickly targeted by Muslim extremists who claimed the cartoon was offensive as depictions of Muhammad are forbidden by Islam.  Fearing reprisal by radicals, some of whom made comments that could easily be interpreted as death threats, Comedy Central chose not to air the episode which in-turn offended a number of individuals who champion Free Speech as a cornerstone of civil rights.

I've no intention of going into the details of the event, the history of violence in response to depictions of the prophet Muhammad, or even to debate the actions of Comedy Central's response.  (I've included links to two relevant Wiki articles at the end of this post for anyone that wishes to read further.)  My only intention is to discuss my thoughts concerning the protest and post my participation.


Why I wanted to participate

Thailand's leaders have apparently found the wearing of underwear so important to the fabric of their society that they've made it illegal to leave the house commando.  As I'm not a member of Thai society, I've felt free to leave the house underwear free every day for several years now.  Religious leaders have introduced their own dictates throughout the ages, supposedly supported by the will of their deities.  As I'm not a member of their religions, and am not convinced their deities exist, I feel just as free to ignore their commands as I do Thai underwear law.

So far the Thai government has made no attempt to force me by way of petition or threat to follow their laws.  Religious leaders and devotees, however, frequently attempt to force compliance with their specific deistic directives regardless of individual affiliation.  This pisses me right off.

I do not believe that extremists, of any stripe, that demand all follow the laws of their religion should be obliged.  In fact, I believe they should be directly challenged.  In this specific instance, Muslim extremists have demanded that all individuals be forced to obey the dictates of hadith because they find disobedience offensive.  To them I say simply -

Too fuckin' bad.

My thoughts on offence

A number of individuals have chosen to participate in Everyone Draw Muhammad Day by drawing caricatures that are clearly intended to offend.  Freedom of speech does have limits, but those limits are set far higher than moral indignation.  Perhaps those individuals are making a specific point - that they not only have the right to depict Muhammad in the same benign fashion the South Park creators did, but that they also have the right to depict Muhammad in a vile and degrading fashion.  Or perhaps they're making a statement about how intimidation through threat of violence often backfires.  Or maybe they're hateful, bigoted pricks.  It's hard to tell.

I readily admit that I'm anti-theistic, but I generally refrain from being blatantly offensive to non-fundamentalists.  For me, this protest was about flipping off radicals - not offending moderates.

Moderate Muslims?

Yes, moderate Muslims exist.  Frankly, I'm disappointed this even has to be mentioned.  Granted, the Muslim population is fairly small here in the US but that's no excuse for a mass display of ignorance.  There are somewhere in the number of 159 Million Christians in this country.  A handful of those millions also happen to be violent nutjobs who use their faith as justification for psychotic behavior.  If I were to paint all of those 159 Million Christians with the abortion-doctor-shooting, child-raping, medically-neglectful, militia brush I'd be called out in a heartbeat.

There's a word for people who use brushes that broad - bigot.



Before I present my happy little drawing of Muhammad, I'd like to present a video and ask that you please watch it.  I've learned a great deal from this young man in the past few days, and I hope to learn a great deal more from him in the future.  If you like what you see give it a thumbs up and if you're a YouTuber, please consider subscribing.









Now, without further ado, here's what all the fuss is about:

I chose to depict Muhammad as a cartoon flame because it has historic precedence and is pretty incredibly non-offensive. Should someone still manage to take offense, I'm secure in the knowledge that I didn't offend them intentionally.

Following Ali's lead - I would now like to direct you to the top of the side bar where I've included an image link to the Foundation Beyond Belief.  If you feel so inclined, give a little in the name of free speech.


UPDATE:  My husbandish did a drawing yesterday as well, only I haven't been able to upload it now... so... we're double-participated.

Related Wiki articles:  Everybody Draw Mohammed Day and Depictions of Muhammad

THIS is why you hire a REAL artist!

So... I laboured over several concept sketches of NinjEel on my own before I decided I might want to try and find an artist.  I liked the sketches I did that were more "hero-realistic", but they took me hours just to sketch, there was no conceivable way I was going to be able to stay consistent throughout an entire comic book and still manage to get the first episode finished before the decade drew to a close.  I also tried a more campy, cartoonish look but I was never really happy with it - I'm just now learning how to create purposely disproportionate characters and, while I really like the look, it's just not natural for me yet.  So (as you already know) I went ahead and sent out a feeler tendril to my first-choice artist for the project, Nate Hammond of Jazz and Jess, who eagerly agreed to join forces.  We had our first concept meeting this last weekend, and after a few rounds of questions and some quick sketches he held the final sketch up to the webcam:

This sketch took him somewhere around three-minutes.  I didn't realize it was possible to so intensely hate and love someone all at once.

Nate did an amazing job at asking the right questions, not only nailing down the look of the character but also what types of gadgets he'd be using, how he'd carry them, how his personal powers would be used, and how those powers could be represented in the costuming.  My only regret in the entire process is that electric eels are so damned ugly - not exactly an aspect within our control to change.

Now, I was already a big fan of Nate's work and I became an even bigger fan after browsing through his deviantART page, so I wasn't surprised by the detail and skill in his sketches.  What did surprise me was how instantaneously looking at the final character design sketch solidified the writing style for me.  Now that the character is in my head visually he's talking to me much more clearly, setting the tone in snarky shades of Sarcastic Scarlet and Ostentatious Orange.  He's taken a clear side-step from what little I know about @NeuroPunk's personality and walked boldly into his own.  The whole comic has taken on a slightly darker tone, less silly and more sardonic, but there's still plenty of humor to keep the education flowing and stomp my ever-present urge to preach the good word of Science.

I'll be sending him the character profiles for NinjEels team next - three fellow scientists who keep him informed, keep him in gadgets, and sometimes... keep him alive.

More updates to come!



* Side note - I'm spending waaaay to much time with the UK, Australian, and Canadian blokes.  I actually added "labour" to my spell check because it's become a force of habit to add the letter u to everything.  Or... since proper English started in, you know... England, perhaps I should say it's become a force of habit to stop omitting the letter u from everything.

Update updates

Here's the skinny:

The Daisies and Shit Blog

The company actually hired someone which should free up some time for blogginating and such once he's been good and trained.

The Daisies and Shit YouTube Channel

I've started playing with the new video camera and software in preparation for my introductory video. I may need to invest in some lighting as I'll likely be filming in my bedroom, which is a den of sweet, sweet darkness. I'm also working on some simplistic into/outro graphics.

The channel is currently populated with my favorite videos made by some of the brilliant people I subscribe to. Check it out here - http://youtube.com/user/weofui

The Daisies and Shit Comic

My eyes still suck, but I'm working on it. I became disgusted with the comics I had started work on and binned them. The new ones, while still in their infancy, are more in line with my intentions. I'm still not giving a promissory start date, but I'll be sure to tweet when the new comics go up. (http://twitter.com/daisiesandshit)

BetaPwned Book

Not going to happen, nor will a "farewell to BetaPwned" comic be posted. I simply can't stand the thought of working on it any more. In the welcomed words of @KO_Myers, "If you're done, move on. Take it behind the shed and bash its head in with a shovel. Don't torture yourself."

Advice accepted.

NinjEel

Rather than delay any longer I approached an artist with a pathetic offering of pennies and percentages and he accepted! Nate Hammond of Jazz and Jess is on the job! WOOT!

The potential awesomeness of the series has skyrocketed now that Nate's on board. I've a great deal of respect for his talent, and he's a stand-up guy to boot.

Dr. Higgins

I've been accepted and fully intend to start classes in the fall... but I'm having a hard time scraping up the cash. Ideally, I'd like to quit the job and go to school full time but I may have to part-time it for a year. My kids would really like to eat, and it's hard to study in a cardboard box.

Shepherd's Pie

This post has nothing to do with food.

Well, not literally at least. I used to specifically plan my meals over the course of a week just so I'd have the right kind of leavings to make Shepard's Pie as a special dinner treat to cap off my weekend. I've been told one can make a Shepard's Pie using fresh ingredients rather than left-overs, but that's as near a definition of blasphemy as this Atheist is comfortable with. There's a brilliant form of magic that occurs when bits of other meals join together in a warm gravy bath beneath a nurturing blanket of flaky crust. The culinary among you might know this magic as "layering" - creating a depth of flavor by utilizing a number of techniques and ingredients to form a single delicious dish. You know how your grandmother's Menudo or Bangers and Mash was better than the versions you find at even the best restaurants? It was better because she used the decimated ruins of family meals. Layering Au Naturale.

Yes, yes... I know I said this post had nothing to do with food and then immediately dove into a full paragraph about nothing but. Or so it seems... oh ho ho.

When defining myself, I typically toss out the word "writer" as a front runner. It's been years since I was actually paid for anything I wrote, unless you count the advertising revenue earned from the webcomic, but I consider myself a writer the same way I consider myself a geek - it's not a profession, but an aspect of who I am as an individual. When I come across a hunk of life's flotsam that inspires me (be it to bliss or rage) my thoughts instantly churn toward what I might write about it, how I might mold it into a script or dissect it in a blog post.

Have you ever met a chef who held left-overs in disdain? Who grimaces and gags at the thought of creating a dish with the scraps of an over-abundant table?

I've spent much of my life saddled with the writer's equivalent of that ignorant attitude. Faced with mere scraps of ideas I'll invariably choose to toss them in the bin. If it's an idea I'm especially fond of I might store it for a bit first, shoving it to the back of my mind where it's ravaged by mental mold and decay. Inevitably I encounter these seeping packages of inspiration whilst laboring through an insomnia inspired bout of psychic housecleaning and wince; like a hoarder coming across the desiccated corpse of a once loved cat.

Right about now you should be wondering if there's a point to all this long-winded hyperbole. There is.

The point:

Please take notice of the new "Shepherd's Pie" tag. Posts thusly labeled are purposely comprised of disjointed commentary. They may coalesce into the literary equivalent of comfort food, or coagulate like potted meat... but at least they're not going to waste.



PS - Thanks to @munkymu of Goth Bunnies for pointing out my original misspelling of "shepard's pie".