This is a Sincerist Thread

August 6, 2009 5:37 PM

Confused about the world of Templar, Az? (Previously), and its three-books of world-building? Well, i09 gives you a run through of the major plots, cults, and sub-cultures that inhabit the comic's alternate history Arizona. Or maybe you should just start at the beginning.
posted by The Whelk (11 comments total)

I read Templar until about midway through chapter two, but I lost track and the new strips just confound me. That IO9 thing really didn't help :).
posted by The Devil Tesla at 6:04 PM on August 6, 2009

I was into Templar, Arizona before it was cool. I have the three books, but more than that, I have early mini-comics drawn by Spike. Stuff she will disavow at a moments notice. I owned a "Sassy Cavy" t-shirt. Probably still do, but the design's all fucked from repeated washing. I was there from PAGE ONE when it was on Girlamatic. I have read all of "Sparkneedle". I read "Lucas and Odessa". I interviewed Spike for Kittysneezes, damn it. I WAS THERE FIRST.

And I'm glad others are finding it too. In a few more years, Spike will be frickin' famous. I will then travel to Comic-Con with a copy of "Al and Gideon Visit Ethnoslavia" and ask for it to be signed. Then, all hell shall break loose.
posted by SansPoint at 6:32 PM on August 6, 2009

I read this comic regularly, but I still have no idea what the hell is going on.
posted by nightchrome at 6:39 PM on August 6, 2009

SansPoint: Somewhere, on a computer backup circa 1998, I have pictures of Ben when he was a panda.

When I discovered Templar a couple years ago, I was stoked to see her art again. Visually, it's all wonderful. But I found it hard to penetrate the walls of text on many of the pages. I gave up somewhere around part two. I loved the Sincerists, though, the faction that wears little cloth hearts on their sleeves, and speaks their real emotions, no matter blunt or selfish they are. Brilliant.
posted by gc at 7:20 PM on August 6, 2009

Lately she's been doing Ustreams of some of her comic clean-up or inking - they're usually at terrible hours for the East Coast, so I only catch them rarely - and they are hilarious.

On a personal anecdote note, though: I preordered book 1 and paid extra for a sketch inside mine. It was like she'd read my mind from my one-word suggestion. It was awesome.
posted by cobaltnine at 7:25 PM on August 6, 2009

Watching spike work is good fun and man, does she have webcomic gossip.
posted by boo_radley at 8:08 PM on August 6, 2009

Templar works best if you save up for a month or three and read them all in a go.
posted by Pope Guilty at 8:09 PM on August 6, 2009

Spike also once mummified her (dead) pet rat.
posted by The Whelk at 8:52 PM on August 6, 2009

Xenophage? OK. So completely a giantess-fetish in-joke, and the female lead cements the impression... and no, I won't tell you how I know. Ask Tarrantino and/or Burton, instead.
posted by Slap*Happy at 11:10 PM on August 6, 2009

Yay, Spike!
posted by palmcorder_yajna at 1:09 AM on August 7, 2009

Sweet. Now I know how to mummify a rat. Thanks for the heads up, Whelk.
posted by kaibutsu at 6:26 PM on August 7, 2009