Hi, I’m Oliver. I’m the guy behind AI Comic. I also used to make those Introvert Comics with the little yellow thinking dude.
I’m a German-American writer and cartoonist. Born and raised in Aachen, Germany, I currently live in beautiful Los Angeles, California. Hands down the best state in America!
I began my writing career in the early 1990s, as editor-in-chief of a computer magazine with a monthly circulation of over 500,000, which was distributed by Germany’s largest publishing house.
After moving to New York, I was the art director for a newspaper in Manhattan, and later the production manager for a newspaper in Brooklyn, before I began self-publishing my cartoons online in May 2000. I’ve never had another 9-5 job since.
I turned the story of my life into a bestselling trilogy, Bad Choices Make Good Stories, which has been downloaded over 100,000 times on Amazon, Apple Books, Google Books, Nook, Kobo, Audible, and iTunes Books.
I’m an introvert. I spend a lot of time inside my head, just thinking about random stuff. Introverts think about more than just being introverts. 🙂
I make comics about those thoughts. That’s why all my comics play out as thought bubbles inside the little yellow dude’s head, and the outside world (the background in the comic) is irrelevant.
At least that’s what I tell people when they ask me why I’m too lazy to draw a new background for each comic.
Anyway, if you’re an introvert as well, you probably spend a lot of time inside your head too, and you also think random thoughts like these…
This makes my brain itch when I’m high.
Does God wake up with a boner?
What is love?
Here’s a little more info about my comics, in case you’re interested:
Reductionist:
Based on or explained by an analysis of the simplest or most basic factors of a complex phenomenon.
A person who believes that everything can be explained by reducing complex ideas or issues to their simplest component parts.
Dictionary.com
Reductionism is the idea that things should be reduced to the bare minimum, because once you eliminate all the unnecessary stuff, the important part really stands out:
It can scarcely be denied that the supreme goal of all theory is to make the irreducible basic elements as simple and as few as possible without having to surrender the adequate representation of a single datum of experience.
Albert Einstein
Here’s the reductionist version of that quote:
Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.
Albert Einstein
Which quote makes his point clearer? The second one.
Simplifying something to the bare minimum was a common theme with Einstein:
If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.
Albert Einstein
In my comics, the important stuff is the text, not the picture.
I try to explain complex issues in as few words as possible in those comic bubbles.
It is my ambition to say in ten sentences what everyone else says in a whole book.
Friedrich Nietzsche
A book can never be anything more than the impression of its author’s thoughts.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Here I summarize the bible in a few words:
I think reducing the crucifixion story to its most basic elements really crystalizes the absurdity of the story.
The little yellow thinking dude is my version of a stick figure.
I chose a very simple, time-saving meme style because it allows me to comment on current events in minutes without wasting hours on drawing, coloring, and shading pointless details.
This well-known cartoonist has a similar idea:
Randy Glasbergen doesn’t waste any time on drawing unnecessary details or coloring.
This famous artist did the same thing:
Keith Haring’s style is famous for its comic reductionism. It almost looks like cave paintings.
Why aren’t your comics funny?
Some are. But not all of them.
Usually I’m just trying to convey an idea and make people think about something they haven’t noticed before.
The task is not so much to see what no one yet has seen, but to think what nobody yet has thought about that which everybody sees.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Comics come in many different forms. Superman and The Far Side are very different from each other, but they’re both comics.
If you ever get the chance, visit the comic art museum in Brussels.
They explain the history of comics. It’s simply a medium that conveys information through pictures.
Cave paintings were comics:
The world’s first comic book, LASCAUX, was published in France 17,000 years ago. It was a single edition, printed on limestone, and arranged in a pair of strips over 128-feet long. The title refers to the medium (“lascaux” is French for “limestone”), but it is also the genre (cave drawings) as well as the specific work of art.
The First Comic Book
What’s an introvert?
Some people on Reddit seem to think that being an introvert is a bad thing.
They think it means you’re sad all the time because you’re lonely. A socially awkward outcast with no friends, who’s trapped at home all day.
They think being an introvert means having agoraphobia, or having autism, or depression.
That’s not what it means.
Being an introvert means you spend time looking inward, and having inner monologues while you actually think, instead of just brainlessly reacting to your environment.
Obama is an introvert, not because he doesn’t have friends or feels lonely, but because he prefers spending time with his loved ones, and spending time in quiet contemplation in his office, rather than crowd surfing.
Intelligent people find spending time with most other people to be tedious and exhausting, the same way a Kindergarten teacher finds it exhausting to be around screaming toddlers all day.
Introverts are very selective about who they spend time with: with people they care about. People who’s opinions they value.
Life is too short to surround yourself with screaming idiots.
All great thinkers and philosophers are introverts. Because you can only think clearly when you turn off all the noise around you. And most other people are just noise.
During the course of life, every person eventually has one or two good ideas, but those usually get drowned out by the idiocy of the masses.
Harald Schmidt
A high degree of intellect tends to make a man unsocial.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Seek not the favor of the masses. It is seldom won by honorable and lawful means. But seek the testimony of a few. And do not count their voices, but weigh them.
Immanuel Kant
Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions.
Albert Einstein
We will gradually become indifferent to what goes on in the minds of other people when we acquire a knowledge of the superficial nature of their thoughts, the narrowness of their views and of the number of their errors. Whoever attaches a lot of value to the opinions of others pays them too much honor.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. The mediocre mind is incapable of understanding the man who refuses to bow blindly to conventional prejudices and chooses instead to express his opinions courageously and honestly.
Albert Einstein
A man can be himself only so long as he is alone; and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom; for it is only when he is alone that he is really free.
Arthur Schopenhauer
We forfeit three-fourths of ourselves in order to be like other people.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Oblivion is full of people who allow the opinions of others to overrule their belief in themselves.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
I love humanity but I hate humans.
Albert Einstein
Great men are like eagles, and build their nest on some lofty solitude.
Arthur Schopenhauer
The man with the greatest soul will always face the greatest war with the low minded person.
Albert Einstein
It is difficult to find happiness within oneself, but it is impossible to find it anywhere else.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Christians fetishize suffering. They claim how you deal with a life full of suffering determines whether you go to Heaven or Hell, because it’s all a big test.
Hedonists believe suffering has no purpose, and you only get one life. So do what makes you happy.
How to be happy: Cherish every moment of joy in your life.
What’s the meaning of life? Enjoy the ride. That’s it.
Epicurean Hedonism:
Epicureanism argued that pleasure was the chief good in life.
Hence, Epicurus advocated living in such a way as to derive the greatest amount of pleasure possible during one’s lifetime, yet doing so moderately in order to avoid the suffering incurred by overindulgence in such pleasure.
Emphasis was placed on pleasures of the mind rather than on physical pleasures.
Unnecessary and, especially, artificially produced desires were to be suppressed.
Since the political life could give rise to desires that could disturb virtue and one’s peace of mind, such as a lust for power or a desire for fame, participation in politics was discouraged.
Further, Epicurus sought to eliminate the fear of the gods and of death, seeing those two fears as chief causes of strife in life.
Wikipedia
Epicurean Hedonism vs Modern Hedonism:
Epicurean hedonism, however, is actually based on moderation and self-control. Epicurus believed that over-indulgence would lead to pain. Instead, he and his followers followed a simple diet and did not aspire to riches, fame, or excessive material belongings.
If someone tried to follow an Epicurean lifestyle today, you would be more likely to find him sitting in a garden with some olives and cheese than at a fine-dining restaurant or all you can eat buffet.
For Epicurus, avoiding bodily and mental pain was key, and he focused on eliminating unnecessary fears and desires. He found pleasure instead from strong friendships, learning, and happy memories.
Some people might expect hedonists to be selfish, but Epicurus built a communal school and residence, sharing all he had with a group of students.
And because Epicureanism aims to remove unnecessary desires, true Epicureans do not take more than what they need or act out of greed. Epicurean hedonism, in its original form, is all about balance and quiet pleasure.
Owlcation.com
Free on Kindle Unlimited. If you’re into NFTs, you can find my Introvert Comics on OpenSea.
Related: When an artist uses AI to create art, is it still art?