It’s Iimi! The Battle of Founder’s Day!

It’s Founder’s Day in Babylon, which is used to debate the issues leading up to the election. Iimi’s friends are arguing to prevent rezoning that would enable adult bookstores and abortion clinics. However, Iimi is sidelined as her mother thinks it may overload her.

When Rick and his friends confront her, and as certain members of the mosque watch with antipathy, will she manage to avoid that overload on…  The Battle of Founder’s Day

Image and Works Credits

Iimi’s debate with Rick and company was partly inspired by Peter Kreeft’s Three Approaches to Abortion. My own presentation is, of course, simplified, and I recommend looking at his book for the whole argument.

Some images used in this comic (including the pregnant woman on page 20) were AI drafted by the author using NightCafe and then edited by the same. No artist names were used in the prompts.

I’ve always said AI especially mishandles two kinds of images—hands and airplanes. I learned of a third one when working on this comic. Pregnant women. Most attempts looked like the woman was 15 months pregnant with twin elephants. I had two results that seemed passable. The one I used in this comic seemed better.

It's Iimi! The Last Bridge…

Gus finally came back to Babylon to talk with Della. But he’s shocked when he sees evidence of what Della does for her side jobs. Pressing on with what sort of life they can build, the question is, what will they do when they face… The Last Bridge

Post-Comic Notes:

…and so Gus exits It’s Iimi. I envisioned a much more significant role for him when he was introduced. I couldn’t quite manage to pull that off. I’ve learned that character relationships must be plotted to the timeline like other events. When I “started the clock” and began having the characters age, it was already too late to start doing that.

 

While Gus was created black to show racism is incompatible with Catholicism, it made things more difficult as he and Della headed toward their breakup because people would no doubt see it as a factor. I had to consider whether things that were intended as typical breakup issues might instead be seen through the lens of stereotypes. Readers would understandably wonder whether his demands were supposed to be stereotypes. They could legitimately wonder if Della’s resistance to marriage was due to racism.

All I can say is, no. This was never my intent. Gus was designed to be both an upstanding young man and a fallible human being. He’s certainly not the “villain.” The Della-Gus breakup is meant to show a college relationship that could not stand the test of incompatible plans outside of college. They’re both just a little too rigid to make it work. Maybe he’ll have his own happy ending. Della’s future is yet to be revealed.

Image Credits

Some images used in this comic were AI drafted by the author using NightCafe and then edited by the same. No artist names were used in the prompts.