Believed Behavior No.2: Never-Ending Self Actualization

How does one improve oneself? As human beings, we always question our own actions and behaviours. We want to be the better version of ourselves. Abraham Maslow described this as "self-actualization"; the desire of humans to become actualized to their full potential, to become all that you can be. In this issue of Believed Behavior, we meet characters who take (or took) active steps to reaching their full potential. Whether it's becoming a poet, realizing that you've made a wrong career choice, becoming an airplane or learning to recognize colours by touching them, these characters are on a quest of self-actualization.

I've talked about Believed Behavior previously and some of what I said still applies. Believed Behavior is a multimedia comics experience. Two issues are out and a third issue is coming out in June 2015. It's a collection of short form comics printed on newsprint as well as an online web platform that allows you to read the comics the way you want. Once you buy Believed Behavior, you get a copy of the physical object and have access to the full issue online. You can grasp at the ephemeral aspect of the comics in two ways that are completely disposable: newsprint and data. 

While the first issue lacked focus in terms of subject matter, the second issue`s focus is much narrower. As I said earlier, we meet characters who are on a quest for self-actualization. This issue features comics from Anya Davidson, Lale Westvind, Lyra Hill, Sophia Foster-Dimino and Michael Deforge. We start with Michael Deforge's story in which a woman has her body surgically altered to become an airplane. She always wanted to fly and blew her trust fund on the surgery. As the story progresses, she finds it's not as fun as she thought it would be: "This is less chill than I imagined". The comic leaves no answer as to her future except these bittersweet moments of loneliness and reconsideration. Then Anya Davidson shows us this weird world of masculine factory workers, where one employee wishes to be a poet. He keeps this close to his heart as he's afraid of what the others will think of it. In the end, it seems that his aspiration to become a poet has no impact on anyone`s lives. Sophia Foster-Dimino's comic is about a young bodyguard hired to escort a monk across the land, during which she quickly realizes that she's not up to the task.

Perhaps the most impressive comic in the package is the one from Lyra Hill in which a blind boy in a neon shop learns to recognize colours with the help of his father. It is quite moving and very well executed, particularly when you consider the really short nature of the comic. Additionally, Lyra Hill also did an artistic performance of the story of Papa Neon, which can be seen on Vimeo. It's quite impressive and ties into the ephemeral themes as well. This performance, much like data, is immaterial. It has happened and will never happen again. We can see it, but we'll never experience it.

The medium of the comics allows you to reflect on the nature of the content. It makes you reflect on the longevity of those moments of self-actualization. Believed Behavior is printed on newsprint. This type of paper is thin, cheap and easily destructible. It's very nature is forgettable and bound to disappear over time, so to are our moments of clarity when we achieve our fullest potential. We evolve, as do our needs and psyche, and we can only achieve our highest potential for so long until we change and need to reach for new goals and a new self-actualization. Can these moments be everlasting? According to both the content and medium of Believed Behavior the question has a clear answer.

Believed Behavior Season One: Poetry, Experiments & Distribution Methods

Onward to the future

What is Believed Behaviour? It's a multimedia comics experience. A collection of short form comics printed on newsprint as well as an online web platform to read the comics the way you want. Once you buy Believed Behavior, you get a copy of the physical object and have access to the full issue online. You can grasp at the ephemeral aspect of the comics in two ways that are completely disposable, newsprint and data. And somehow, this isn't a bad thing. I'll get into this later.

The comics contained don't appear to be tied to any themes, but they are connected by their page structure and an apparent desire and intent to experiment with the panel while maintaining a rigid structure. 12 panels per page, 2 pages per comic, that is all a artist gets. The results are varied and very interesting. We first get Floriculture by Krystal Difronzo, who illustrates her tale with wonderful colours and gruesome details. The majestic life of the flora contrasts brilliantly with the failures of the flesh. Difronzo creates a wonderfully eerie experience as the poetry reminds us that even nature decays with each season. 

We move on to another short comic by Edie Fake in which a demon tries to get into a faceless protagonist's house through the window. We only see the window as a demon teases and slowly infiltrate the house. Each panel acts as a window over time. It's a pretty clever use of the rigid panel structure to do something new. 

The final comic by Andy Burkholder explores a protagonis`s state of mind. It uses an extremely slow action, a water droplet from the condensation of an AC unit falling down on a man's head, and uses it to explore mental health issues (Autism I think). The character's thinking about writing an email to Rose, and uses narration boxes in overdrive to reflect his train of thought. He is constantly forming incomplete sentences and beginning anew with more information before finishing up. It becomes so large that the narration box overwhelms and take up more than half a panel at times. 

This first collection from Believed Behavior is interesting and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Above all else, I liked how they experimented with the distribution process. You can get a surprisingly long preview online and you unlock the full comics of the issue once you buy the book, you also get a newsprint of the comics. Both of the mediums used, newsprint and data, are unreliable and ephemeral. The newspaper pages are flimsy and likely to be destroyed, while the website and data are just as likely to disappear for a variety of reasons. Beyond this elusive longevity, there is something really refreshing about Believed Behavior. Perhaps it is its innovative online platform or it may be that it embraces the disposable aspect of physical comics, which was for a long time a staple of comics themselves. I would recommend it to anyone interested in looking at an experiment in webcomics and publishing. This is a look at possible alternative models in publishing.