+009_Whinchester the Ugly Pug EVOLUTION_and Existential Fiction *side-quest*( EP.3)
The 10 year evolution of Whinchester the Ugly Pug, and paid subscriber access to the new Existential Fiction *side-quest* (featuring Whinchester).
1.I’ve always been one of those dog people that thinks ugly dogs are cute.
My grandma had pugs.
The poor hideous little things.
With their smashed faces and stiff little peg legs on their Christmas ham torsos. And they have horrible snorting breathing. They’ve got to be miserable, and physically uncomfortable to just exist…
And yet we love them. Why?
Perhaps they symbolize the inherent (redemptive) ugliness of all humanity.
You can’t hide…what’s inside.
2.Pugs and Stoicism.
I liked pugs, I drew them. I began to riff on the ugly pug. Explore and champion their ugliness.
5 years later, as a result of my own life trajectory frustrations, i had discovered Stoicism.
I suddenly saw the pug differently.
They didn’t ask for this. We did this to them. They’re products of an ugly breeding fate.
I asked myself, What if there were a pug that accepted this fate forthrightly, heroically, undaunted.
What if he focused only on what he could control (his reaction), instead of responding to something totally out of his control (his ugliness)
Whinchester emerged.
3. Reminds me of another story
“Once there was an ugly barnacle. He was so ugly that everyone died…”
4. Nine Panels of “Whinchester the Ugly Pug.”
Whinchester, January 2018 edition:
I would draw these with pen and paper in a Star-bucks or a Macdonalds in-between job site work with my dad and freelancing graphic design work. I was in a transient place—out of place.
It was a stress reliever, drawing his little, ugly, and unfortunate life.
He seemed undisturbed by his circumstances…because he’s a pug.
I use to scatter these little zines of the Whinchester Chronicles around town, or sell them for $3.
I love for people to encounter the unexpected.
Pugs? Stoicism? $3 zines of imaginal adventures?
I learn the most from those authentic moments of unexpected discovery, and so I try and create those experiences for others.
In the remainder of this Creative Brief + 009, for paid subscribers <3:
-the 300 days of dan.pdf (another Whinchester evolution)
-a brand new chronicle of the ugly pug Whinchester, as part of the new CODE NAME: Existential Fiction Project
-more abuse of the ugly pug Whinchester
-more stoic detachment.
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