Warning: This Comic Will Make You Smarter – Top Cow’s Think Tank
Recently I’ve been reading Think Tank, by Matt Hawkins and Rahsan Ekedal at Top Cow (under Image Comics). It’s a series that started in 2012, ran for about a dozen issues, has had subsequent small series since, and as of 2016, was under movie development.
It looks like a comic that was written for me.
Warning and apology: There is *no* fantasy in this post or in this comic. The story is based on the technology of right now, and what is easily plausible in the next decade or two. Strictly speaking, I would be hard-pressed to call it science fiction. It’s now, just the parts we don’t see.
But in a very real sense, it fits into the aesthetic of fantasy in that we are looking into an unfamiliar world through a story that tells us a lot about ourselves. So, sorry.
People can have all kinds of reasons to use another name, or to change their names permanently, for that matter. There are personal or family reasons, like marriage or adoption. There are political or social reasons, like marking a religious conversion, or immigration – though that last’s not as common now as it was in the early to mid-20th century. My own father, for example, changed his name to Malan because British authorities – to whom he had to report regularly as a displaced person after WWII – suggested that he try to sound less Polish since he was planning to stay in England. He chose a name much in the news at that time, and that’s why my brother and I are often asked if we’re South African.
