Introducing “Liminal, Mass.”

Dear Reader, the Waltham Times is pleased to launch an original comic strip by Waltham-based cartoonist James Willis. We will run the strip weekly for as long as he has the energy! The comics have enjoyed a time-honored place in newspapers and we are delighted to bring back this tradition. Here is an introductory letter from Mr. Willis.

I would like to present, dear reader, a story about the most comforting place that has never existed: Utopia. As any introduction to Thomas More’s classic novella will tell you, the word itself is a Classical Greek pun between, ‘ou-topia’ (not a place) and ‘yew-topia’ (good place).  

For a good place that has never existed, the Utopian genre — one which straddles the line between philosophy and fiction — has long fascinated thinkers and authors alike, attracting the pens of such writers such as Plato, Jonathan Swift, H.G. Wells, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Ursula K. Leguin and Jo Walton, to name a few. There have even been real world Utopian projects, including Fruitlands and Brook Farm here in our own state of Massachusetts.

What do these Utopian stories tell us about the world in which we live?  

And why would I choose to write a Utopian comic strip? Did I think it would be pleasant to visit someplace nice once a week? Besides, why let the intellectuals have all the fun? Is not the comics page a different sort of Utopian paradise?  Is not Walt Kelly’s Okefenokee swamp Utopian? Is not Calvin and Hobbs the story of a boy perpetually on the quest to escape into his Utopian imagination?  

And who am I? And what do I have to say about Utopia?  Hello, I’m James Willis and I’ll be your cartoonist. I first started drawing when I realized it was far more interesting than paying attention in class. My teachers found these doodles disappointing; they would often describe them as crude and neolithic. While they were busy encouraging me to improve my craft, I was busy spacing out thinking about anime, or whatever. Joke’s on me, because I had to teach myself art and writing, instead of using the school like a school.

But I suppose I never did answer the question, now did I? What do I have to say about Utopia?  

Let me ask you a question instead: What if one of those Utopian projects I mentioned survived until today? What if there were a place, in our own backyard, that diverged from the rest of the world and developed a different philosophy, social organization and architecture?

So I ask for your indulgence, lofty reader, to allow me once a week to take you to this place between philosophy and fiction. Let me take you to a space in between romanticism and pragmatism, comedy and poetry, nowhere special and somewhere wonderful. Welcome to Liminal, Mass. – a place in between everywhere else.

James Willis
Waltham, Massachusetts

Read on: Liminal, Mass. Episode 1