What do we know about Ubik?
As one of the five members of the God Hand, he's one of the most important characters in the series, and yet he remains quite a mystery. We even have more grounds to speak about Void and his abilities than Ubik.
If we had to nail him down to a particular characteristic, it would be the delight he exhibits in observing and dissecting human memories. After all, it’s Ubik who opens portals into human minds during ceremonies to show a human's “true self.” In Volume 12, Ubik calls these "windows into the reality within your conscious realm."
Beyond these clues, we haven’t been shown any explicit affinities. He seems to have a fascination with the human mind. I think that's probably his territory, among the God Hand. But I think recently, readers were given what could end up being a rather insightful look into Ubik's nature:
Of course, it's long been known that the enigmatic two-page spread in Episode 306 of Ubik's "arrival" following the birth of Fantasia was a reference to Hieronymus Bosch's surreal painting, "The Garden of Earthly Delights." Miura has professed to being a fan of Bosch's work, so it's no big surprise to see his most famous piece become an homage.
But recently, I began wondering about Miura's intentions with choosing such an striking painting, loaded with various symbology, as the setting for Ubik, a character we know next to nothing about.
So I looked into the painting a bit, and discovered some pretty cool stuff.
Bosch's painting is a triptych — a work of three panels. His intentions with the painting are not known, however as with many of his other works, the religious overtones are apparent. Among the popular interpretations is that it depicts a sequence of consequences of humanity indulging in sin, and the gradual separation of man from God and divinity.
When the panels are closed, there is an additional panel, that depicts what some believe to be the creation of the world (or the flooding of the world). Rather fitting for the timing of this reference by Miura.
When opened, the left panel depicts the Garden of Eden, and the introduction of Adam and Eve by God.
The middle and largest panel is where the painting's name is derived, depicting nude humans frolicking wildly with hybrid beasts and indulging in sensual pleasures.
Finally, the right and final panel depicts a fusion of aspects of hell and earth, repeating motifs from the first panels, but in a twisted setting. Men are being tortured by hybrid beasts, eaten and excreted, prodded driven and speared by musical instruments, having lost the freedom and pleasures of the previous panels. Unlike the other panels, this one is not in sunlight, but in darkness. The religious reading here is that this represents the ultimate consequence of man's transgressions into the sinful pleasures and opulence of the middle panel. That's quite a foreboding notion when you consider what Falconia represents.
But that's all merely the preface, because the portion referenced by Miura is largely the center of this third panel — the man with tree limbs for legs, with his broken eggshell ass housing people sitting at a table.
While Miura borrows the central elements here quite directly (note the figures circling the hat, almost perfectly represented), it's notable that it's not merely a carbon copy of the work, but a kind of animated interpretation of the scene being brought to his world. Contrasting the two, you can see the level of care and creativity he employed in unifying the scattered elements of Bosch's work, for his own purposes.
For example, he moves characters to the foreground that are elsewhere in Bosch's painting (creatures waving flags, blaring on horns and carrying weapons). And instead of the chaotic positioning of figures in the triptych, the creatures all move in unison toward the left, continuing the previous pages' visual narrative of the astral world's inhabitants coming into the physical world. The figures also don't retain the same expressions or articulations.
So in Miura's depiction, it is as if the creatures in Bosch's painting were suddenly brought to life and were urged in a direction.
Can we learn anything about this particular painting, when it comes to Ubik? I think so, because of the precedence established in other, similar scenes with the God Hand members and their surroundings.
The scenery where Conrad and Slan are depicted during this sequence complements their affinities. Slan is surrounded by a conglomeration of lustful bodies, in an almost vaginal cavern. Conrad’s face emerges from a multitude of rats, within which are skeletons, repeating the death and pestilence motif from his appearance in Volume 17. But what was so special about Episode 306 is that prior to then, Ubik had never received this kind of special spotlight in the series before.
While bereft of text, two passages in Volume 26 shed some light on these scenarios, and what we can learn from them.
This explains a bit of the creatures we see gathered in the scene Miura is depicting, and by reflection, a bit about Ubik himself.
Miura's panel shows surreal creatures marching — some solemn, some cheerful — carrying musical instruments, weapons, and tortured humans, which is of course largely the theme of the right panel of the triptych, the counterstroke to the indulgence of the middle panel. These creatures are hybrids of human faces and various animals, and their exaggerated shapes evoke a kind of madness.
So to me, Miura's interpretation of this historic painting serves a number of purposes. It connects Ubik with creatures from the human mind dedicated to torture, and it was a way for Miura to pay homage to Bosch — an artist he clearly respected and likely one of his chief inspirations for the hybrid concepts in Miura's prolific, bizarre, apostle and astral creature designs.
As one of the five members of the God Hand, he's one of the most important characters in the series, and yet he remains quite a mystery. We even have more grounds to speak about Void and his abilities than Ubik.
If we had to nail him down to a particular characteristic, it would be the delight he exhibits in observing and dissecting human memories. After all, it’s Ubik who opens portals into human minds during ceremonies to show a human's “true self.” In Volume 12, Ubik calls these "windows into the reality within your conscious realm."
Beyond these clues, we haven’t been shown any explicit affinities. He seems to have a fascination with the human mind. I think that's probably his territory, among the God Hand. But I think recently, readers were given what could end up being a rather insightful look into Ubik's nature:
Of course, it's long been known that the enigmatic two-page spread in Episode 306 of Ubik's "arrival" following the birth of Fantasia was a reference to Hieronymus Bosch's surreal painting, "The Garden of Earthly Delights." Miura has professed to being a fan of Bosch's work, so it's no big surprise to see his most famous piece become an homage.
But recently, I began wondering about Miura's intentions with choosing such an striking painting, loaded with various symbology, as the setting for Ubik, a character we know next to nothing about.
So I looked into the painting a bit, and discovered some pretty cool stuff.
Bosch's painting is a triptych — a work of three panels. His intentions with the painting are not known, however as with many of his other works, the religious overtones are apparent. Among the popular interpretations is that it depicts a sequence of consequences of humanity indulging in sin, and the gradual separation of man from God and divinity.
When the panels are closed, there is an additional panel, that depicts what some believe to be the creation of the world (or the flooding of the world). Rather fitting for the timing of this reference by Miura.
When opened, the left panel depicts the Garden of Eden, and the introduction of Adam and Eve by God.
The middle and largest panel is where the painting's name is derived, depicting nude humans frolicking wildly with hybrid beasts and indulging in sensual pleasures.
Finally, the right and final panel depicts a fusion of aspects of hell and earth, repeating motifs from the first panels, but in a twisted setting. Men are being tortured by hybrid beasts, eaten and excreted, prodded driven and speared by musical instruments, having lost the freedom and pleasures of the previous panels. Unlike the other panels, this one is not in sunlight, but in darkness. The religious reading here is that this represents the ultimate consequence of man's transgressions into the sinful pleasures and opulence of the middle panel. That's quite a foreboding notion when you consider what Falconia represents.
But that's all merely the preface, because the portion referenced by Miura is largely the center of this third panel — the man with tree limbs for legs, with his broken eggshell ass housing people sitting at a table.
While Miura borrows the central elements here quite directly (note the figures circling the hat, almost perfectly represented), it's notable that it's not merely a carbon copy of the work, but a kind of animated interpretation of the scene being brought to his world. Contrasting the two, you can see the level of care and creativity he employed in unifying the scattered elements of Bosch's work, for his own purposes.
For example, he moves characters to the foreground that are elsewhere in Bosch's painting (creatures waving flags, blaring on horns and carrying weapons). And instead of the chaotic positioning of figures in the triptych, the creatures all move in unison toward the left, continuing the previous pages' visual narrative of the astral world's inhabitants coming into the physical world. The figures also don't retain the same expressions or articulations.
So in Miura's depiction, it is as if the creatures in Bosch's painting were suddenly brought to life and were urged in a direction.
Can we learn anything about this particular painting, when it comes to Ubik? I think so, because of the precedence established in other, similar scenes with the God Hand members and their surroundings.
The scenery where Conrad and Slan are depicted during this sequence complements their affinities. Slan is surrounded by a conglomeration of lustful bodies, in an almost vaginal cavern. Conrad’s face emerges from a multitude of rats, within which are skeletons, repeating the death and pestilence motif from his appearance in Volume 17. But what was so special about Episode 306 is that prior to then, Ubik had never received this kind of special spotlight in the series before.
While bereft of text, two passages in Volume 26 shed some light on these scenarios, and what we can learn from them.
Schierke: Qliphoth creatures gravitate to similar od
Slan: They're likely floating in their preferred sephira
This explains a bit of the creatures we see gathered in the scene Miura is depicting, and by reflection, a bit about Ubik himself.
Miura's panel shows surreal creatures marching — some solemn, some cheerful — carrying musical instruments, weapons, and tortured humans, which is of course largely the theme of the right panel of the triptych, the counterstroke to the indulgence of the middle panel. These creatures are hybrids of human faces and various animals, and their exaggerated shapes evoke a kind of madness.
So to me, Miura's interpretation of this historic painting serves a number of purposes. It connects Ubik with creatures from the human mind dedicated to torture, and it was a way for Miura to pay homage to Bosch — an artist he clearly respected and likely one of his chief inspirations for the hybrid concepts in Miura's prolific, bizarre, apostle and astral creature designs.