Things are rough out there, folks. I'll be honest, I'd intended to blithely rattle off a list of all the things that are going wrong in the world at the moment, but even approaching the task made me want to go and have a lie down. While the youth are sloughing off the existential dread with their skibidis and fanum taxes, my generation was briefly encapsulated by a single webcomic by cartoonist KC Green in the 2010s: This is Fine.
Surfacing around the year 2013, the comic depicts a dog calmly and quietly engaging in a bit of denialism, taking a light sip of their coffee while their home's consumed in fire. As creator KC Green explains in a later interview with NPR last year, it's meant to be vague, but relates to the author's own problems discovering the right dosage of antidepressants:
"I was just like, is this OK or am I doing good? Am I supposed to ignore everything else? It kind of feels like you just have to ignore all the insanity around you like a burning house. And the comic just ended up writing itself after that."
- I played the lost videogame sequel to 1984, and came away more nostalgic than ever for gaming's awkward adolescence in 1999
- After suing a Disco Elysium writer to prevent him from making his own game, a tech CEO who's allegedly banned from the Disco Elysium subreddit is trying to crowdfund a spiritual successor
In case you're doubting this comic's impact on the cultural consciousness, here's a US senator directly referencing it in 2018—even before that, the Republican Party used the comic in a 2016 Tweet as a dig at the Clinton campaign. The Nib then had KC Green redraw the comic with the GOP elephant in revenge.
Anyway, KC Green's making a videogame about the comic now, in partnership with Numskull Games:
Folks... @NumskullGames and I are makin' a game. And we'd like to ask for your help: https://t.co/2ly2r5oGyp pic.twitter.com/nJofVhesEqSeptember 18, 2024
The project's in its infancy, and will be gathering funding via Kickstarter, but it promises to be "a classic, old-school, platformer game wherein Question Hound dives deep into his subconscious to fight the monsters and demons we all similarly have running around our brain. The kind of creatures that feed off of the fear and anxiety of everyday living!" It's appropriately titled This is Fine: Maximum Cope.
You might be wondering why a game based on a comic about sitting still and burning to death is, well, being pitched as a platformer. Burdened with esoteric internet lore about this one comic in particular, I'd like to point out that the dog who burns had some character development after the initial meme—essentially, sitting around and accepting death isn't the main thrust.
In 2016, KC Green made a follow-up called "This is Not Fine" wherein the same Question Hound realises how screwed it is, grabs a fire extinguisher, and screams "What the hell is my problem?! Oh my god jesus f*ck!" and "There was no reason to let it last this long and get this bad!"
In an interview with Salon, KC Green said: "It was definitely a response to how weird and bad 2016 has made me feel and most definitely a lot of others. There’s a breaking point in our society that seems to be tested on a near-constant basis." The pitch for the game—running around your mind and fighting your inner anxieties, almost reads as a prequel to this follow-up.
It's a smidge surreal to be sitting here, looking at the existential dread an artist felt in 2016, and then to look back at the historical arc of the past eight years since and think: Wow, the room's still on fire. The Kickstarter for This is Fine: Maximum Cope will open its doors to funding September 26.
