Creature Feature

Creature Feature

06 April, 2009
by: Tom Jeffreys

'Oh my friends, there is no friend!' Was it Aristotle who said this? Well, names as great as Montaigne, Nietzsche and Derrida assume he did, but it's possible that he may not have done. Anyway, who am I to argue? Let's just run with it. What Aristotle was (probably) saying is that one should not have too many friends, otherwise they cannot really be classed as 'friends'. In a world where Lily Allen (at the current count) has 440,989 friends on MySpace, Aristotle's ideas may have more validity than ever. Or less. Whatevs.

What we can say is that, although online friendships are different to 'real' friendships, they still have power. We at Spoonfed, for example, like to think of ourselves as friends with online arts and literature 'zine Creature Mag. We have similar areas of interest and overlap, but a different style and ethos. Where Spoonfed is (at present at least) exclusively London-centric, Creature Mag is based deep in the idyllic Wiltshire countryside. Where Spoonfed is constantly updated every day, Creature Mag is, in its own words, 'released sporadically' – these are artists not slaves to regularity. I've been a fan of Creature Mag for some time now and the Creature Mag team say they use Spoonfed a lot. So that's all rather nice.

But, apart from a spot of mutual back-slapping, what are we saying? Well, we're letting people know that Creature Mag have just issued a call for artists for their next edition, to be released in three parts each themed around – guess what? – friendship. The idea is to look at how so many of us are inspired by the people we see every day: friends, family, or even just that mad guy you occasionally pass on the street.

Illustration, by nature, is a medium that lends itself well to an exploration of friendship. Wikipedia (less of a friend, more of an idol for me) says that 'the aim of an illustration is to elucidate or decorate textual information' and whilst this is not always the case, there is certainly the sense that illustration works with and alongside other forms of expression. Like a close friend or ally.

Given the nature of such a theme, Creature Mag is also encouraging entrants to collaborate with friends in order to produce submissions. Of course, you don't have to, but it might just be a nice thing to do. And you don't need 440,987 chums (interestingly, Lily's pal quota has gone down by two since I started writing this). Just one will do.

For more information on submitting an idea, see Creature Mag's Call for Creative Friends.

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Tom Jeffreys