The Byzantine plotlines of Gordian Algebra may be confusing. To help you keep up, here's a brief guide to the characters:

There's this guy. He has no name. He has no neck. Nobody in the strip has a neck. It's what scholars call a conceit.

Also, nobody in the strip has a name. But this guy is extra nameless. He drives his car off a cliff, see, and gets amnesia. Readers have tried to call him Gordy or Cliff or Star-Boy, but that misses the point. He has no identity. That's what you call a premise.

This is the red car the identity-less guy drives off a cliff. It's my favorite character.

If you've already read the strip, you know I lied above when I said nobody has a name. This is Dr. Singh. He's the physician who treats the main character after the auto accident. He wears one of those reflectors on his head that everyone recognizes yet have not been used since before television I think. Plus the smock. The smock is rock.

This is a nurse at the hospital. She sports a traditional cap with a red cross, which is a hallowed icon among nurses, despite the fact that nobody wears them. Go ahead, google it.

There are other characters in the strip. Perhaps you can discover them as you read. Good luck!

Gordian Algebra is a true story.

I once heard a noted movie director make such a statement. He was at a theater presenting his latest film. This is a true story, he said. The concept recursed into my thoughts, furling and unfurling, asking questions that could only be answered with deeper questions. A true story. How can we define truth? What, in quintessence, is a story? Can it be singular - "a story" - or does it divide fractally into subsystems of equivalent narrative value? For two hours these ideas pulsed through my brain, which proved one thing: the movie really sucked. But I wanted to stick around for the Q&A afterward.

John Lennon said life is what happens while you're busy making other plans. I think philosophy is what happens while you're waiting for the Q&A at the end. What questions should I ask? If I'm loud, will I get called on? Answer these and you brush against genuine truth.

Which reminds me: the movie wasn't a true story. It was barely a story at all. It was a horror-and-cheese sandwich with the crust left on. Not that I have anything against crust, unless it's all tough and chewy. I don't like rubbery crust. Never have.

And yet, though I spent that evening chuckling irony at the poor filmmaker, I'll never forget how he started his presentation before the show. This is a true story. What a dynamite opening line. Way better than that soury gack of a movie. Almost redeemed it, in fact. Almost.

Gordian Algebra is a true story.

Oh yeah. I'm liking the sound of that.

The author shares Austin, Texas with his wife, children, coffee pot and home equity. He survived the dot com apocalypse and now roams the high tech wasteland like a shotgun-toting, dog food-eating phantom of despair. Or maybe he needs to cut down on the coffee.