Archive for April, 2010
9 items.
Johnny Appleseed is an American Folk hero credited with being one of the first conservationists. Legend has it that he wandered around the country randomly planting apple seeds as a symbol of what he stood for. I’m not saying that’s false, I’m just saying that you don’t just wander around planting apple trees for nothing. You know what I’m talking about.
That fame had to be good for something.
The reality is that Johnny Appleseed, also know as John Chapman, was a real dude with some really great ideas. He stood for conservation, charity, and good will and while reality has got a bit difficult to separate from myth, we do know enough about him to know what’s true and what isn’t. It’s pretty well known fact that he actually planted orchards and not the random single trees he is generally credited with planting. He also didn’t wear a pot on his head, which probably wouldn’t help his business. Yes, his orchards were a business. However, he reportedly wasn’t the sort of businessman you’d think of, even for that time. He did wander around in pretty threadbare clothes, often taking clothes as barter with other people interested in shares of his orchards and giving away the best ones to people that needed them. He also wasn’t keen on harassing people that were unable to pay their debts, often allowing them to pay him back whenever it was possible for them, rather than on a strict schedule.
All in all, Chapman was a pretty great fellow. I remember reading about him when I was very young and feeling inspired to do as he did. Unfortunately, I was small and terrified of running away from home, so I just dug little holes wherever I was after I ate an apple and planted it. Adorable, I know, but I can’t say it was entirely selfless.
I was an apple fiend.
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Commander Emily, born in the midst of the Trojan War, put the Greeks to the test on the field of battle. Her keen tactical mind won decisive victories and held safe the great city of Troy for years. Just when it seemed their hated foes would finally be defeated and go home, she made a fatal mistake.
After the fall of Troy, Commander Emily became a mercenary tactician, selling her services to the highest bidder. It is said she went on to crush her opponents in battles throughout mythological history.
Hey, it’s another Trojan War comic! How thrilling! That whole war is just rife with ridiculous happenings, it’s hard not to write about it, especially this bit with the horse. You’d think a giant construct would have been thoroughly searched when dealing with individuals like the great Ulysses whose tactical exploits and brutal tricks were well known at that time. One of the things I really like about the story, really, is that after 10 years of just sort of wailing on each other, it is brains that conquer brawn. Without Ulysses, the Greek forces would have been destroyed or at least sent packing.
Also, sorry about the lack of info on the shirts lately. They’re still here but I’m working on setting up some kind of store. I think I’m just going to have to use Paypal to do it.
What is there to even say about this one? I honestly have no idea. Diogenes was certainly a maverick, but I don’t think even he managed to find a way to store half a watermelon in his rather wimpy looking beard.
Short news post this week as I’ve been incredibly busy and there isn’t much left to say about Diogenes that hasn’t already been said in the last post. Obviously the man was incredible and deserves some respect and recognition. I’m just trying to do my part to bring that around.
That’ll be all from Diogenes, I promise. We’ll get back to some myths next week.
Hope everyone is having a successful end of the school year and/or a lovely spring!
Diogenes is totally awesome. If you are unfamiliar with the man, you should get acquainted…like right now.
This comic is not really under the general theme of monsters and mythology but Diogenes has become an almost legendary character of the ancient world. There are so many quotes and anecdotes about him, each more ridiculous than the last. The man lived in a tub in Athens, harassed young fops, and ridiculed Plato and other thinkers as often as he could. Part comedian, part philosopher, Diogenes clearly shook up the thoughts and minds of his contemporaries; something we could really use more of today. He was a think-outside-the-box sort of guy, always ready with a quick and often sarcastic retort. His rivalry with Plato was the stuff of legend. For example: when asked to define a human being, Plato replied “A featherless biped.” Diogenes went out and grabbed a fowl of some sort, plucked it, walked back into the forum, held it up for all to see, and declared, “Behold! A human being!”
There are other instances of this sort of thing. Diogenes was, essentially, a philosophical stuntman, the intellectual Evil-Kenevil of his day, and as such, he is easily my favourite historical figure.
Modern tragic figure meet your ancient greek equivalent. He suffered to bring light and warmth to all mankind for no personal gain. You suffer so that your frat might get disastrously drunk at next friday’s rager. You two should have a lot to talk about.
The issue presented here is one of psychological blinders and a lack of personal perspective. In our minds, our problems loom large and unconquerable a great deal of the time. We look at our lives and how difficult they are in the context of the situations we face being the only problems in the entire world. This applies to everyone at one time or another, myself included. The problem, then, is finding it in ourselves to realize that we live relatively comfortable lives. Naturally, life is not perfect for anyone. Even the billionaire can suffer in his own way. It’s simply a matter of scale. How bad are your problems really? How bad is it that some girl or guy you dated for a couple of weeks broke up with you? Is it as bad as say…starving to death in a dry, barren wasteland? How about having your liver torn out by an eagle day after day for 30,000 years? No? Then maybe you can lighten up a bit.
When it comes to massive and repeated suffering, no one does it better than good ol’ Prometheus. Solely responsible for giving humanity the gift of fire (as well as actually creating humankind), Prometheus was punished by the always reactionary Zeus in a serious way. Chained to a rock in the Caucasus Mountains, he was tortured by having an eagle tear out and devour his liver day after day. Being a Titan, (those fellows that came before the gods) Prometheus was naturally immortal and his liver regenerated each morning. For thousands of years, Prometheus was tormented until Zeus finally allowed him a chance at redemption. Asking an important question that only Promtheus had the answer to, Zeus sought to see if the Titan would give in to his rule. He did, and Zeus sent his son Hercules to slay the eagle and free Prometheus.
You would think that after such a lengthy torturing, Prometheus would be resentful, but there isn’t a thing about him in greek mythology after his freedom is attained. One can only hope that he is somewhere pleasant, perhaps a nice beach sipping mixed drinks and enjoying immortality and the fruits of his labors.
Hopefully he can look on us, the beings he helped to create, and smile from time to time.
This is the 100th Happle Tea strip! Amazing!
I wanted to do something different and fun for the 100th strip and, after talking to William about Japanese myths, he helped me cook this little baby up. I felt like it was appropriate material for that. This is the first actual Japanese myth I’ve covered, as well, which is an interesting coincidence. I know I used the Tengu, but that was just a creature. He doesn’t count.
Japanese myth is often very different, I’ve found, from many of its counterparts. There was a time in my life where I frowned upon folktales and myths originating from that lovely island nation, but I’ve recently begun to appreciate it more. It’s a subtle thing, informed by the vastly different and (until recent history) fairly isolationist attitudes of its people. It’s difficult to generalize the entire mythological history of a region so I’ll just say that a lot of the myths do not, generally, appeal to western sensibilities. Many people are often left scratching their heads after hearing one of these tales asking, “What? That’s it?” I’ve been there. I get it. But if you look deeper, you may learn to appreciate something different than what you’re used to and that will deepen your experience as a human being.
Take this myth for example. Ostensibly, it’s a myth that relates (in a sort of convoluted way) the reason behind the smoke seen on Mt. Fuji. But it’s more than that, there are layers to the tale that aren’t apparent on the surface. Those of us in the west growing up in these times often look for our themes in the ending, in how things play out, but what I’ve found in Japanese myth (and other asian myths as well) is that there is equally as much meaning in the events leading up to the end and in the interactions of characters.
There were parts I had to cut (yes, even in a 9 panel strip) in order to relate the bulk of the tale while still getting to a joke. There are also many versions of the story. One has the princess leaving the mountain top to join the moon folk, her body becoming mist as she does so, and that is the smoke atop Fuji. Another has her sending a letter to the Emperor before she leaves and that being the one he sends with his retainers. There is also a large portion of the story dedicated to Kaguya sending various princely suitors on impossible quests. The story is in a ton of books and all over the internets.
Honestly, I’d love to do more strips like this; shorter, maybe, but with this sort of attention paid to the myth. This is my goal.
What is there that I could possibly say about this one? Clearly it is very high concept. If you don’t get it, well I guess it’s just not for you.
Would it help you to know that my brother helped with this one? I blame him.
There’s something that is at once horrifying and hilarious about the idea of giant birds, at least, that is true for me. Birds in general are terrifically ungainly and the thought of one of those preposterous beasts made gigantic is almost too much to bear. Apparently, however, there was a real threat from the skies for our evolutionary ancestors, something that may have been passed down in genetic memory to create monsters like the Roc. The other alternative is simply that human beings are remarkably awful at judging the size of objects in the air. With nothing to compare objects to (no trees, foliage, people, or hot-dog carts) it is nearly impossible to accurately estimate the size of most things in the air. There have been studies that prove this.
The Roc depicted in this comic is rather small compared to some of those told in various Arabic tales. There is good reason, I assure you. I simply couldn’t fit anything larger in that frame. Hurk. Traditionally, Rocs were said to be so large as to be able to carry off a whole elephant in their talons, which is damned incredible.
And now a few things: I have to say thanks to my brother, to Liz, to Andrew, to William and to Alex for always giving me valuable input, ideas, and assistance wherever and whenever needed. I also would like to thank everyone that reads the strips and shares them with friends. If not for all of you, I would be toiling in obscurity. I am keenly aware of how much everyone has done to help promote this comic and for that, you can be sure that I frequently torture myself psychologically in an attempt to produce comic material for you to enjoy, smile at, and hopefully, laugh at.
T-shirts, as I said, have arrived and Alex has kindly modeled them for you all to see here. They will be available starting sometime next week, there are only 50 for this first printing, and the Facebook group will get first wind of what’s going on. If you don’t get a shirt and you want one and if we sell out quickly, we will surely be printing more. Buttons have not yet gone to the printer but I believe we will send them out this weekend.
Front Design
Back Design
Alex Modeling the shirt!
Back Modelin'
You all get a double dose of mythological madness today, though it is out-of-context-mythology. Genies and gryphons in one strip? How could anyone bring these disparate beings together? Why would they want to? It’s madness! Madness I tell you!
Madness aside, the Middle East has a rich background of strange mytho-religious beings. To this day, I believe, (and you can correct me if I’m wrong) djinn are accepted as a part of the Islamic faith. This subset of spiritual beings occupies a strange middle-ground in the heaven-hell spectrum that exists in the Abrahamic faiths and they are seen in many stories as troublemakers, helping hands, and beings assisting both sides of the spiritual war that goes on for our souls. Regrettably, I have portrayed them as the simple wish-granting genies that America has come to know and love rather than the strong, full characters they are in myth and religion. Such is the work of comedy.
Gryphons on the other hand, are not, as some people expect, a European invention and, instead, come from Egyptian myth. You don’t hear much about them in a lot of stories but somehow the idea of them has survived and they’ve taken up a more prominent place in Western fantasy literature. Perhaps it’s the distance they have from currently practiced religion (unlike the djinn) but people seem to feel very comfortable utilizing them in whatever fantasy setting they can cook up. I mean, they’re pretty interesting hybrids, when it comes down to it, so I understand that.
Anyway, shirts and buttons are on their way folks. I have a very limited supply (only 50 on this first printing) of t-shirts that have arrived but I need to work out a way to sell them and ship them to you so they will be available sometime next week or this weekend. The facebook fans will get notice of it first thing, I assure you.
I will post pictures on Friday and let you know what the status is on the buttons which I just designed yesterday!
This is the last Happle Tea comic. Ever. I’m sick of doing this stupid comic and not getting any recognition! NOBODY LIKES ME OR MY COMIC AAAHHH!
JK, yo. April Fool’s! I love you guys.
I wrote this news post on April 1st, so technically it’s still legitimate. It’s not my fault if you read it on the 2nd!
April Fool’s Day has been around for a long time, but the first recorded instance of it was in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. For as long as it has existed, it has been a day devoted to tricks and tricksters. It stands to reason that the likes of Loki would appreciate such a day, albeit probably in a malicious way.
Loki is one of the most interesting characters in Norse Mythology, in my opinion. A trickster and a schemer, he was always up to something and most of the time it wasn’t good. While there is a general sense nowadays that he was an evil god, many Norse myths depict him simply as a clever troublemaker and sometimes a coward. There are many instances of Loki helping the rest of the pantheon, though his nature often gets the better of him and causes more harm than good.
There’s even a story about Loki dressing Thor up like a woman as part of a plan to get his hammer back. Here is a short and concise telling of that particular gem. It’s fairly without embellishment but you get the idea.
Tricksters have always played an important role in early myths and even Satan conforms to the role in certain ways. No pantheon is complete without one, and they will always remain some of my personal favourites. Without someone to laugh at us, criticize us, and point out our flaws in a humorous light, many of us would get too big for our own britches as the saying goes. The gods, characters, and monsters that fill this role are just as important as the shining hero.