Archive for May, 2010
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Tales of the Vikings and their penchant for rape are greatly exaggerated. They didn’t just rape, they also burned. Get it right, people! Come on!
The Vikings, also known as Ostmen, are actually woefully misunderstood. Their culture is difficult to understand by modern standards and was difficult to grasp by outsiders in Europe even at the time. It’s no wonder that many people today look at them as the paradigm of brutality. While I can’t be considered an expert history buff, (damn you, Kate Beaton!) I have heard it said that there are more reasons behind the Viking Invasions than the ones usually asserted; namely expansion of power and overpopulation. According to some sources, around the late 700′s, there were forceful conversions taking place against pagans by fanatical christian soldiers, mostly under the rule of Charlemagne. It was partially these acts coupled with the aforementioned reasons and a lack of pack ice in Scandinavia that seems to have pushed them into their famous role of pillaging. Never mind the fact that many of the Norse people often settled peacefully, shared technology and ideas, and were model immigrants, but I digress.
Old Norse culture is confusing enough and their mythology can be even moreso. The Ostmen were, primarily, peaceful agricultural folk with their own religion, system of governance, and ideas about morality. As with most human beings, however, those moral and cultural values were left up to the individual to enact. There are instances in the Norse myths where eloquence and wisdom are prided above all else. The mighty Odin hung himself from a tree and put out his eye just to gain the power of insight. There are also moments where nothing matters but strength and power which we often see in the example of Thor. The Ostmen were a group with diverse beliefs and while strength and power were certainly valued, no one was more respected than the wise and eloquent. Alongside these examples lie the many confusing interpretations of women within their myths. The Valkyrie, brave and heroic women serving as warriors for Odin, stand out as clear examples of powerful and respected females. There are also stories of shieldmaidens, giantesses, and godesses who, essentially, don’t put up with no shit. Contradictions apply to this particular area as well. There are instances of women being fought over as objects and there are many accounts of women being raped in the pillaging process throughout the Viking Age.
So what do we take away from all of this? There’s a lot of knowledge and insight to be gleaned from the myths and cultures of the past but it’s helpful to look at it holistically in the terms of the people who believed and lived in them. The Norse people were, above all else, individuals and their history has been altered and misunderstood for a long time. It behooves us to really learn about them and spend time with their stories and tell others rather than to just believe whatever we hear or see in pop culture. Learning this about the people of the past helps us apply it to the people of the present. No group is comprised of clones all believing the same set of ideals. Individuality asserts itself everywhere within humanity. Pushing the notion that everyone agreed on everything and fell into little homogeneous groups in the past muddies our thinking about the present and leads to all sorts of nasty consequences in the future.
Those consequences are what might really bring about Ragnarok and if we don’t recognize it, I’m sure Odin’s going to have some shit to say about it.
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There were so many body parts left un-discussed in Washington Irving’s Legend of Sleepy Hollow. That rider could have been missing anything, but no, Irving had to go the uninspired route and leave him headless. How dull.
This comic is now a venue for the very best butt jokes.
One of the interesting things about legends and stories is the sheer ridiculousness of the vast majority of them. Things that couldn’t possibly be true are held as real by people that, for some strange reason, desperately want to believe them. The people in Irving’s tale mirror many of those in the world today. There are many individuals that cling to strange stories and rumours of monsters despite the lack of facts involved. A few hundred years ago, there were legitimate fears about specific places and a general lack of knowledge lead to the dissemination and belief in stories that made no sense. Nowadays, however, we still hear ridiculous rumours and people immediately believe them. We can assume one of two things: A) these people are fools and are ignorant or B) they have a need to believe in more than meets the eye. Perhaps the world we live in now lacks a certain mystery and spiritual quality that it once had, I really can’t say for sure.
That’s not to say that we should stop wondering, stop being curious, give up searching for new and strange things. It’s just that we need to use our heads as well; temper curiosity with reason. That’s the lesson to take away from Irving in this case. If you let fear rule your life, nothing good will come of it.
All I know is that if you tell people about a spectral horseman with no head, they might wonder about it and take it seriously, but if you tell them about a horseman with no ass they’ll laugh it off.
Really though, it’s all a joke.
Oh and there are still shirts available! Get ‘em while they’re hot!
And look at that…news post links are finally back!
Ninja. The name alone conjures images of silent, deadly assassins from Feudal Japan. What do you think of when you think about ninja? Magic? Mysticism? Deadly martial arts? Vanishing acts that involve a piece of wood? My answer is: all of the above.
Thanks to Liz for this strip idea!
Ninja are probably the closest thing we have to an example of a serious modern myth in evolution. Hollywood, video games, and books all have something to say about the mysterious assassins but almost none of it is actually correct. Like most myths, there are elements of truth and because we’re closer to the real lives of these people, we can see it a bit more clearly. In a few hundred years people may not even remember what they were really like, even though ridiculous stories will still be told about them.
I guess we know a bit about why Lil K resorts to murder so often, now. His secret is revealed at last! Too bad this comic hasn’t got anything resembling continuity or this could be an incredible plot twist!
Today is my end-of-year critique for school. Once this is over I can finally relax a little bit and find some time to get things done. Buttons, mini comic, and a brand new comic will be forthcoming over the summer, not to mention a proper hub site for Studio 10kM. I am looking forward to it!
*Do you love your family? Would you like to see them left un-devoured? If the answer is yes, you should probably buy a happle tea shirt. Dire Owls will know to leave you and yours alone!*
Frogs. What is there to say about ‘em? They’re wet, amphibious, often times colourful, sometimes poisonous. What doesn’t science tell us about them? How about the fact that their jokes often go horribly, horribly wrong? Bet you didn’t know that!
This particular story is from a group of people in Africa and it is pretty amusing without embellishment. Essentially, Gazelle (with a capital G) talks to Frog (with a capital F) one day during the start of the dry season. Everyone knows Gazelle is pretty gullible so Frog talks up his incredible powers of resurrection. That night, Frog goes home and Gazelle, without any warning, burns the poor guy’s house down. Months pass and the local animals mourn the loss of Frog and his family who were much respected and loved in the community. Finally, the rains return and, miraculously, so do the Frogs and their children. Everyone is stunned, especially our friend Gazelle. He asks Frog about the afterlife and receives a detailed description about its heavenly delights. At this point, Gazelle goes home, lights his house on fire while he is in it and expires. Nobody mourns the loss of such an irritating creature, least of all Frog. He chuckles to himself that Gazelle never realized he and his family simply buried themselves in the dirt every year at the start of the dry season.
Now, the story pertains to the seemingly miraculous return of the frogs during the dry season. The essential theme I see is that it behooves us to learn about what happens around us. Lack of that knowledge could prove to be our undoing. Worst of all, that fate is our own fault.
Thanks a ton to everyone who has bought shirts already! I appreciate your support and funds are going toward making buttons and keeping the sites running! Three button designs are heading off to the printer’s tomorrow and if the shirts sell quickly, I will be working on new designs and maybe printing some extras. We’re already almost out of smalls, but we have a decent amount of the rest of the sizes! Also, if you’re curious, the shirts are actually 16 dollars, shipping is 3, so they’re not THAT expensive. Thanks again to everyone purchasing them!
Fear brings out some pretty crazy stuff in people, things you might never have imagined.
The creature mentioned in the strip, albeit briefly, is the brollachan: a strange monster from Scottish lore that is sort of undefined in its appearance. In all the stories pertaining to the creature, this is one fact that remains unchanged. It somehow hasn’t got a shape of its own. Some stories tell of how it takes the shape of whatever you fear the most, a trait it shares with one of the creatures in the Harry Potter series, I believe.
This comic raises a lot of questions. First: who is Sasquatch’s dad? Second: How many people has Lil K murdered? Third and most importantly: How does a ghost have a ghost? I feel like that last bit needs to be explored in a later comic.
The store is now working properly, shipping is working right, the costs are working properly, and you will be asked to supply an address as is only right and proper in shipping products. I’m terribly sorry that it took a few days to sort it out but now that it’s working, it should be easier next time around. As I’ve said before, buttons shall be offered soon alongside the shirts. This brings me to my next point.
I’m offering everyone a chance to help decide what the VERY FIRST Happle Tea mini comic will be! I’ve got some ideas and you can all give me your thoughts via twitter and tell me which one you like best. Then I will print them and sell them after the 1 year anniversary of Happle Tea on July 1st. Stay tuned to Twitter, next week I’ll let you know what the choices are!
UPDATE 2: I believe the store is actually working now. If you have any trouble buying a shirt, alert me via email at k@10km.org or on twitter: @happletea.
Demons these days don’t have to work very hard. Traditionally, the work of tempting mortals into sin was about the only thing in their professional lives. Now that television and the internet have been invented, I’d guess they’ve got a lot of free time on their hands.
How do you compete with free internet porn, violent television programming, and reality shows? Here’s a hint: You don’t. You find yourself some other marketable skills and you get working.
This strip doesn’t really do justice to the topic of demonology, unfortunately, but this surely won’t be the last we hear about them. The whole area is, as we say, a target rich environment, at least when it comes to writing strips about myths and monsters.
Thanks to my cousin Kevin for supplying the basis for this ridiculous strip scenario! The demon living in his house will hopefully appreciate this strip as well.
There are some new things for you to gaze upon! First of all: the store is now open. There are shirts but they are limited. I will be sending them out as I get them and ordering more if the demand seems great enough! If you would like to declare your love for Alex, my model, please email me so I can pass on your proposal to him directly.
Second: New Fanart! The lovely Liz has created a clay version of Lil K and Helena has portrayed Dire Owls as they relax and intrude on poor K’s already cramped and terrifying lifestyle. View them and appreciate them!
Finally but probably most importantly: My brother has finally created an Etsy account on which to peddle his hand crafted wares. He is a blacksmith and crafter of various things and is incredibly knowledgeable about Norse runes and rune carving. He has some cool little things on his Etsy account right now so if you like that sort of thing, maybe you should purchase one and encourage him to create more? Check it out here: Forge the Sampo
Hypocrisy is nothing new in the world of politics. Unfortunately for politicians, television and the internet are now there to record and spread their every misstep. It seems like every day I hop onto various news sites and read about some self-styled leader-type reaching for new levels of douchebaggery. When you consider the entire history of their particular business, it must seem a tremendous task. How do you top the likes of Stalin or Hitler? I suppose you can’t beat them in terms of tyranny in the sort of globo-politi-whatever we live in today, so you’ve just got to go for extra points in style.
When it comes to style, nobody, and I really mean nobody, beats America. We have so many power-strength dickheads in our government screaming about homosexuality, abortion, and other choices that you’d think would be left up to individuals that our news organizations can’t reasonably cover all of the preposterous antics they get up to. We’ve got Republican “Family Men” who wander off on the Appalachian Trail and end up banging some South American woman, we’ve got Democrats trying to get it on with other dudes in airport bathrooms, and most incredibly of all, we’ve got plenty of clergymen molesting children. There seems to be something about a desire for power that goes hand in hand with being a complete asshole.
Does my contempt for these people show? Let me try to reel it in.
The funniest part about all the shenanigans surrounding these “morality” issues is that the individuals screaming the loudest about them have been shown, quite frequently, to be engaging in the very activities that they are supposedly against. The best ones are the ultra-conservative buffoons that bash homosexuals and court the lowest common denominator amongst us by speaking out against gay marriage and then engage in sex with other men! In that context they play the parts of both victim and villain in some fucked up melodrama I can’t even begin to wrap my head around. It’s like looking at an MC Escher Painting, or something.
I know this isn’t a mythology strip, I apologize, but I do like to mix it up every now and again. I was a political science major for a whole year before I realized I despise the sorts of people that become political science majors and became an art student, so hopefully you’ll indulge me here.
I’d thought, at one point, that I could make a difference in the world by standing on a soapbox at political rallies and telling people that thinking certain ways was wrong. It turned out that I was wrong. I’ve since realized that the best way to really touch peoples’ lives is to create things that they can identify with. The most life-changing experiences I’ve had have been with books, comics, and art and they’ve been pretty substantial. I started drawing comics and writing because of Gabe and Tycho over at Penny-Arcade. I learned to believe in myself when I was young because of JRR Tolkien’s The Hobbit. Now, I write every day and draw constantly so that someday I can have a dialogue with people about what we think is important.
And if we can’t have a dialogue, I hope at least that I can make you smile or, even better, make you laugh.
Because butts are pretty damned hilarious.
Unfortunately, I haven’t really got a lot of time to write today. End of the semester is in full swing and I am drowning in work to get done.
I will have more to say on Friday, hopefully.
UPDATE: I think I’m going to be deleting the happle tea fan page on Facebook. There are some privacy concerns and data rights issues on that website that I don’t really want to be part of. To make up for it, I have created a Twitter account that I will (hopefully) have an easier time keeping up to date on comics updates and quick news blurbs during the week.