Archive for June, 2010
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**UPDATE: The new site is working, we’re fixing up the last of the kinks and working on fixing some of the extraneous stuff like those neat buttons on the side and recreating the rather simple store we had on the old site! This should all be worked out in the next week! Comics resume on Tuesday!**
This comic is about how sometimes we just happen to fall into love without really searching for it. Just kidding guys, it’s about necrophilia. Enjoy it!
Jonathan P. Necromancer makes his triumphant return. I had always envisioned him as a recurring character, but there’s something powerful about him. He asserts himself in whatever comic I write and that’s not always a good thing. I wrote this strip a while ago and kept it on the back burner but it gives him the space he needs to own the strip!
There isn’t a ton to be said about JP Necromancer at this point. His name implies (and rightly so) that his primary motivation as a character involves corpses. Little did we know just how deep that motivation ran. I guess he can’t really relate to normal humans.
Whatever happened to that race for Selectman, anyway? Maybe we’ll hear more about his political aspirations in future strips!
Anyway, sorry for the slightly late update! Ran into some technical issues and lost my colours at one point then had to go out for the night but I fought through with only 2 hours of sleep to finish it early in the day! Hooray!
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Did Icarus listen to his father’s advice? Of course not. He did it all so we could have a cool allegory to point to when people attempt feats beyond their means and fail. That’s dedication, holmes.
The story of Icarus and Daedalus is probably one of the most well known tales from Greek culture. It has spawned numerous stories and even a video game (though that was pretty loosely based on the story). This is one of those stories from myth and legend that you know isn’t true, couldn’t possibly have been true, and which you can be pretty sure most people probably didn’t actually believe. One of the interesting things about myth is that it wasn’t all a part of some dogmatic religion. Looking at stories from the past through the prism of modern religion can be a dangerous thing and awfully misleading. What the tale illustrates remarkably well is the foolishness of youth and the failure that comes from trying to push too far beyond your limitations. That’s sort of depressing to us now, especially in the US where we tell our children “Anyone can grow up to be president!” but it is helpful in teaching us that we all have limitations and we should be aware of them.
Icarus is such a passing figure in myth, it’s a bit sad. You’d think the child of a brilliant inventor who crops up with a fair degree of consistency would be a bit more intelligent and cautious. I guess the story also shows us that not everyone takes after their parents.
Daedalus, on the other hand, is incredibly interesting for a variety of reasons. You’ve got this genius figure who is very nearly the embodiment of scientific thought for his time. He’s making mazes to cage horrifying monsters, he’s building wings for flight and inadvertently burning his son, and he’s crafting some of the simple tools we now take for granted today (the saw, for example). Yet, despite his intelligence and ingenuity, he’s a bit of a confused figure. Some of his work does incredible good for mankind and some of it does accidental evil. The character himself is still very representative of science as a whole. The act of discovery and invention can have unintended consequences.
But in the end, it seems the work of Daedalus and those like him is simply too important. Without risk there is no reward and if one learns from one’s mistakes then progress can be made and that’s important to recognize.
BP has screwed up; we’re talking screwed up in a serious way. No, the oil leaking into the ocean isn’t the problem. They’ve just given it all away to a fierce competitor: Poseidon, Lord of the Sea. You don’t mess with that guy.
Historically, Poseidon has been a temperamental fellow. Numerous mythical grudges come up in association with his name and he was certainly responsible for a number of godly disturbances in the world of Ancient Greek stories. It seems the poor fellow was none too pleased with being given dominion over the sea when lots were drawn for rulership over particular realms. He has managed to hold onto that anger for quite some time. One imagines him in the black deeps, brooding and looking sullen, sinking ships just to break up the monotony of listening to dolphin chatter.
He should really focus on the positive in life. It could have been worse, he could have Hades’ job.
It’s a bit sad that it took an oil spill in the ocean to get Poseidon into a strip. I’m sure he’ll return at some point.
Also just wanted to give a big “Fuck you!” to BP. Fuck you guys, seriously. Good luck with that rebranding propaganda bullshit.
Mermaids would forget their heads if they weren’t attached to their necks. This we know. What we don’t know is why in the hell they would ever marry a human. I mean, how does that even work? Is it like a flea market trade where both individuals just throw their respective goods on the table and try to work something out? Maybe that’s a little crass. In case you’re confused, I’m talking about genitalia.
The scenario depicted above is actually a part of mermaid lore proper. Well, as proper as anything gets when it comes to myths, monsters and folklore. As with all things, there are many incarnations of the mermaid myth across the world. This particular bit is marvelous, though. Your ship is wrecked on some rocks, you are the only one to survive, you’re about to die and along comes a mermaid. She rescues you in exchange for your love, bringing you to her home beneath the sea. She spends all of a week doting on you then forgets that you breathe air and you die. Brilliant.
This is why nobody uses mermaids for rescue operations at sea.
Mermaids are one of those creatures that are beyond weird. It’s pretty obvious that the lore comes from sightings of manatees and dolphins, but the number and variety of ways in which those sightings were interpreted border on the insane. In some cultures mermaids were friendly if forgetful as stated above. In others, they were horrifying creatures that were seen as an omen of calamity. Some were sirens, singing in lovely voices only to destroy those caught up in their sorcery. Still others were depicted as having the feet of a water fowl and the ability to carry weaponry. What the last one is about, I haven’t the foggiest. A fish tail, human body, and duck feet? Yikes.
Mermaids have been on my list of subjects to tackle for quite some time but only now did I think of something interesting for them. Popular myths and monsters are often the most difficult subjects to handle because they’ve been done so much and so often in popular culture. Rather than be cliche, I just put them on the back burner until something good or at least weird comes out.
Vampires today really suck. Typically that would be expected, but I’m not talking about blood.
The modern crawl toward the destruction of anything new, interesting, or vibrant continues around us. There was a point when vampires were pretty fucking cool. Unfortunately, that point began and ended with Bram Stoker. Before that, they were nothing but terrifying horrors that lurked in Eastern Europe. After, they were twisted into any number of preposterous scenarios by people looking for a template monster to use so they wouldn’t have to be truly creative. If you enjoy Twilight, that’s fine, you’re entitled, but I will not debate whether those vampires are cooler than Dracula. There is no debate to be had.
Modern Vampires have their cultural origins mostly in Eastern Europe but the concept of vampirism has existed for thousands of years in countries across the globe. Various blood sucking demons, monsters, and walking corpses have been seen in vastly different cultures with seemingly no connection to one another. Vampires could be created in any number of ways according to ancient peoples; whether a corpse was jumped over by an animal (China), the individual was a heathen who rebelled against the Church (Europe), or the body had a wound that was not boiled in hot water before burying, there were plenty of ways to become a vampire. Creation aside, there were also a great many descriptions of Vampires, even just in Eastern Europe. At one point, Werewolves and Vampires were nearly indistinguishable from one another. Eventually the two became distinct monsters (as if Eastern Europe needed more things to be afraid of) and took on imaginary lives and descriptions of their own. Much like monsters seen today, there was just no real consistency in reports from witnesses.
Whatever the origins may be, Vampires are still significant to modern humans. As part of a shared cultural history, they have something to say about the meaning of life and death, the nature of fear, and the experience of immortality. Like most myths from our past, Vampires have entered into our consciousness and become an archetype for us to use in understanding the world around us. It’s actually an interesting thing, to see that absorption of the cultural consciousness happening around us. You don’t have to ask people if they know what a vampire is. Even if they have never read Dracula or have never seen a vampire movie, it’s highly likely that they do. That’s pretty startling and interesting when you think about it.
But this is how monsters work. They become part of our experience as human beings and reflect the darkness and fear that we feel as a species. When the monsters are no longer relevant, they are left out of fiction and enter the subconscious of our cultures. They become shadows of thoughts projected on the walls of our minds but even those shadows impact us in ways that aren’t often immediately apparent.
Because, as I hope these posts have shown before, the experiences of the past help to form the people of today. People of the present are deeply impacted by the people and ideas of the past and that is not about to change any time soon.
*Sorry for the late strip! We’ve had to move servers and I wasn’t sure if I could post or not so I gave it a bit of time. The slow and often not even working sites (for both para-ten and HT) were a direct result of Happle Tea being visited so much by you awesome people, apparently. Coestar, the administrator and leader behind Xenostarz, where we were stationed had kindly let us hang out on his server but it was getting pretty rough and something had to be done. Hopefully our new home will be the solution and result in more pleasant trafficking on our sites. Thanks to Coestar for giving us a home for the last year, to Kyle Gibbons for giving us a new home, and to both of them for helping us move!*
Have you heard anything from God lately? It seems like that guy was a big deal for a while and then just sort of dropped off the radar. I wonder if he ever plans on getting back in the limelight.
It’s been a long time since I ever set foot in a church, much less Sunday School. I recall some awkward moments questioning the validity of the arguments presented and a reluctance to colour Jesus hung bleeding from the cross with brightly hued crayons. That somehow seemed more sacrilegious than anything I could say. How do you colour the greatest suffering ever inflicted on another human being, son of God or not?
That’s not to say that the focused laser of my eight year old mind was directed only at the Christian establishment. It was not and has never been. I think I was nine when I questioned my mother about the existence of Santa Claus. Does that make it okay? I sure hope it does.
But seriously, Christianity, as such, has never been a problem for me. I have, however, always found it difficult to reconcile the sort of willful blindness people have about their faith. Picking and choosing what to believe is nothing new with human beings, but it always seemed silly to me to call yourself part of an organization with a strict set of rules and tenets and then cherry pick what parts were important to you. Really, I wish people focused more on the good aspects of the Christian faith and followed Jesus’s teachings properly and with action. That’s something I haven’t got the willpower or inclination to do on a personal level and I deeply respect those that dedicate their lives to helping those less fortunate than themselves, in the name of Jesus, Zeus, or nobody at all.
I always wonder what these comics relating to God might mean to a deity of that caliber. How would they take them? Curiosity and humor are things built into us and if such a being exists, one hopes they are as forgiving as one has heard.