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!