Posts Tagged ‘sasquatch’

27 items.

Art History

by K on November 8th, 2011
Posted In: Comics
Art History

All of those great leaps in the advancement of art made by the ancient Greeks were little more than clever use of gorgon heads. The “Golden Ratio”? More like the “Gorgon Ratio”.

Don’t feel too bad if you didn’t know about this sort of thing, it’s secret art school stuff. We learn it in our first semester art history class.

The story of Medusa is a tragic one, as is the case for many of the monsters of myth, though the early tales spoken of her in Ancient Greece were more simple (they state that she was one of the offspring of marine deities, born as a monster and lived as a monster), there is a more compelling version related by Ovid in his Metamorphoses. It goes like this:

At one time, Medusa was one of the loveliest young women in all the land and her hair was what she loved the most. Being such a fetching creature, she caught the attention many men, but none so powerful as the mighty lord of the seas, Poseidon. One day, whilst visiting the temple of Athena, for she was a priestess to the goddess, Medusa encountered the God of the oceans and a terrible event occurred that would change her life forever. Poseidon and Medusa lay together there in the temple, a sacrilegious act in the eyes of the Goddess of Wisdom. The enraged Athena, a strong and willful woman, decided to have revenge.

There was little Athena could do to another member of the Pantheon of gods. Poseidon was a powerful deity and a rival of hers, but this human woman who dared to enter her temple, to don the mantle of the priesthood, and to violate it with such crude acts would be punished. By the will of Athena, Medusa became a gorgon, scaled and hideous to behold, her mouth full of serpent’s fangs, her eyes would turn men to stone, and her hair, her beautiful hair that she had loved so much, became a mass of writhing snakes, each with a mind of its own, always snapping, always restless. Medusa would never again pride herself on her looks and that pride would never lead her to commit such acts before the eyes of the goddess again.

For many years, Medusa lived ashamed and horrified by her appearance. Her rare visitors were immediately turned to stone before her petrifying gaze, until the arrival of the great hero Perseus. It was he, with the magical gifts received from Athena over the course of his adventures, who ended the life of Medusa, beheading her and stuffing her head in a sack.

The story says that heroic Perseus eventually offered the head to Athena who placed it on her shield, the Aegis, and that it became emblazoned with the head of the deadly Gorgon woman.

I suppose that could be true, but maybe that head got around a little bit more, eventually making its way to the art world where it really made a splash.

You know what they say, nothing is truly set in stone.

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Lil K and the Beanstalk

by K on September 30th, 2011
Posted In: Comics
Lil K and the Beanstalk

Any time some character in a fairy tale engages in risky behavior (which is, let’s face it, 90% of the time) I wonder to myself, “Who is going to pay for all the damages their lapse in judgment has just wrought?” I’m pretty sure most of the people in fairy-tale land don’t have home owner’s insurance.

Allev probably doesn’t, either.

The story of Jack and the Beanstalk, to me, always seemed to overlook the whole beanstalk thing in favor of giants and golden geese and whatnot. That stuff’s cool and all, but imagine the size of those pea pods, man! You could eat like kings forever! That’s provided you don’t destroy your house or the surrounding countryside by accident, and provided that you see the value in titanic food crops. See, magic of one variety simply isn’t enough for fairy tale characters. They are gluttonous lot, always looking for the next big thing (pun intended) and never satisfied until they’re a king or they’re dead. That’s clearly not a healthy lifestyle to be teaching our children to be aiming for. We don’t really have many kingships left in this world, so all they have is waiting to die.

Fairy tales. What a nightmare.

When they’re not teaching you to put yourself and your neighbors at risk with colossal vegetable plants or telling children they should really consider royalty as a career option, they’re promoting outright burglary and murder. Jack, in the story, waltzes into some giant’s home, steals all his stuff, and then, as if that weren’t enough, he kills the poor guy on his way out.

That’s a home invasion.

That’s cold-blooded.

You can get 40 to life for that.

It’s all down to greed. Jack couldn’t be content with a gigantic beanstalk that, presumably, produces massive pea pods. No, he has to have more and more until he eventually kills.

I wonder if giants are edible…Seems like that would go pretty well with some huge pea pods…

I guess the point of all this is that if you happen across someone giving away magic beans, it’s probably best not to get involved. Life is just simpler that way.

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Fall

by K on September 27th, 2011
Posted In: Comics
Fall

I love seeing huge leaf piles in the Fall. Even in my 20′s now, I want to jump in them and frolic. I’m always worried that they might hide something like a boulder or a bottomless pit.

Or maybe even a sasquatch.

It’s Fall here in New England, or it will be when this heat wave ends and we’re enjoying the weather cooling off a bit. Fall’s a wonderful time of year and one of my personal favorites, though it’s hard to ignore the coming winter. Despite living in Massachusetts for most of my life, (taking short detours to Arizona and Michigan) I’ve never been able to handle the cold very well. I guess that’s what I get for being skinny. Unfortunately, the only time of year I ever want to eat a lot of food is in the fall, during apple season and by then it’s too late. I need to pack on mass during the Summer like a bear if I’m ever going to be comfortable here.

For people that live in the south and aren’t able to witness a real change in the seasons, you’re kind of missing out. The shift from Summer to Fall is truly gorgeous and it’s all going down now. Trees decked out in reds and golds and oranges, festive colors for a season where everything dies or goes dormant. It’s an interesting contrast.

This is a short blog for a simple comic. I hope you like it. I tried to loosen up and enjoy the inks more and do some watercolor-esque paints.

It’s nice to have a little break and just enjoy the Fall season. I hope you all are too!

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The People Problem

by K on June 17th, 2011
Posted In: Comics
The People Problem

Summer comics continue! Sort of…

There are people, out there in the world, that want nothing more than to create and to enjoy the simple things in life. There are others out there that destroy what others have crafted for a variety of reasons.

And then there are those that simply destroy for nothing more than their own amusement.

Those people are what’s known as jerks and they are to be viewed with scorn. Especially if they wreck your sand castle.

Being the sort of person that is simultaneously broken enough in the head to feel this strange compulsion to write, create, and draw on a daily basis while at the same time being full of myself enough to think that other people would care to read and view the product of my creative pursuits, I think I have a good idea of how people view other individuals’ creative endeavors. We live in a world of several billion people, a large enough number as is, and one that continues to grow. Every person on this planet has a fairly unique outlook and different taste in what does or does not merit their time and appreciation. I’m sure everyone knows this already.

The interesting thing, to me, has never been what other people enjoy. I’m almost always on the outer rim of popular culture, as far my own taste goes. I don’t immediately detest something that is popular merely because others enjoy it, it’s just that the sorts of things very large swaths of the population seem to like rarely jive with my own interests, and that’s okay. What is interesting is not those individual differences but the way in which people handle them. When other people like something that I don’t, I tend to assume, at some level, that there is something wrong with me. When many other people dislike something, the difference often seems to cause some level of confusion and anger as if it were a personal assault that someone else cared for something they, personally, don’t appreciate.

Neither of these options is truly awful, especially not when compared to those that simply dislike things to dislike them. You know the type of person I’m talking about here, the kind that goes out of their way to kick over sandcastles or ruin artwork or tear someone down for their writing simply to satisfy some personal quest for destruction. We’ve all been there at some point.

Thankfully those types of people are few and far between. Most people in the world have some kindness in them and don’t enjoy genuinely hurting others, especially when face-to-face with them. Recognizing that kindness in others is terrifically helpful in dealing with those that engage in destructive activities, regardless of their reasons.

Until the world evolves to a point where that sort of person no longer exists, people that feel the desire and the drive will continue to lovingly explore their creativity. With so many sand castles on the beach of life, destructive types will have their work cut out for them trying to knock them all down.

And if someone knocks down your metaphorical sand castle, never give up! Rebuild and enjoy the process, even if they keep knocking it down! Who cares what other people think anyway? I believe Jesus once said:

Haters gonna hate.

Truly some of the wisest words I’ve ever read.

Oh there are a couple of brilliant new pieces of fan-art from my good friend William and a wonderful twitter follower, KuroTweets! Why not check them out? That place is really hopping lately! If you’ve got some fan art you’d like displayed on the site, send me an email with the image and a link to your art site or blog so I can link it! k@10km.org

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Summer Comics

by K on June 14th, 2011
Posted In: Comics
Summer Comics

We are into the second week of June and, as such, it is officially summer time! You know what that means. Time to go to work and wish you were playing outside! Hooray!

Unless you’re a kid, in which case, this is the best time of your life. Go enjoy it!

Being from Massachusetts with its unpredictable momentary weather patterns and its seasons has made it a little bit difficult to understand what people deal with in places that don’t have seasons. I lived in Arizona for a short time and got a taste of what it’s like and I didn’t enjoy it, though that was mostly because of the landscape, not exactly the seasons. As much as I love the idea of change, the concept of seasons, I’ve never been a fan of winter. The cold strikes me to the bone, I end up feeling pretty down and find it difficult to muster energy to do much of anything. When summer rolls around, it’s entirely the opposite. Naturally, I prefer the summer.

The sunshine, the foliage, the green hills, gentle breezes, summer rains, and sitting outside at night to look at the stars, these are the things I live for. Winter has the rather unfortunate role of simply existing to make the summer stand out in my heart. While I never truly take summer for granted, the winter does make me wish for it more. I can appreciate winter and fall for a while, but sometimes the cold drags on for far too long here in New England.

Thankfully, we’re finally pulling out of that time of year, moving into the season of lying in the grass, reading on the porch, looking at the stars and the like. My favorite time.

I hope everyone is, so far, having a good summer and I hope that continues. Take a step outside and a moment to appreciate all the fun things summer has to offer and all the things it has offered you in the past.

It’s a wonderful day out there!

Also, I hope you enjoy this second week in a row of three comics on Tuesday. I’m trying to keep it up for as long as I have time!

Oh and there is some new fan art up of Lil K hanging out with one of the characters from the webcomic Oglaf! Check it out! So cute! I meant to post this forever ago! haha

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Coping Mechanisms

by K on March 8th, 2011
Posted In: Comics
Coping Mechanisms

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the world is a crazy place. We live in a world where large swaths of the media would prefer to talk about Charlie Sheen’s drug addiction rather than the insanity that is Colonel Gaddafi and the situation in Libya. If you want an absolutely insane individual on camera spouting some of the most batshit rhetoric you’ve ever heard, Gaddafi is some low hanging fruit ripe for the picking. That way you can get the crazy guy ranting AND world news at the same time.

But no, Charlie Sheen trumps all.

It’s enough to make anyone want to go into hibernation until things start to make a bit more sense, but we all know we’d be asleep forever if that were the case.

It’s hard not to look around at the political landscape and the world in general and not feel dismayed, especially if you’re an American with even half a brain. When people in your country start attacking teachers’ salaries while, in the same breath, defending the outrageous salaries of CEO’s bailed out by the US government, you know there are some priorities that need to be straightened out.

I try not to get too political here, so let me reel it in. Surprisingly enough, politics seem to get people more riled up these days than religion. Go figure.

The point of all this isn’t to discuss personal politics. It’s to point out (as if it needs pointing out, right?) that the world we live in is absolutely insane. It’s best to recognize it and reconcile that fact in your mind. The nice thing is that it’s usually pretty hilarious even when it’s being sort of depressing. Gaddafi is a great example, you’ve got this dictator in charge of an entire country who says some of the most inane things I’ve ever heard uttered. On the one hand, it’s terrible that this guy does what he does and on the other hand he says shit like, “there is no state with a democracy except Libya on the whole planet.” I mean, what is THAT all about? It’s not even propaganda, it’s just totally insane.

Without crucial information like this, it’d be difficult to live a life that also includes an awareness of the things beyond our own little lives. Here, at the micro level, a sense of balance is relatively easy to maintain. There are ups and downs, personal trials and personal triumphs. We can look at these things and create a sense of satisfaction, or at least a sort of resigned mentality about them. When we extend our sights beyond, into the scope of the global stage, it’s more difficult. A great many people suffer every day for the stupidest reasons. People hurt each other constantly over the most petty differences. Humanity can be cruel and those of us with a sense for what’s good and rational are often left standing with mouth agape, confused and mortified. But indignity and anger don’t really have a proper place in our lives or in the process of fixing things. Some people take these things and turn off entirely. They refuse to recognize the problems that exist in their own lives or in the lives of others. Thankfully, a great many other people wish they could do something to make life a little easier for others. That’s a tough order to fill these days and the reality is that serious change starts with us.

Being able to maintain a happy and healthy mental life is the start of helping others do the same. You don’t need to change the entire world by yourself. It’s all about making yourself a rock for other people to lean against when they need you. By recognizing that our world has problems, we can work toward changing ourselves to alleviate our contributions to those problems. By recognizing that the world is, indeed, a hilarious place and that there is some real good out there as well, we give ourselves the fuel we need to continue on.

Without that fuel, it’s tough to stay awake through it all. It’s tough not to go into hibernation just to get a break from it all. But sleeping away the days may save us from all the bad, but it also keeps us from all the good.

I wouldn’t miss out on that for anything.

And I certainly wouldn’t miss out on one of Gaddafi’s brilliant lines, either.

That would be a real shame.

While I’m on the topic, my warmest wishes go out to those people in Egypt and the Middle East in general working to take back their governments from despots. While it’s unlikely that anyone from that part of the world reads this silly comic, I still wish them the best. It’s a very worthwhile endeavor and they all have my respect and sympathies <3

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Race Relations

by K on November 12th, 2010
Posted In: Comics
Race Relations

Ah, good ol’ fashioned North American history. Glorifying the deeds of murderers and racists never feels as good as it does around Thanksgiving. It’s a lovely thing for our children to learn about such great people as the Pilgrims, the original 13 colonies, and Columbus. While we’re at it, why not discuss the merits of Hitler’s final solution or the Soviet gulags.

While it may be somewhat hyperbolic to compare what Europeans did to Native peoples to the acts of such monsters as Stalin and Hitler, I don’t think it’s entirely off base. Native people across the Americas suffered immensely at the hands of European colonialists, the only reason we don’t call it what it is is that it hits too close to home. The history of the Americas is fraught with bloody wars, tense political situations, and a great deal of land-grabbing and, unfortunately, the people who originally called this place home got caught in the crossfire, literally and historically.

Like most things, there is no black and white with regards to morality and colonial expansionism. Many of the people arriving in the Americas didn’t intentionally seek out to steal land and commit genocide. Some did (primarily military and political leaders) but many were just people looking for a place to live, an important factor to keep in mind. It’s also important to note that not all Native American societies were peaceful or helpful people. There were plenty of hostile and aggressive people that would have gladly killed Europeans or each other simply because it was what they did. The problem with revisionist history (the sort written by the victors rather than the sort written truthfully) is that it muddies the way we see ourselves as humans and muddies our perception of how we got here; a theme I’ve talked about before and one I feel very strongly about. History, like mythology and religion, is an incredibly important part of our experience as human beings. The ability to learn from the mistakes of the past is what offers us the hope of true progress.

Unfortunately, history books for a long time have sugar coated what happened here when colonists arrived, painting a rosy picture of people holding hands and having a hippie style love-in. We’re just now (in the last 30 years) realizing and discussing the sorts of atrocities that happened before and after the arrival of the pilgrims and, as so often happens, we’ve gone the other way entirely with it. Rather than having a rational discussion, we’ve been embracing white guilt since the 70′s, where many of us, at some level, think that white people (especially males) are just bad and that everything native or non-white is good; that it is somehow more natural and therefore more true. New Age spiritual ideas are a perfect example of this embracing of other cultures while shunning the European heritage of this country and many others.

The truth of the matter is that none of these things is real. There is no black and white in morality, only shades of gray. White people acted abominably toward natives, sure, but that is the history of colonialism in general. Whenever people expand outside their borders for resources and land, they commit atrocities to those already living there. Japan did the same thing in World War II. Not everything about Europeans was totally awful nor was everything about Native Americans totally great. We have a duty to ourselves and to history to recognize that sometimes what we are taught is not the full picture and that there are often very complicated relationships between the things that have occurred. We should not look to the past as a paragon of anything good. It is just what has gone before, plain and simple.

Because when we look back and idolize the past, we sow the seeds of our own misfortune.

Either that or we lay the groundwork for our children to engage in biological warfare and shady land deals.

Y’know. One or the other.

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Call of the Wild

by K on November 9th, 2010
Posted In: Comics
Call of the Wild

And everything went perfectly. They went on to have 3 kids, a dog, and one third of a white picket fence. A fairy tale romance.

Don’t ask me why (seriously, don’t, I don’t have any answers) but I’ve been wondering for a while now what the world of Sasquatch dating would look like if it existed. Do they go out on dates? Do they bring each other flowers? Or do they just cover themselves in mud and twigs and ululate like some poor opera singer without any talent? If I had to guess, I’d say it’s probably the latter, but I’ve never been invited to observe their traditions. Thankfully we have Lil K to help us out.

Impressing women is a difficult task for men everywhere. I don’t care where you live, what you do, who you are, or how much fur you’ve got, if you’re a male and you’re interested in females, it can be a daunting task to attract one of the fairer sex. It is so daunting, in fact, that some may go to certain extremes to attract notice.

The issue of attraction isn’t limited to just men, there are a wealth of stories, myths, legends, biblical information, and cultural ideas across the globe pertaining to just how one should act with regard to their sexual preference. Men and women, straight and gay, most of what goes on in the world is a desperate attempt to stand out to some eye-pleasing specimen. Of course, there is more to attraction than simply looks, but much of what we do to catch notice relates to our appearance and the way we carry ourselves. Navigating the world of dating and attraction can be a lot like navigating a murky swamp with no light and no map. Much like navigating a swamp, there are crocodiles involved in dating, or at least there were on most of my dates.

I brought the crocodiles.

They didn’t go over very well.

In hindsight, I probably shouldn’t have brought them, losing a limb is a deal closer on most dates. Take it from me.

I say we go back to the glory days when males would simply beat their chests and then beat each other in a test of strength and bravery to get the best mates. There was no guessing about what jeans to wear or what cologne to put on. There were no questions about whether to appear sensitive and brooding or whether to get overly tanned and get drunk in bars while making awkward passes at women out of your league.

Things were so much simpler back then.

Crocodiles weren’t even an option.

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You Give Love a Bad Name

by K on October 5th, 2010
Posted In: Comics
You Give Love a Bad Name

Sasquatches are world renowned as highly virile creatures. They mate for whole hours before moving on to their next conquest. Not unlike our politicians! Hurk hurk! Am I right?

In all seriousness, one of the most interesting things about the Sasquatch tales that seem to keep cropping up is the severe lack of a stable breeding population. While it’s true that it took many years and modern technology to uncover some of the more recently discovered animals, it’s also true that we’ve managed to find males and females of species and find enough of them to see that they’re able to create offspring and continue their existence. Sasquatches, unfortunately, have never been seen in any kind of number anywhere in the world. When one hears about a Sasquatch or a yeti or any of their myriad other names, it’s always some rogue monster terrorizing suburban or rural residents. One could make the case that it is exceedingly rare to see such creatures as snow leopards and panthers, we have, at least found some. We’ve seen males, we’ve seen females, and we’ve found babies and adolescents. Meanwhile, hundreds of people train eyes, ears, and technology, on Sasquatch haunts around the world and nothing has yet turned up.

I love discovery as much as the next person and I’m open minded about the idea that these things may exist, but as of right now there’s really no compelling evidence. Kind of a bummer.

The strange thing about this is that there are people that link monsters like Sasquatch with the idea of discovery and adventure. There are still animals and plants and places to be discovered and explored all around the world but because they’re “normal” critters, I guess it isn’t quite as romantic. Personally, discovery of any sort seems like an admirable pursuit.

Though I guess it would be totally awesome to capture and train a chupacabra circus….

Besides, there’s a lot of hard work, sweat, tears, and paperwork involved in discovery. There are footprints to analyze, blood samples to test, and…mating habits to…study.

Maybe watching two hairy Sasquatches do the deed isn’t really your ideal way to spend an afternoon, hm?

All I’m saying is be careful what you wish for.

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She's Out of My League

by K on October 1st, 2010
Posted In: Comics
She's Out of My League

Ah, the ever elusive lady-squatch. Men want her. Women want to be her. She is the epitome of style, grace, and undiluted animal magnetism. Now if someone could develop a tranquilizer strong enough, I’m sure she’d make some man very happy. Or some woman. I’m not sure she knows the difference.

Oh hey it’s Sasquatch again in a strip that is actually about him! I love drawing that guy. Fun Fact: my mom’s fiance wrote a poem about Sasquatch that actually inspired me to put him in the comic a little over a year ago.

Attraction is both strange and mysterious. That whole thing about beauty being in the eye of the beholder is relatively dead on. While different societies have a general cultural idea of what is beautiful, there is no guarantee that what an individual finds attractive will match the next individual’s. I’ve always found this kind of cool, this weird genetic independence, as our choice of mates helps identify who we are. The variable levels of attraction further serve to set us apart from our peers, as attraction isn’t just about physical beauty (well…for most of us).

This all extends into the realm of general personal preference. We’re all different people with different ideas about how things should be, what is beautiful, what is funny, etc. There was a time in my life where I found other people enjoying the things I hated to be something I should despise and mock. I think we all go through that phase at some point, mostly during our early teenage years. You think you know what’s best and that everyone else can go screw themselves. Most people grow out of that and, as for me, I now embrace the fact that other people enjoy different things than I do; whether that’s comics, films, music, beauty standards, etc. I feel like the differences between the individuals in a society are what make us stronger. As long as the things you enjoy don’t hurt anyone, why shouldn’t I embrace your right to love what you do?

Because that’s what it really comes down to. You can look at someone who enjoys, say, Justin Bieber (to choose a popular subject of internet bashing) and you can mock them and you can mock him, but what does that get you? Enjoyment, happiness, these are some of the best things in the world and crushing someone’s spirit because you don’t enjoy a particular thing or don’t find it beautiful is almost demonic. I say let people enjoy what they do so long as it isn’t hurtful to others. It’s no skin off my back if you enjoy a comic I don’t like or find that girl or guy attractive when I find them distasteful. I wasn’t going to date them anyway.

Because really, people just want to find enjoyment and feel loved and it’s not up to me or anyone else to say they shouldn’t have that. Whether you’re a human being or a hairy Sasquatch, it’s a basic right.

So take a look at that yeti woman next to you and try to find the beauty within her. Though, you might want to do it quickly, before she tears your arms off.

You can ponder that beauty during your recovery time at the hospital. There will be plenty of it.

<3

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