Don’t worry, I’m sure that guy will swim to the island in the distance and get picked up by a Roc or something. That shit happens like thirty times in the Arabian Nights.

Ah, finally, an Arabian Nights strip! I’ve been itching to do one for some time as there are so many great things in it to talk about and make jokes out of. Andrew Lang (a wonderful translator and deliverer of folklorist from various places) was largely responsible for bringing the tales to Western audiences in 1898 and his edition is still sold in stores today (I highly recommend it). The stories contained within are, among other things, remarkably modern in their style. The overarching meta-story is a tale in and of itself with a surprising hero given the times. A woman, determined to stop the daily murder of the sultan’s wife (he marries each day and kills his wife the next after finding his heart broken by his first wife) decides to marry the sultan. The next morning, before she can be killed, she begins telling stories to her maiden. The Sultan, fascinated despite himself, listens on, and after many nights of stories, decides it would be a terrible waste to murder the woman. The stories end with the Sultan’s withdrawal of his barbaric law.

This comic is from a particular story titled Prince Ahmed and The Fairy, a very widely read tale that has been the basis of several spin-off stories in later years (namely The Adventures of Prince Achmed, a German silhouette animation). The character in this strip is NOT the titular hero, however, but rather, his youngest brother Prince Houssein. In the first part of the tale, each brother is vying for the hand of their lovely cousin (this was totally cool back then), the princess Nouronnihar. The Sultan, unable to decide which of the three princes should be wed to her, tasks each with finding the most fabulous and rare object they can in foreign lands. Each brother departs with some money and spends a year searching. Prince Houssein, departing to Bisnagar, a large city in a country of the same name, travels busy marketplaces until he chances upon a merchant selling a tapestry for an outrageous price. Intrigued, he questions the man and finds, as in the comic, that it is able to transport him anywhere. He pays for it right then and there and uses it to go back to the rendezvous point where he waits to meet his brothers.

The rest of the story gets even more interesting and progressively more ridiculous. I seriously suggest giving it a read sometime, either in a copy of the book or on the web. It’s free right here. Gods bless public domain literature!

Anyway, the whole thing with the carpet/tapestry got me thinking. If I could go anywhere on a test ride of a magic carpet, why would I ever pay for it? Why not just remove the one roadblock in my path?

Come to think of it, I’ve thought about this on test rides in a car as well…

Anyway, the whole series of tales are truly incredible reading and I imagine that you’ve been influenced by them even if you haven’t actually read them. Motifs, themes, monsters, and dramatic style are all borrowed from heavily in today’s literature, especially in fantasy. There are plenty of great things to discover inside. Cracking open my copy (which my totally awesome brother picked up for me) was like rubbing an old dingy lamp and finding a genie inside.

I didn’t get three wishes but I did get one: an amazing reading experience.

(cue audience, “awwww”)

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!

Another God strip! Hooray!

An all powerful deity with human emotions was always something I found particularly funny in the Bible. There are many times where God is described as being angry or jealous or (as in the case of the New Testament) loving. I’ve talked about this before, but I find it hard to believe that a being with the power to create, animate, and infuse spirit into his creation would ever feel as we do. It just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. In the Old Testament, you get this sense that God is essentially a kid with an ant hill and a magnifying glass, just tormenting people for the fun of it. I mean, the Book of Job? What’s that all about?

I don’t think it’s wrong to believe in a God or anything like that, but ascribing such incredible flaws to a being we probably wouldn’t be able to comprehend is a bit myopic. Sure, it’s nice to think that he’s just like us, but that’s also really silly.

That said, that sort of God does make for an excellent comic character. Especially when he’s sulky and draping himself over things.

This is a weird strip, I’m not sure what to say about it specifically, really.

Don’t ever leave home.

You may be replaced by an owl-doppelganger.

School is devouring much of my time now, but I am doing well at keeping up with the comic. I am also drawing a ton in my sketchbook, something I usually don’t do. We, here at 10km, have a sketch blog that we rarely update, but we’re planning to start scanning and posting animations there soon. When that happens, I will let everyone know so you can check it out if you wish.