Gene is an associate and friend of mine from my Houston days and with his and Joel West's help, we published the only true IF Fanzine in association with The Chain. Hopefully this will be a start of some interesting and though provoking articles by
Gene.
ONE HUNDRED
ELEMENTS OF COMIC MYTH
By: Gene Phillips
The world of
comics-by which I mean mainly strips, magazines, and graphic novels-is, like the physical world, made up of an assortment of elements. As in all other narrative media, often the elements take on forms that can be labeled, for a critic's convenience, "simple" or "complex." In most modern comics-criticism, or what passes for criticism these days, the overriding assumption is that "simple" means "anything that offers the reader instant unearned gratification," while that which is supposedly "complex" is "anything that forces the reader to earn his gratification," usually by learning some philosophy or perspective communicated by the author. It's a very Protestanty, work-ethic idea of criticism. Of course, no form of literature is really "work" in the true sense. As Oscar Wilde said. "All art is quite useless." From this standpoint, it can be asserted that art is at its most complex when its constituent elements are "playing" rather than "working." At play, the elements of narrative media often communicate far more than they do when attempting to convey a message. My take on the "simple/complex"dichotomy is that irrespective of whether the work is meant to entertain or educate, it is truly complex only when it's elements take on the complex interrelationships usually called "symbolism" in literary studies and "myth" in the wider sense of all cultural products.
The following list is my response to the recent lists of "100 things to love about comics." Since what I like best about comics is their mythic aspects, which can appear in any genre however fantastic or realistic, this is essentially a compendium of comics-mythology (though not by any means the "top" 100; I've no interest in that sort of gradation, and other entries could be easlily added on).It's also a trivia-list, but I'm less concerned with whether respondents can name what element appeared in what issue of what title as in whether anyone can venture a thought or two on what meaning, if any, the elements might have for them, or might've had for people that made the stories. The elements include characters, objects, quotes and story-lines, drawn from American, Japanese and European comics. If nothing else it should remind some of us of the quality that drew many fans to comics in the first place: The medium's perculiar genius for seting free the human imagination in some of its most unbridled forms.
1. Cider Sue and
Jimson Weed
2. Lyla Lerrol
3. The building atop
Killmotor Hill
4. Janus, Son of
Domini
5. "the strength of a
billion billion beings"
6. Dragon Fly, Silken
Spider and Tiger Moth
7. Rock of
Eternity
8, Prince Pagli and the
Garden of Eden
9. Two-Edge
10. Peculia
11. Saturna, Simon Magus and the Troll King
12. The Purple
Dimension
13. The mask of Sketch
Paree
14. The Airtomb
15. Seshep
16. The
Scissormen
17. Mr. Aqua
18. "techno-cosmic
war"
19. Kallula
20. Dark
Majistra
22. Lai Choi San
23. Netley
24. "gone, gone the
form of man"
25. Princess
Aura
26. Gorilla City
27. Delirius
28. Devil Woman
29. The Royal House of Agon
30. The Claw of
Aelkhund
31. King Mob
32. Tonantzin
Villasenor
33. Lily Stearn
34. Dr. Buck
Riviera
35. The Ruby of
Life
36. "I-I was born on
Monday"
37. Toar's boss
38. The Singing
Sword
39. The Prairie
Witch
40. The Serpent Crown
of Lemria
41. The Zamarons and
their pipe organ
42. Our Man
43. Cardinal
Roark
44. "and now-for my
next trick"
45. Enoch and
Myranah
46. The Legion of
Legions
47. King
Morpheus
48. "brain brain
dead"
49. Pygar, last of the
Ornithanthropes
50. The Wolf Gal
51. Ardina and the
Master of Guile
52. Antoinette
Burotte
53. The Former Miss
Boopadop
54. The Lord of
Limehouse
55. Tondeleyo's white
rose
56. Chopin's 'Funeral
March'
57. "A Match for
Satan!"
58. Benten, Oyuki,
Ran
59. K-metal and it's
many descendants
60. The 24-Hour
Man
61. Professor
Snakelocks
62. "Heaven help me,
I'm jealous of him"
63. Monster
Island
64. The Endless
65. Nyarl-Amen
66. "a smile without
mirth-rather, a smile of death!"
67. The Orb of
Ra
68. Argo City
69. Desty Nova
70. Hath-Set
71. The Green
Sorceress
72 Queen Azura of
Femnaz
73. Gemworld
74. Malev-6
75. The Devil
Puppet
76. The Celestial
Madonna
77. Ixar and
Optar
78. The red moon of
Kaolla Su
79. The bricks of
Coconino County
80. The Asp
81. "When the Seas
Die"
82. Mega City
One
83. "Darling."
84. The Ki-Moli
plant
85. The Girth
86. Big Figure
87. The Bobwar
88. "From the Oven-It
Rises!"
89. The Skull
Cave
90. The Tiger Men of
Mars
91. Mirth
92. Don Longjuan
93. "My game is
wiffleball!"
94. Wolf Marie
95. "and
Sleep-sleeps"
96. Gran'ma'pa
97. Shenron
98. The Brain Bats of
Venus
99. Tetsuseiga and
Tenseiga
100. The Incal
Gene would love to have feedback on this topic and so there will be a thread on the IF Forum which you can put you comments! Let's try to get some thought provoking conversations going on here! Please click the link below to go to the IF Forum and register..hey it's free!