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[Posted by E&C on 01 Jan 2011 03:54 pm]
Today's guest artist, the star-spangled Spaniard, Ibai Canales, hails from Basque Country in the north of Spain. Who watches the watchmen? I don't know, but Ibai Canales knows how to draw them. If you want to see more of his work, go to his deviantArt page.
When The Matrix first came out, my younger cousin said to me, “It’s basically just a retelling of the New Testament.” I found this to be extraordinarily dumb. Sure, there are similarities, as today’s strip points out, but to say that The Matrix is a retelling is like saying that my younger cousin is a copy of me, when the truth of the matter is that our similarities come from common ancestors, i.e. our grandparents. The New Testament and The Matrix follow a formula that was developed way before the written word ever was.
Joseph Campbell wrote a book called The Hero with a Thousand faces. It’s a brilliant examination, through ancient hero myths, of man's eternal struggle for identity. At least it is according to some dude on amazon.com. I don’t know. I never got through the first chapter because it’s as unreadable as my local newspaper. But his concept is a solid one. As long as humanity’s been able to speak, it’s been telling the story of the Chosen One.
Chart out the similarities between Gilgamesh, Oedipus, Odysseus, Luke Skywalker, Harry Potter, Bruce Wayne, Eragon, and any other hero you can think of. Chances are they’re an orphan with special talents that set them apart from normal people. They have a mentor, allies, special equipment. They have a momentous crossing of water, a descent into the underworld, and a renaming. They die, and they are resurrected. And they save the day. And, and, and… you can relate to them.
To me, that’s the genius of popular religion. Moses, Jesus. Vishnu, Mohammed. While these guys are allegedly divine, they’re also accessible. A friend of mine got upset when I mentioned that Jesus’ life has all the components of a hero’s journey. He felt like that implied that it was made up. Well, it was made up. I mean, people made it up, or the divine made it up. One way or another, a story was created that people respond to, and that’s pretty damn cool.
That’s a lot of thought about a tiny little strip. And that’s just the tip of the mindhole.
You get it, don’t you?
-C
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