I'm kind of getting into the idea of having a blog JUST for The Path. It gives me a place to "talk" about the comic and get stuff off my chest without my friends giving me blank stares when I start yammering on and on about Lovecraft and mythology and folklore and why certain things are getting intertwined and the like.
So let's jump head-long into the fray, shall we?
1. Oberon:
I know, I know. In "Books of Magic", Oberon is this pretty, tall, blue dude who looks like he could seduce the pants off of any chick who'd ever read Lord of the Rings. But that's not what he was meant to look like. Sure, his face is supposed to be beautiful, or handsome, but he's a dwarf in all appearance. He tends to be a mischief maker and will play his games with those of the Fey as well as humans. This makes hima wildcard...and I do so enjoy wildcards. I'm rather enjoying having a lot of different mythos intermingle in this story, that's why I added the friendship with our next contestant...
2. Nimue:
Now, Nimue is the name most commonly given to The Lady of the Lake. It's the name I grew up with and I'm rather fond of it. Like I said on the new page of The Path over at DrunkDuck...Niniane and Vivianne just don't do it for me. Plus, using the name Vivianne means I'd have to tie in Lancelot and all that claptrap, and that's just not happening. The greatest knight in all of Christiandom will not be making an appearance in The Path. Sorry ladies. Nimue's going to be a triple-aspecter...sort of mirroring The Fates from Chapter One, but with more of a personal stake in what's going on.Her first aspect, The Lady of the Lake of course, is a "good guy". Her immediate concern will be aiding our small band of heroes. Her second aspect, being the alter ego of Morgan le Fey, will find herself torn between her hatred of her half-brother, and her need to survive the coming apocalypse. Her third aspect is almost entirely single-minded: keeping Merlin out of the fray. We wouldn't want him popping up and solving everyone's problems with magic now, would we?
Nimue will, much like in original Arthurian lore, be both Chance's would-be savior and doom at the same time.
Why did I choose these two characters to open up the chapter? Well, if you haven't noticed yet, the supernatural characters are being used in a primarily expositorial way. Oberon's news for Nimue will be news for us as well. Since so much information is being witheld from Chance, it's the only way we'll find anything out.
I'm also using them to help show that the mythological world has sort of set their past differences aside in light of the fact that humanity and christianity have pushed them to the brink. Ratatosk talks to Inanna who threatens the Fates with a Sumerian lion (Lugal), who just happens to be the lion from Aesop's fable about the field mouse to get (what we presume to be) Excalibur so they can get it to Chance so he can draw it from a stone and use it against Nyarlathotep whose violent disappearance prompts rumors to spread throughout the hidden corners of the world that the once and future king has returned...
I think the thing that scares me sometimes is that all this makes sense to ME in my head.
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Eaters of the Dead and why Borders thinks I'm strange...
I was talked into this by some readers. I can't imagine that many of you want to read my ramblings, but who am I to ignore a bunch of emails telling me I "NEED" to set something up in the way of a blog?
So, it's about 7 a.m. and I just finished the special "WizardWorld only" Path story entitled "Eaters of the Dead". I like it. I like it so much that I'm annoyed with myself for already announcing it as "WizardWorld only". But, that's life, huh? I'd rather not go back on that announcement until a big "Collected Edition", so...
Anyway, it centers around a younger Chance McGavin back when he was in the military. On a Special Forces mission during Desert Storm, McGavin and a handful of other soldiers get lost in the desert. With limited food and water and enemy forces closing in, it looks like they're done for. That is, until one of the men remembers an old tale he'd heard a long time ago...about the Eaters of the Dead. I'll post some prelim art later on. It was mostly just studies of uniforms and supplies, stuff like that. Maybe I'll slap up the early sketches of the actual Eaters themselves. I dunno.
I'm fairly certain that working on The Path has made me insane in the eyes of the employees of the local Borders, not to mention the little hole-in-the-wall bookstore on the other side of town where I do most of my special ordering. Damn near anything on Arthurian lore, the Goetia, specially ordered books on Demonology, Alchemy, encyclopedias revolving around folklore and fairy tales, illustrated guides to supposedly magical ceremonies, Satanism, mythology, books on Babylonian and Sumerian folklore and rites, multiple copies of books containing the works of Lovecraft as the copies I own are routinely ruined by highlighting and notes in the margins and, finally, a faithful recreation of Lovecraft's blasphenous tome...The Necronomicon, now covered in highlighter ink and notes in the margins. I find that the people who sell me these books give me stranger and stranger looks each time I come in to pick up my books. I'm sure the small black book I carry around like a bible doesn't help. It's where I've done all my brainstorming. Where I've been weaving together this fantastic tale and melding all these different aspects together.
I get frustrated because there are very few people I can talk to and bounce ideas off of. Any time I start to talk about an aspect of The Path...like how I want to weave together the journey of Gilgamesh into the Underworld with Lovecraft's story "The Transition of Juan Romero", I get blank stares, patronizing nods, or flat out "Um...what the fuck are you talking about?" One or two of my friends are nice enough to pretend to care about it when I start talking, but I quickly realize that they're just being nice and change the subject to something more pedestrian. Oh, well. I'll probably wind up hitting Barry Linck or the guy who does Errant Apprentice up and talk a little Lovecraft shop with them. I should probably INTRODUCE myself to the Errant guy first before bombarding him with Lovecraft talk, though.
Anyways, I've babbled on long enough. There have been quite a few requests about where I got the idea for The Path...maybe I'll tackle that later.
Catch you hip cats later.
So, it's about 7 a.m. and I just finished the special "WizardWorld only" Path story entitled "Eaters of the Dead". I like it. I like it so much that I'm annoyed with myself for already announcing it as "WizardWorld only". But, that's life, huh? I'd rather not go back on that announcement until a big "Collected Edition", so...
Anyway, it centers around a younger Chance McGavin back when he was in the military. On a Special Forces mission during Desert Storm, McGavin and a handful of other soldiers get lost in the desert. With limited food and water and enemy forces closing in, it looks like they're done for. That is, until one of the men remembers an old tale he'd heard a long time ago...about the Eaters of the Dead. I'll post some prelim art later on. It was mostly just studies of uniforms and supplies, stuff like that. Maybe I'll slap up the early sketches of the actual Eaters themselves. I dunno.
I'm fairly certain that working on The Path has made me insane in the eyes of the employees of the local Borders, not to mention the little hole-in-the-wall bookstore on the other side of town where I do most of my special ordering. Damn near anything on Arthurian lore, the Goetia, specially ordered books on Demonology, Alchemy, encyclopedias revolving around folklore and fairy tales, illustrated guides to supposedly magical ceremonies, Satanism, mythology, books on Babylonian and Sumerian folklore and rites, multiple copies of books containing the works of Lovecraft as the copies I own are routinely ruined by highlighting and notes in the margins and, finally, a faithful recreation of Lovecraft's blasphenous tome...The Necronomicon, now covered in highlighter ink and notes in the margins. I find that the people who sell me these books give me stranger and stranger looks each time I come in to pick up my books. I'm sure the small black book I carry around like a bible doesn't help. It's where I've done all my brainstorming. Where I've been weaving together this fantastic tale and melding all these different aspects together.
I get frustrated because there are very few people I can talk to and bounce ideas off of. Any time I start to talk about an aspect of The Path...like how I want to weave together the journey of Gilgamesh into the Underworld with Lovecraft's story "The Transition of Juan Romero", I get blank stares, patronizing nods, or flat out "Um...what the fuck are you talking about?" One or two of my friends are nice enough to pretend to care about it when I start talking, but I quickly realize that they're just being nice and change the subject to something more pedestrian. Oh, well. I'll probably wind up hitting Barry Linck or the guy who does Errant Apprentice up and talk a little Lovecraft shop with them. I should probably INTRODUCE myself to the Errant guy first before bombarding him with Lovecraft talk, though.
Anyways, I've babbled on long enough. There have been quite a few requests about where I got the idea for The Path...maybe I'll tackle that later.
Catch you hip cats later.
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