We have not even to risk the adventure alone; for the heroes of all time have gone before us; the labyrinth is thoroughly known; we have only to follow the thread of the hero-path.
(Joseph Campbell. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1949. p. 18.)
R.I.P. always to an O.G. champion of monomyth, bliss, and heroism — Joseph Campbell (March 26, 1904 – October 30, 1987). Crack a comic and pour out some King Cobra today in his honor.
“Angels with dirty faces,” by JKB Fletcher, via.
I’ve loved him since we were kids, six years old. We worked together, fought together, stole together. Oh, I’m not blaming Rocky for what he is today. But for the grace of God, there walk I. I’d do anything for him, Laury. Anything in the world to help him. I’d give my life if I thought it would do any good, but it wouldn’t. You see Laury, there’s all those other kids, hundreds of them, in the streets and bad environment, whom I don’t want to see grow up like Rocky did. I can’t sacrifice them for Rocky. You see, Laury, they have lives too. I can’t throw them away. I can’t.
(Father Jerry, Angels With Dirty Faces (Michael Curtiz, 1938).)
Perhaps all you know of the movie Angels With Dirty Faces is the clips of the faux gangster movie Angels With Filthy Souls featured in Home Alone (I have talked to people who seem to think these are the same film, when in fact the latter does not exist), but Angels With Dirty Faces is beautiful and important and complex and funny and heartrending and I highly recommend it, and if you do watch it and come back here and say otherwise I will slap you in the kisser because it is you who are the “filthy animal.”
Last year my friendoh’s rad son came up with a superhero who was made out of number 19s and was named, appropriately, “19 Man.” That drawing has been lost to time so he made me a new one.
19 Man has a sidekick and a nemesis who has his own sidekick, and they all have kickass pets. Please click to enlarge and enjoy the awesome creativity. I especially like Mustache Dog — the very combination of the words of his name is something like “cellar door” or “fiddlesticks;” it pleases, yes?
I think I’ll start including some of my daughter’s work in liberated negative space as well. Like Picasso said, “All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.”
Joseph Campbell, author of The Hero With A Thousand Faces, has this to say about the value of heroes and mythology to modern culture:
“… The logic, the heroes, and the deeds of myth survive in to modern times. In the absence of an effective general mythology, each of us has his private, unrecognized, rudimentary, yet secretly potent pantheon of dreams.” (2)
“We have not even to risk the adventure alone!; for the heroes of all time have gone before us; the labyrinth is thoroughly known; we have only to follow the thread of the hero-path.” (18)
Campbell, Joseph. The Hero With A Thousand Faces. 3rd ed. Novato: New World Library, 2008. Print.
Photographs by Daniel Van Flymen for Guapo magazine, “While Our Blood’s Still Young.” October 2009.
Oh, the places I’ve been. I was feeling my way around a very dark place and sorting out all that bumpy rabbit hole chicanery, but I’ve crawled toward the light and I think I’m almost totally back now. New and Improved, now with 63% less sad and lonely, blind, foolish credulity. In a Good Way. Thank you.
Here is some awesome bat-art and a pithy and appropriate accompanying quote via magnificent patron saint the Rev. Dr. HST on the topics of myths and legends and why Americans — of which I am among we braggardly upstart progenitors of the superhero — so badly crave, with an almost breathtakingly childlike mania for it, our illusion of the larger-than-life, mythic and all-saving champion.
via holymushbatman on the tumblr.
“Myths and legends die hard in America. We love them for the extra dimension they provide, the illusion of near-infinite possibility to erase the narrow confines of most men’s reality. Weird heroes and mould-breaking champions exist as living proof to those who need it that the tyranny of ‘the rat race’ is not yet final.”
— Hunter S. Thompson, The Great Shark Hunt, 1979.
Bat ring picture via thelovelybones on the tumblr.
Comic-Con girls, they are a Thing from Way Back. Coupla O.G.’s right here! Love it!
Via comically vintage on the tumblr, originally posted by Geek Orthodox on the blogger.
Dig that mask on Superman. I’m feeling this. You?
I’ve not been much great shakes at posting lately. Sorry. Events of the past five or six days have been consuming and this week I’ve had a lot on my mindgrapes. Setting off soosh bombasticos with Panda tonight at Miki. Catch you on the flip!
Kate Moss for Interview magazine, September 2008. Cover.
You know we’re all screwed when Bruce Wayne is washing windows. I certainly am.
But seriously, kudos to the window-washer with the cajones and sense of humor to dress up like Batman on the job. Love It!
The Thought Experiment 