Three Panel Origin

Three Panel Origin

Tasty and Guilt-free!

A new thursday means a tasty comic treat.  There is always room for Three Panel Origin.  You'll get it... I'll wait... GELLO MOLD!

Three Panel Origin

Three Panel Origin

Don't worry, it's just a name.

Today marks some firsts! This 3PO is the first reappearance of MaaangaaaR the Bejeweled, the first time I am launching a new platform to check out these comics on, and the first time anyone has portrayed genuinely gender-neutral slave attire. But back to that second one, I have a tumblr for these comics now.  Is it better? Let me know.  In the meantime, I have a character that has her image in part to a certain comic book/internet personality that is also beautiful and badass like my character... FENIX!

Three Panel Origin

Three Panel Origin

Darker than the depths...of your soul!

Today for our 3PO, I decided to make and homage to my favorite comic artist Mike Mignola! So the 3PO has a bit of a Mignola sheen to it.  I can't do the man justice but I can at least try.  Watch out for that monster! Its DEATH GOAT!

Three Panel Origin

Three Panel Origin

If we didn't have arms, foot hygiene would be more important.

This is it! The messiah has returned! No! Not that one, the OTHER one.  In the tradition of turning an ancient society's deities into modern day superheroes, this takes advantage of that vastly un-mined and weird territory of Egyptian mythology.  Meet the first of many "New Gods," and our savior, HORUS!

Three Panel Origin

Three Panel Origin

He went to Jared!

There is an angry purple man in the marvel universe, and he loves bling. He's also a ripoff of a DC universe angry gray man that is less interested in bling but is scarier.  Well here is a angry mauve man who loves bling even more and is even scarier than the others.  Forget infinite power, here are the finite powers of MAAANGAAAR the Bejeweled!

Creators: Mike Mignola

Creators

A growing list of influential Artists, Writers, Poets, Filmmakers, and Creatives.

Mike Mignola

This one was a long time coming.  Some of you who know me may have heard me talk about this guy before.  Almost every time I get into a discussion about great comics, I will mention his name.  Mike Mignola is the comic book artist and writer behind the character Hellboy, the BPRD, and many other monsterific stories.  He is a visual storyteller of the highest caliber and a master of his chosen craft.  Secure your goggles and flippers kids, because we are about to dive in!

Three Panel Origin

Three Panel Origin

Make a full fledged comic, why don't ya?!

The character for today's 3PO is so cool and so much fun, it makes me really want to create a full comic for her.  She has shrinking, energy blasts, telepathy thingies, and even a version of that sweet rewind move from Prince of Persia using tachyons.  Plus, she has the personality of Spider-man and Iron Man smashed together.  I love her, and you will too.  Antman? Too big! Atom? What a fatass! This is QUARK!

Lego of Me

Lego of Me

Is that Batman?

No, It's not. Everyday last week in the summer camp I would make a couple new mosaic.  And every time, one kid would ask me "Is that Batman?" Do you know who Batman is, kid? Do you?

Three Panel Origin

Three Panel Origin

Tastier than the leading brand of origin.

3PO is fun for all ages, but not kids because they're smelly.  This week, we have an old woman with history that's repeating itself.  She's also the bearer of one of the best supervillain names ever.  This is the origin of the Banana Nana!

Creators: Jack Kirby

Creators

A growing list of influential Artists, Writers, Poets, Filmmakers, and Creatives.

Jack Kirby

 This guy has often referred to as the King of Comics, and by gum, he may just be that! 1936 was the year he entered the scene, and even then so much promise could be seen in his work. He worked as an animator, did weekly strips, but eventually he got to do what he was meant do; epitomize comic book storytelling. Creating great characters and stories for both Marvel and DC comics, without a doubt, he left an enormous impact on the art form.

Jack Kirby was without a doubt talented, influential, and prolific, but he also exemplified the quality that all artists, especially comic artists, need: Hard Working. Jack Kirby had one of the most intense work schedules in comic history, and I'm truly baffled at how much he did and how good it turned out. During his heavy days at Marvel and DC, he would complete more than three pages a day and sometimes more than twenty a week.  With how quickly he completed the work, you would think his quality would have dipped, but the opposite was actually true. He always got better.

Three Panel Origin

Three Panel Origin

Spazz!

This 3PO gives praise to ridiculous animal-suited superheroes.  This one has gorillas, and researchers; everything a body needs. This is the Three Panel Origin of Gorillaman.

Three Panel Origin

Three Panel Origin

Bite me!

Dinosaurs are big and back! In today's Three Panel Origin  we have the amazing merging of man and beast.  And this Kaiju story is further told in a series of animations I made with Pivot Stick Figure Animator. Here are episodes One Two and Three of MONSTER MAN! (PS I love drawing scales!)

I Read: Saga by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples

I Read: Saga by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples

Comic time again!  This time I decided to read two trade-paperbacks back to back.  This one has quickly become a hit, and may be one day considered a modern classic.  It tells a old story in new ways and has some other worldly imagery to show you the way.  Let's set out on a Saga.

Saga by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples

This is a story about parenting, love, war, politics and a cornucopia of other stuff. It is a bit of a disservice to the book to try and describe it, because in doing so, it may unneccesarily deter you from reading it.  It will sound ridiculous, indeed, but it works, somehow.  The crux of the story is a universe spanning war between a planet and its moon, where one is run by anthropomorphic robots and winged bird-people and the other is a race of horned magic-users.
I told you. Weird.
But in a crazy way, and bringing the wildest visuals of any comic on the rack, this story has begun to make perfect sense.  It has star-crossed lovers and their baby, bounty-hunters tracking them down from both planets, and all of the drama that can come from relationships and conflicts.  It covers class-ism, politics, war, and love within its pages, and yet it never feels overstuffed.

The writing is honest and natural, the characters saying things I can actually hear someone saying.  This goes nicely with the bizarre and nonsensical visuals that make up the comic. That's why it is such a delight.  We get a feast for the eyes with odd and unnatural world that is fascinating,  and we get to explore it with characters that behave like real people.  That, in a nutshell, is why saga works.  If it were all weird, both visually and in the text, It would be a harder sell.  But, by making the language accessible and natural, it allows us to go into this funky universe with our hands clasped firmly with the characters.
When it comes to the art, Fiona Staples brings grease monkeys and tv-faced robot people out of strange pop-art and into colorful life.  I think her great skill is giving personality to these manifestations, so that they feel genuinely alive, and not just goofy doodles with word balloons.
As far as comics that are currently running on the rack, I would recommend getting into this one.  Granted I have only read 12 or so issues in, I still say you should get into it too, and I look forward to continuing the journey.

Three Panel Origin

Three Panel Origin

Consult your doctor if conditions worsen.

A 3PO for the ages this week! Its based on true experiences, and is a horror movie waiting to happen
Welcome 3PO's first true monster in THE CLOG!

Three Panel Origin

Three Panel Origin

Chock-full of Reality

At last! A 3PO for a real superhero. And I do mean real.  This guy stalked the streets of my hometown a few years back.  Haven't heard from him since, but he still was a fascinating bit of reality mimicking fantasy. This origin comes pieced together from a second or third hand account.  From the mean streets of Cincinnati, OH, here comes Shadow Hare!

I Read: The Golden Bough by James George Frazer

I Read: The Golden Bough - A study in Magic and Religion by James George Frazer

Taking a completely different direction, This time around I have read an academic work, rather than fiction.  and holy cow was it a long one.  It's a work I have wanted to read for sme time, as one of my favorite thinkers, Joseph Campbell, cited it as a work that motivated his own scholarship.  So with scholarship in mind, lets explore the relationship between magic, ritual, and religion.

The Golden Bough - A study in Magic and Religion by James George Frazer

The first thing I'll say is that this book really made me respect the amount of scholarship people of time gone by needed to know much about anything. The sheer amount of books and reading required to get all of his info together is staggering and is worthy of note.  But enough about that.
The primary goal of the book is to understand the origin and meaning of a ritual that took place at a shrine of Diana on the mirror lake of Nemi near Rome.  Associated with Nymphs, spirits, and the nature goddess herself, the primary ritual revolved around a figure who guarded a tree in the grove near the lake.  He was called 'the King of the Wood.' His purpose was to protect the tree, and in some respect the shrine.  He would do this until a challenger would retrieve a golden bough from the tree and then fight the king to the death.  In doing so, the challenger would become the new King of the Wood until a challenger defeated him.  It was this grim and mystic scene that caused Frazer to investigate, and try to pick apart the ritual in order to understand what it was and why it came about.  What followed was an extensive list (700 pages!) of examples of various cultures and beliefs, charting the course from early man through the founding of civilization in order to define notions of magic, religion, and ritual.  I won't be extensive in reciting his proofs.  What I will do is mention the notions and ideas I found interesting, and the conclusions I found profound. The greatest of these was the foundational principles of Magic. They are:
The Law of Similarity - Like Produces Like. Effects resemble their cause.
The Law of Contagion - Things that have once been in contact continue to have contact upon each other at a distance.
It is these two beliefs which not only betray man's ever-present ego, but also show how a simple yet false assumption can have limitless effect on the world.  With these two 'truths' in mind, ancient man saw that certain action yield related results, and used that simple logic, but expanded it into all of creation. It was correct, in noticing that winter followed autumn, so supplies or better lands were needed to survive.  Also, if it rains a lot, plants grow more.  But these notions were taken to odd and clearly misguided places (if you have sex in the fields when you plant them, you will have babies and lots of corn/If a wife opens anything while her husband is away hunting, this will 'open' any trap set for prey and they will catch nothing/if you don't perform certain rituals, the sun won't rise in the morning.)
In this respect, everyone was a magician, as all had the ability to perform certain rituals and cause certain effects.  When spells didn't work, it was blamed on another person working against you who had stronger magic. And since the notion of some people being better at it than others, the first sorcerers/shaman appeared.
These magicians were looked to for food, rain, healing, and luck.  They were often the developers of new, more effective means of controlling the world, and were the investigative minds of their age. Wizards and mystics had advanced places in society because they served the public good. They were rain makers and helped provide for the good of the tribe. That gave them power. The Priest, the sorcerer, and the King were once one. The path of ascension is as follows.

• Wizard~Gains power and reverence~Becomes Chief.
• Chief~Gains possessions~becomes King.

But, upon noticing that magic does not work on its own, assumptions that some other force or personality was at work arose. This is where the gods came from.  If the elements could not be commanded by simple actions, then they must be subject to influence.  If they are subject to influence, then they must be similar to humanity itself, only more powerful, as they control the weather and seemingly the fortunes of men. The elements must be under the control of personalities, as man asserts control over itself.  See what I mean about the Ego of Man.
This is how the sorcerers became priests, interceding on behalf of the powerful personalities that control the world.  Gods were little different than mortal sorcerers, simply invisible versions.  They were still capable of the same powers, as well as susceptible to coercion. But to common people, the priests were not just more effective magic users but cohorts with the gods. This is the birth of religion. In later centuries, religion disliked magic because it did not require god to intercede in people's lives. They could do it themselves.
The age of magic followed scientific logic of cause and  effect. Its most praised sorcerers are the predecessors to today's investigators of the workings of the world: Scientists. The difference is, they have ditched the false assumptions of magic, aside from the basic premise of cause and effect, though effects don't have to resemble their causes anymore. Its not hard to see how humaity developed these ideas though, or how it morphed into religion.  Frazer puts it pretty nicely:

Magical assumptions stem from logic that even animals must have on some level. It takes consideration to invent God.

Comparing obstinate faith that magical actions cause the sun to rise and  religious claims, they look pretty similar.
But back to the Golden Bough.  So what does it all mean?  Here is the gist.

The "King of the wood," is the priest/magician of the shrine, and protector of a sacred tree.
That sacred Tree is a manifestation of Diana, a nature goddess.
The "King of the Wood" is the consort of the goddess, and her defender.
When a challenger comes, he faces the old king.
If he dies, it means that he was too weak to do his duty.
The Golden bough that the challenger first retrieves, is a receptacle for the King's soul.
That's right, the golden bough is a horcrux.
The mantle of the King, an even their spirit, is transfered to the challenger, and they must protect the grove.
For if the grove dies, the goddess will no longer provide for the people.

I think that's pretty cool.
After all of it is done, it was an interesting book, but hard to get through. Mountains of examples aside, the man did seem to look down on non-european cultures.  He used terms like 'savage,' 'rude,' 'barbarian,' and the like interchangeably. Some of his scholarship seems to make big assumptions, but nothing too illogical. He connected the bonfires of ancient nomads and the fire of the vestal virgins to the use of votive candles by catholics.  The healing waters of Egeria and Nemi are no different to the healing waters near the shrines of Saints and other sites in all modern religions. It makes sense if the belief in such ridiculous things is part of our cultural heritage from the beginning.
To leave off, I'll share a few choice quotations from the book.

More mischief has probably been wrought in the world by honest fools in high places than by intelligent rascals.

Religion is a sleeping threat underlying everything that can undermine all progress.  It is a standing menace to civilization. 

and

In the fight between 'the impulsive energy of the minority or the deadweight of the majority of mankind', which is the stronger force?

Italian Spiderman! The Adventure Continues...

Italian Spiderman!

The Adventure Continues...

For those of you who don't know, This is Italian Spiderman...

Now that you know, you'll understand why I want to dedicate some artwork to it.  The goal is to Italian Spider-ise the world of Spider-man.  This week may be the last installment of this critically acclaimed series. Sad, yes I know, but there is good news for the Future.  I am considering creating a series of animated shorts starting the pudgy italian. , we get terrified by Alieni Terribile and the soviet powerhouse Rinoceronte!

Three Panel Origin

Three Panel Origin

Best before May 27, 2015

Today, in 3PO history, I have taken a concept that was abandoned by a great figure in Comic History and brought new life to it.  That Creator was Bob Kane (I did a creator article about him) and that concept was his original design for Bat-Man.  So here, maintaining the complexity and emotional punch of Bruce Wayne's origin, I give you Bennett Wilson's origin. He is Ornithopter Man!

I Read: When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?

I Read: When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?

I have never read a book by a comedian before.  The only reason I read this one is because I found it in my parent's basement and had no idea how something like that got there.  I read it, and got a handful of chuckles.  Rather than give you a play by play, I'll just give you some of my favorite bits.

When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops? by George Carlin

Illustration: Unbelievably, a Goldfish can kill a Gorilla. However, it does require a substantial element of surprise.

Everything was somewhat organized under headings of the great man's thoughts (I love George Carlin, and I'm glad I read this.)  But here, I'll just offer you some, as George would say, 'free-floating hostility.'

• Read "A Modern Man"
• Men are Stupid and Women are crazy (because Men are stupid.) He also has other great passages on men and women.
• Euphemisms; the man was confounded by them. "I first became aware of euphemisms when I was 9 years old. I was in the living room with my mother and my aunt Lil when I mentioned that Lil had a mole on her face.  My mother was quick to point out that Lil didn't have a mole, she had a beauty mark." Relax and be happy that your pimples are seen by some as mere skin blemishes. He explores MANY more Euphemisms in the book.
• Why are people who believe in UFO's treated as significantly less credible than people who believe in the supernatural?
• He reduces the Ten commandments down to two: be honest and faithful, and try really hard not to kill someone else unless they don't pray to the same god you do.
• "Every child is special. An empty meaningless statement. What about every adult? Isn't every adult special? And if not, then at what age does a person go from being special to being not-so-special? And if every adult IS also special, then that means all people are special and the idea has no meaning. This embarrassing sentiment is usually advanced to further some position that is either political or fund-raising in nature. It's similar to "children are our future." It's completely meaningless and is probably being used in some self-serving way."
• Why is it the only time you ever hear the word figment it's in relation to the imagination? Aren't there any other kinds of figments?
• A GENERIC JOKE: A person walks into a place and says something to another person. The second person says something back to the first person, who listens to that and then says something back to the second person. The thing that he says back is really funny.
• Ignore these four words.
• Here's How money can buy happiness: Money gives you options, options give you breathing room, breathing room gives you control and control can offer you a measure of happiness. Maybe.
• The sky is not blue. It merely looks that way because blue is the name we have given that color.
• A good motto to live by: "Always try not to get killed."

Three Panel Origin

Three Panel Origin

For a good, clean, high.

It's that time of week again, and I have a new character and a fresh origin.  I present the first Superhero to gain her origin via recreational drug use.  This is Gold Rush!