Author Archives: Alex Stark

Top Tens – Heroes & Villains: Top 10 Villains of Mythology (Special Mention) (3) Tarot – Death & The Devil

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Collage of Death (left) and The Devil (right) from the most iconic modern Tarot deck, the Rider-Waite Tarot deck designed by A.E. Waite and Illustrated by Pamela Colman-Smith (first published by William Rider & Son in 1909, hence the name) – public domain image

 

 

(3) TAROT – DEATH & THE DEVIL

 

The Tarot may have its mystique and even its mythos, but does it have villains?

O yes – hence this special mention, drawn from the archetypal characters of individual cards, particularly those of the more iconic Major Arcana or “trumps” of the Tarot.

But are there enough ‘villainous’ cards of the Tarot for their own top ten?

Well, yes and no.

Yes, in that all or almost all cards of the Tarot have their dark inversions or negative connotations and are therefore capable of being villainous cards in that respect. Setting that aside, twelve cards of the Major Arcana – from the Hermit as ninth card through to Judgement as the twentieth card – are ‘underworld’ cards, depicting figures of the mythic narrative of the Fool’s descent into the underworld or hero’s journey, and are hence potentially ‘villainous’ cards.

And no, because when you come down to it, there are only three unequivocally ‘villainous’ cards that are also the infamous trinity of cards one flinches at in readings as ‘bad’ – Death, the Devil, and the Tower Struck by Lightning.

Unequivocally ‘villainous’ that is, in the sense that they are not also at the same time among my heroes or girls of the Tarot – only as ‘villains’, even if they can have positive interpretations. Aptly enough for a card midway through the Tarot, the Death card has interpretations of a new beginning after an end, rebirth or transformation – famously in that episode of The Simpsons with Lisa’s future foretold by a Tarot reading, although it added its own ominous card of The Happy Squirrel.

Of this trinity, I rank Death and the Devil in this special mention, given that the Tower Struck by Lightning does not feature a distinctive figure as such but instead evokes an impersonal force of destruction. Death of course features the personification of death, while the Devil is the literal personification of evil. The visual design of the latter card in the Rider Waite Tarot deck sees the latter and raises it even higher in evil stakes, as a dark inversion of the card of The Lovers, including the two figures of the Lovers themselves, now demonic figures chained to the Devil’s altar – and of the backdrop of Hell now substituted for the Garden of Eden.

 

RATING: 5 STARS*****

S-TIER (DEVIL TIER)

Top Tens – Heroes & Villains: Top 10 Heroes of Mythology (Special Mention) (3) Tarot – Fool & Hanged Man

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Collage of The Fool (left) and The Hanged Man (right) from the most iconic modern Tarot deck, the Rider-Waite Tarot deck designed by A.E. Waite and Illustrated by Pamela Colman-Smith (first published by William Rider & Son in 1909, hence the name) – public domain image

 

 

(3) TAROT – FOOL & HANGED MAN

 

The Tarot may have its mystique and even its mythos, but does it have heroes?

O yes – hence this special mention, drawn from the archetypal characters of individual cards, particularly those of the more iconic Major Arcana or “trumps” of the Tarot. Indeed, there are enough ‘heroic’ cards of the Tarot for their own top ten and a few special mentions beyond that.

However, as the title of this special mention entry indicates, two cards stand out above all others as heroes of the Tarot – the Fool and the Hanged Man.

At first glance, both might seem unusual choices. There are cards that might seem more conventional heroic figures by the metric of power – the Magician, the Emperor, the Hierophant, the Chariot, and the Sun.

However, it is the Fool that is the true hero of the Tarot. In its modern form, the Major Arcana has its own mythic narrative, essentially a version of the archetypal hero’s journey, with the Fool – traditionally numbered zero or just unnumbered – as its hero, similar to the figure of the holy fool. The Fool sets out on his quest, innocence in search of experience, poised to fall or fly. The rest of the Major Arcana depicts the figures he encounters, as well as ultimately his descent into and triumphant return from the underworld.

Coming in close second place is the Hanged Man, a self-sacrificial mystical inversion of the Fool, that the Fool either encounters or – in my preferred reading – becomes, in his descent into the underworld. Indeed, the image of the Hanged Man is parallel to that of the Fool. Where the Fool innocently and seemingly inadvertently is poised to step off a precipice while gazing (or perhaps dreaming) skywards, the Hanged Man is more deliberately poised to descend into the Underworld, hanging by his foot in seemingly mystical pose with head downwards.

 

RATING: 5 STARS*****

S-TIER (GOD-TIER)

 

Top Tens – Mythology: Top 10 Mythologies (Special Mention: Divine Comedy Rankings – Complete Rankings)

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An Italian joker card – public domain image Wikipedia “Joker (playing card)”

 

 

 

Life is the laughter of the gods – but how do my mythology special mentions rack up against my top ten mythologies when ranking them for comedy and tricksters?

 

Well, joke’s on them as it turns out – only three of my top ten mythologies make it into my top ten comedy and trickers rankings, replaced by seven special mentions, while five more special mentions score higher than other top ten mythologies.

 

SCORE:

7 SPECIAL MENTIONS – TOP 10 DIVINE COMEDY RANKINGS

(12 SPECIAL MENTIONS EQUAL TO OR GREATER THAN TOP 10 MYTHOLOGIES)

 

So here’s ranking all my top ten mythologies and special mentions by their comedy and tricksters, from the laughter of the gods to serious business.

 

At the laughter end of the scale –

 

S-TIER (GOD TIER – OR IS THAT JOKER TIER?)

 

(1) DISCORDIANISM

 

What else could be in top spot for divine comedy than Discordianism, even just edging out my second top spot, as something that may just be all a big joke disguised as a religion – or a religion disguised as a joke? In either case, it scores the top spot for divine comedy.

 

(2) ZEN

 

What is the sound of one hand clapping? Yeah – I hear it all the time in reaction to my jokes.

But seriously, zen ranks above all other mythologies but one for divine comedy, with its koans and eccentricities seeming like nothing so much but a series of gags or jokes where the punchline is enlightenment.

 

When you get it,

you get

it.

 

And it’s hard to trump Zen masters as tricksters.

Ditto Tao and its wu wei – or the art of doing nothing effectively.

 

(3) PAGANISM

 

What can I say? Paganism combines all the divine comedy of its original forms but doubles down on the joke in its playful modern form or neopaganism, which seems inherently humorous in conception and nature – a latter-day LARP that does not take itself too seriously.

 

(4) CLASSICAL

(5) NORSE

 

Two of my top ten mythologies that remain in the top ten divine comedy rankings, albeit both bumped down a couple of places (literally) for more divinely comedic special mention mythology entries.

 

(6) FAIRIES

 

For once, fairy folklore ranks not only close to the Celtic mythology and Arthurian legend it overlaps but ahead of it. Indeed, fairies and Fairyland often seem to be nothing but comedy and tricks (or tricksters), albeit often absurdist or black comedy and confidence tricks.

 

(7) CELTIC (ARTHURIAN)

 

The third of three top ten mythologies to remain in the top ten for divine comedy rankings, bumped down an extra place for the comedy and tricksters of fariy folklore.

 

(8) SHAMANISM

 

Like paganism, shamanism combines the divine comedy and trickster figures of tribal mythologies or religions – I mean, Paleolithic cave art often seems a collection of d!ck jokes – but doubles down on the jokes in its modern reconstruction of neo-shamanism.

 

(9) TAROT

 

“I stayed up late playing poker with Tarot cards. I got a full house and four people died” – Steve Wright

Yeah, that’s the Tarot as the punchline of a joke in a deadpan standup comedy routine but you don’t get much more divine comedy than the Tarot – for all its vivid and occasionally violent imagery or its mystique for divination with dire portents, it originated as a game of playing cards for trumps.

Or for that matter, even with all that mystique for divination, you could say it’s focused on the Fool, a literal unnumbered wildcard amidst the trumps, reminiscent of the joker. And it doesn’t get much more divine comedy than a literal joker.

 

(10) MAGIC

 

You know, I’m going to rank magic in god-tier of divine comedy rankings. I’m serious and I’m joking – much like magic seems to be, that is deadly serious in purpose (often literally) but resembling nothing other than visual gags or verbal jokes in execution. The ‘laws’ of sympathetic magic proposed by Fraser often seem like nothing so much as punchlines of a cosmic joke – or cosmic con, pulling a fast one on the universe. Throw in that the arsenal of your average trickster seems to include a utility belt of cantrips, charms, or conjurations – and you have that god-tier ranking in divine comedy.

 

A-TIER (TOP TIER)

 

(11) EGYPTIAN

(12) HINDU

 

Sadly, these two top ten mythologies just drop out of the top ten when it comes to divine comedy and trickster rankings.

 

(13) TANTRA

 

Given the overlap between Hinduism and tantra, I thought I’d rank it here. Besides, there’s just something inherently funny (or at least playful) about s€x magic.

 

B-TIER (HIGH TIER)

 

(14) NATIVE AMERICAN (LAKOTA)

(15) AFRO-AMERICAN (VOODOO)

 

These top ten mythologies are still respectably high-tier for divine comedy and tricksters but are just outranked by other entries.

 

(16) CRYPTIDS

 

I mean, there’s just something funny about cryptids.

 

(17) UFO

 

There’s certainly something funny about UFOs – and at least some of them seem to be pranksters.

 

(18) URBAN LEGENDS

 

Urban legends often even sound like jokes, down to set-up and punchline – the latter usually the twist in the tale that is often the heart of the legend.

 

(19) CONSPIRACY THEORIES

 

Same as urban legends, only the joke is often just how wild the conspiracy theory or just how much of a tinfoil hat it requires. And they are very much trickster territory – both for theorists and the conspirators.

 

(20) MIDDLE EASTERN (BABYLO-SUMERIAN)

(21) MESO-AMERICAN (AZTEC)

 

Rounding out B-tier, these top ten mythologies rank low for divine comedy as mostly serious business, just on the cusp of my wild tier rankings.

 

X-TIER (WILD TIER)

 

And now we come to wild tier rankings – which in a reversal of my usual wild or weird tier entries, given that the subject is itself comedic, means that these entries tend to mean more serious business than they do comedy or tricks. But not always – sometimes they’re joking and they’re serious.

 

(22) BIBLICAL

 

Mostly serious business but you’ll be surprised how much comedy and tricksters are there if you look at it the right way so it tops my wild-tier rankings, albeit well below its top spot in my general, sacred space, and apocalyptic rankings.

 

(23) WITCHCRAFT

 

Witchcraft might seem too dark (and deadly serious, literally) for divine comedy but it has similar divine comedy (and tricks) to magic, just ranked lower because of the serious consequences for belief in it. Indeed, the lurid descriptions of witchcraft in European witch trials come across as parody of Christianity, albeit with black or dark comedy and working blue to boot in the lurid details. Of course, that would say more about the people running those trials, since those descriptions tended to be extracted from leading questions under torture and more reflected the projections of those conducting witch hunts or trials…

 

(24) DRAGONS

 

Dragons might seem too deadly serious for comedy but dragons are occasionally the butt of a joke – literally in the case of the Dragon of Wantley, dispatched by knightly kick in the butt. Even the Bible gets in on the joke, with Daniel killing a dragon by blowing it up.

 

(25) GIANTS

 

Like dragons, giants might seem too deadly serious for comedy but they too are often the butt of the joke – think giants or ogres in fairy tales – and also often trickster figures themselves, as in Norse mythology.

 

(26) GHOSTS

 

Like dragons or giants, ghosts would seem too deadly serious – literally – or tragic for divine comedy. And yet, even ghosts occasionally pop up as comic figures or even tricksters such as poltergeists.

 

(27) VAMPIRES

 

I’m happy ranking vampires below ghosts for divine comedy – as deadly serious as ghosts seem to be, vampires would seem more deadly and more serious, with few comic figures or tricksters among them. Still, there’s some black comedy to be had with vampires – there’s something blackly comic about the protection against vampires using grains or seeds to exploit their obsessive compulsive disorder, with vampires being compelled to count every grain or seed before they could do anything else. I like to attribute the Count from Sesame Street to this obscure vampire folklore tradition.

 

(28) LYCANTHROPES

 

They may not have obsessive compulsive disorder of vampires but even werewolves and other lycanthropes have their comedic moments, albeit mostly black comedy.

 

(29) LEGENDARY CREATURES

 

Legendary creatures might well have ranked higher, if the absurd comedy of some creatures wasn’t as esoteric or obscure.

Still it’s nice to see that there’s at least some divine comedy all the way down, right down to my next (and last) entry.

 

(30) ATLANTIS & BERMUDA TRIANGLE

 

As I said in my previous entry, it’s nice to see the divine comedy goes all the way down, even to the bottom of the ocean with Atlantis – or the Bermuda Triangle. I mean, there’s not too much comedy in what is, after all, meant to be the tragic tale of Atlantis, but there’s still some in just how silly the legend is, particularly in you throw in fantasies of submerged post-apocalyptic Atlantis. Especially in comics or popular culture – where you have the likes of Aquaman or the Man from Atlantis…

The Bermuda Triangle on the other hand is funnier if you’re not disappearing in it.

Top Tens – Comics: Top 10 Comics (Special Mention) (2) Asterix

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Cover of the 1961 edition in English of Asterix the Gaul, the first volume in the series.

 

 

(2) RENE GOSCINNY & ALBERT UDERZO –

ASTERIX (1959-1979 – I’m only counting the ones written by both Goscinny and Uderzo up to Asterix in Belgium, the twenty-fourth volume in the series)

 

“The year is 50 B.C. Gaul is entirely occupied by the Romans. Well, not entirely… One small village of indomitable Gauls still holds out against the invaders. And life is not easy for the Roman legionaries who garrison the fortified camps of Totorum, Aquarium, Laudanum and Compendium…”

These Romans are crazy!

Asterix is the original source of my enduring love of comics – and my enduring fascination with the Roman Empire in classical or ancient history. It wouldn’t quite be true to say everything I know about the Roman world I learned from Asterix comics – as those comics inspired me to read more historical books on the Roman Empire and ancient history – but you could genuinely learn a lot about the Roman Empire from them.

The basic premise is stated in the above introduction to each comic, accompanied by the famous map with a magnifying glass held up to show the titular protagonist’s village. (Asterix is also where I learned about the battle of Alesia, in which Julius Caesar defeated the Gallic chieftain Vercingetorix and conquered Gaul – a detail that recurs in a number of comics). This small but plucky village has withstood the vast numerical and military superiority of the Roman Empire by virtue of a magic potion that bestows superhuman strength brewed by its resident druid.

Each comic then introduced the major dramatis personae from the village – foremost among them our small but plucky titular protagonist Asterix, but also his generously proportioned fellow protagonist Obelix (who always has superhuman strength because he fell in a cauldron of magic potion as a baby), the aforementioned druid Getafix, village chieftain Vitalstatistix and ill-tuned bard Cacofonix. Oh – and Obelix’s cute dog Dogmatix. As you can tell, the names of Gauls in the comic had humorous puns or plays on the suffix “-ix” – the Romans similarly with “us” and so on with other groups within the Empire. That was indicative of the general wordplay and puns in dialogue as well as visual gags that made each comic a delight – “part of the appeal of the series is probably the variety of humor, which includes slapstick fight scenes, plenty of wordplay, thinly-veiled social commentary, and Iron Age and Roman antiquity versions of just about every European (and beyond) stereotype you can imagine.

I must admit to having a soft spot for the Romans, even though they were generally the antagonists – although perhaps not quite to the point of rooting for the Empire, as our protagonist and his village were just too damn charming. Generally the Romans weren’t cast as evil villains – indeed the hapless legionaries in the camps surrounding the village strove to serve out their time by quietly trying to avoid any contact with the Gauls – although they could also be effective antagonists in their schemes to conquer or undermine the village. And it helped that the Romans were also typically lovable idiots – indeed like almost everyone else in the comic, including the protagonist villagers themselves, except of course for Asterix, Getafix and flashes of brilliance among other characters (Gauls or otherwise). Interestingly, one character not played as an idiot – indeed, played as a worthy adversary – was Caesar himself.

I also have to admit to a soft spot – widely shared by other fans – for the cameo appearances by the recurring band of small but persistently unlucky pirates, a parody of another comic series Barbe-Rouge (Redbeard) – unlucky, that is, in persistently encountering our protagonist duo, the point that they would desperately try to avoid “the Gauls”, even sinking their own ship.

The series was also distinguished by some of the best translations in comics ever – from the original French (of course) by writer Rene Goscinny – as well as some of the best caricaturist art from artist Albert Uderzo. Goscinny sadly died in 1977 and Uderzo took over the writing as well, although not quite with the same superb quality of writing in the eyes of fans such as myself – until he too sadly passed away only in March 2020.

 

RATING: 5 STARS*****

S-TIER (GOD-TIER – OR IS THAT BY TOUTATIS TIER!)

Top Tens – Fantasy & SF: Top 10 SF Books (Special Mention: Cult & Pulp) (2) Paranoia

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Rulebook cover art

 

 

(2) PARANOIA (1984 – PRESENT)

Commie mutant traitor!

“The Computer is your friend. The Computer wants you to be happy. Happiness is mandatory. Failure to be happy is treason. Treason is punishable by summary execution. Are you happy, citizen? Have a nice daycycle”

Welcome to Alpha Complex in the SF role-playing game of Paranoia – “a world designed by Kafka, Stalin, Orwell, Huxley, Sartre, the Marx Brothers and that crazy old man at the airport bar at 2 am”. A dystopian fusion to the point where everything would be monstrously overwhelming but for its own dysfunctionality and the game’s absurdist dark humor.

It’s also a post-apocalyptic dystopia – although what apocalypse (if any?) forced the last survivors (or are they?) of humanity into the last underground or domed city (or is it?) run by the supercomputer known simply as the Computer or Friend Computer is now mysterious, as no one is sure what happened any more, if anyone ever did. Not even the Computer, when it tried to figure out what went wrong – “unfortunately, the Computer’s databases had been corrupted, and after finding some old Cold War propaganda, it concluded that the Communists did it”.

And now, the Computer is the equivalent of a barely functional paranoid schizophrenic – that probably would have wiped out Alpha Complex but for its inefficiency, its ability to simultaneously pursue wildly inconsistent goals at odds with each other, and its genuine but abstract benevolence towards Alpha Complex (or whatever remains of either that benevolence or Alpha Complex).

It may be teetering on complete breakdown (or outright psychosis) after decades of subversion or reprogramming by conflicting groups, but the Computer still rules Alpha Complex – “its dystopian society organized in a hierarchy of “security clearances based on the electromagnetic spectrum (specifically Isaac Newton’s version), from lowly Infrared worker drones, through Red grunts and Yellow managers, all the way up the rainbow to the Violet and Ultraviolet elite”, the High Programmers.

This society is supported by “swarms of robots” – which if anything, tend to be crazier and more dangerous to humans than the Computer – as well as “spies, omnipresent surveillance, and a bureaucracy so huge and convoluted no one’s quite sure who’s in charge of what any more”.

“Problems in Alpha Complex are solved by teams of Troubleshooters, whose job is to find trouble and shoot it”. (Stay alert. Trust nobody! Keep your laser handy!).

Those problems including traitors – where virtually everything is treason, and even the knowledge of what is or isn’t treason is usually above your security clearance – as well as Communists or other secret societies, and mutants. Or a combination of all of these – the trifecta of “commie mutant traitor”, which is what players yell as they shoot each other in the back. Indeed, I’m known to be fond of using that phrase in real life.

Of course, “thanks to years of clone breeding” (everyone is a clone in Alpha Complex), “overexposure to radiation, and other snafus”, everyone is a mutant. Everyone is also a member of one or more secret societies, mostly plotting to overthrow the order of Alpha Complex. Ironically, the secret societies were started by the Computer, as an outlet to the natural human impulse to conspire together, but as usual in Alpha Complex, got out of control.

(You seem a little too informed of matters above your security clearance, citizen – please report for termination! Have a nice daycycle!)

The players “are (usually) Red-level Troubleshooters working for Friend Computer, grudgingly assigned useless, backfiring equipment and weapons, and dispatched on (often impossible) Suicide Missions, all while navigating the endless deathtrap which is Alpha Complex, keeping their mutant powers a secret, advancing the cause of their secret society, and trying to earn promotion to higher color grades”. Not to mention in-fighting among players – if you’re not shooting each other in the back, it’s because you’re shooting each other in the face.

You’ll go through a few clones, if not all of them, by the end, if you make it to the end – which is the truly dangerous part, the mission de-briefing, when you accuse each of treason. If you’re lucky, your fabricated accusations of treason might just overlap with their genuine treason.

RATING: 5 STARS*****
S-TIER (GOD-TIER)

Top Tens – Heroes & Villains: Top 10 Villains of Mythology (Special Mention) (2) Demons & Devils

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Detail of a 16th-century painting The Last Judgement by Jacob de Backer in the National Museum in Warsaw in WIkipedia “Devil” (public domain image)

 

 

(2) DEMONS & DEVILS

 

Demons and devils – even archdemons, daemons, fallen angels or legions of hell, fiends, imps, incubi or succubi.

Demons and devils came very close to their own special mention entry for my Top 10 Mythologies, given how pervasive demons or demonic beings are in myth and folklore. Ultimately however I deferred that special mention entry to here as I was not prepared to tempt fate from the forces of hell if I ranked them anywhere else. Also, demons and devils in popular culture or imagination have largely been assimilated into those of Biblical mythology, albeit that in turn took many of its cues from Middle Eastern mythology.

Demons or devils tend to be depicted as chthonic beings but also as more villainous than the other chthonic or underworld beings of mythology in general, albeit with substantial overlap between them. While chthonic deities can be depicted as neutral or even benevolent, there is usually no such ambiguity for demons or devils – chaotic, destructive or evil to the core. Bad to the bone as it were, although there is occasionally sympathy for the devil.

Indeed, they tend to be the benchmark for evil beings, such that demonic is an adjective for evil, literally or metaphorically (or metaphysically). The wider or “most generic definition” of demon would be “any evil or injurious spirit or supernatural being” – which could be very wide indeed, including things such as vampires or even dragons.

A good or noble demon is something of an oxymoron – even relying on one to not lie or cheat on a deal is fraught with peril. At best, a demon might be depicted as capable of redemption, in which case it becomes something else or is no longer a demon, but almost universally they are depicted as irredeemably evil in nature. Even when they purport to do something good, it turns out to be for the greater evil.

The archetypes of demons or devils – essentially synonymous, albeit occasionally distinguished in such things as Dungeons and Dragons where demons are chaotic evil and devils are lawful evil – are those from the Bible or Biblical mythology. The latter can get convoluted, on occasion distinguishing demons native to Hell or other eldritch beings as opposed to damned souls or fallen angels from Heaven, although they all tend to be conflated under the label of demon or devil. Also, as noted before, the demons and devils of the Bible or Biblical mythology in turn are influence by those of Middle Eastern mythologies, notably Mesopotamian and Persian.

However, there are similar beings or eldritch abominations in other mythologies that are translated as demons or devils – Buddhist and Shinto mythology are particularly notable in this respect. The televised version of Su Wukong or Monkey is forever etched into my mind with his declaration of demonic opponents – “Ah, DE-MON!”.

One reason that they are so pervasive in mythology or folklore is that they often stand in for the chaotic or destructive forces of nature – or humanity. There is a large overlap between demons or devils and other supernatural beings – with witches, fairies, dragons, ghosts and vampires perhaps as foremost for similar elements, tropes or types.

Devils are perhaps at their worst doing their deals (or Faustian pacts) for souls, while demons are at their worst corrupting or possessing good or innocent beings – demonic possession is arguably the most villainous weapon in their arsenal and comes in various forms, such that it could be the subject of its own top ten, particularly as it extends to animals or objects other than humans, ending up much like fairies or ghosts with various demon or demonic animals or objects.

For that matter, demons or devils in myth or folklore could well be the subject of their own top ten list, whether for named individuals or broader classifications, including their various elements, tropes and types – not to mention the elements, tropes and types of those most important human interaction with them, demon-slayers or exorcists.

 

RATING: 5 STARS*****

S-TIER (DEVIL TIER)

Top Tens – Comics: Top 10 Comics (Special Mention: 2000 AD) (2) Alan Moore – D.R. & Quinch

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2000 AD poster art of the titular delinquent duo

 

 

(2) ALAN MOORE – D.R. & QUINCH (1983 – 1987)

 

“Even had I suspected then the truly horrifying suffering and amazing loss of life that would be caused by our well-meaning enterprise… I’d have done it anyway. Only more so.”

 

One of my hot takes in comics is that I find Alan Moore’s work overrated. I’m not saying I don’t like it. But for me, his finest work was his series D.R. & Quinch, when he started as a writer for 2000 AD and before taking himself too seriously. After all, how seriously can you take yourself when you pronounce the Roman snake god Glycon as your deity? (In Moore’s case, very).

You see, Alan Moore used to be fun – and never more so in this semi-regular but sadly brief series about the eponymous alien adolescent delinquent duo. It started with a one-off comic “D.R. & Quinch Have Fun on Earth” as part of the recurring Future Shock and Time Twister stories, in which the duo steal a time machine to wreak havoc on an insignificant planet in the cosmic boondocks no one cares about (i.e. Earth) as a prank on their college dean. However, they proved so popular they got five longer stories – “D.R. and Quinch Go Straight”, “D.R. and Quinch Go Girl Crazy”, “D.R. and Quinch Get Drafted”, “D.R. and Quinch Go to Hollywood” and “D.R. and Quinch Go Back to Nature”.

You know you’re in for a wild ride when your protagonist’s initials stand for diminished responsibility.

TV Tropes sums it up best:

In what can best be described as “Rule of Funny meets For the Evulz,” D.R. & Quinch tells the totally amazing story of one Waldo “D.R.” Dobbs (the “D.R.” stands for “Diminished Responsibility”), a skinny, lanky, teenage delinquent who boasts a genius IQ, enjoys acts of extreme violence and destruction, and looks like a cross between a gremlin and a skrull with a pompadour, and Dobbs’ best friend Ernest Erroll Quinch, a large, purple-skinned brute who is much, much quieter than Dobbs as he prefers writing to talking. Together, these two deeply sociopathic, evilly affable, omnicidal maniacs do as they please, and what pleases them usually involves death and destruction on a tremendous scale; it helps that, in their part of the Milky Way, nuclear warheads are as easily obtainable as a handgun in the Deep South.

 

“S’right”

 

RATING:

A-TIER (TOP TIER)

Top Tens – Fantasy & SF: Top 10 SF Books (Special Mention: Classic) (2) Arthur C. Clarke – Childhood’s End & Space Odyssey

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Screenshot of the weird alien black monolith from the iconic opening Dawn of Man sequence from the 2001: A Space Odyssey film

 

 

(2) ARTHUR C. CLARKE –

CHILDHOOD’S END & SPACE ODYSSEY (1953 & 1968-1997)

 

“I’m sorry, Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that”.

 

The iconic line of 2001: A Space Odyssey, both in the 1968 film by Stanley Kubrick – from a screenplay co-written by Kubrick and Clarke – and in the subsequent novel, or more precisely novelization, written by them but for which Clarke ended up as the official author.

Yes, that’s right – the film 2001: A Space Odyssey wasn’t adapted from a book, the book was adapted from the screenplay written by Kubrick and Clarke for the film, albeit that screenplay was inspired by various short stories by Clarke.

Also, while some people may be familiar with the film’s sequel, 2010: The Year We Make Contact, people may not be as aware that sequel was adapted from the book sequel 2010: Odyssey Two – or that there were two more sequel books, yet adapted in film and yet to be missed in real life chronology, 2061: Odyssey Three, and 3001: The Final Odyssey.

Anyway, you all know the two iconic scenes from the film – they’re pretty much what everyone remembers from the film to the exclusion of everything else, except maybe the space baby or star child thing at the end.

The first is the opening scene, subsequently imitated and parodied, of that weird black alien monolith seeding our hominin ancestors with intelligence, all to the orchestral music of Thus Spake Zaruthusa.

The second is of course the scene of my featured quote, of the sentient but paranoid supercomputer HAL (from the letters before IBM) not opening those damn pod bay doors on a space mission to Jupiter to check out more alien monoliths because those things get around.

Clarke’s novel Childhood’s End is also probably an influence for the film, particularly as Kubrick initially sought to adapt that novel and it has a similar theme of transcendent evolution guided by aliens. The aliens in the novel are much more intrusive than the monoliths in Space Odyssey, ruling Earth as benevolent but unseen Overlords (literally using that title).

The Overlords are unseen because in the novel’s first big twist, their appearance resembles that of depictions of the Christian Devil – something which is initially attributed to some sort of racial memory of previous visitation but that, in another big twist, is revealed to be not a racial memory but a racial premonition of this visitation. As for the source of that premonition, in the final twists of the novel it turns out that it originates from the latent psychic potential of humanity which sees humanity merge with the Overmind, essentially a psychic star child – or star adult since that’s’ the point of the title with humanity ending its pre-psychic “childhood”. The final kicker – while the Overlords serve the Overmind, they can never join it as they lack any latent psychic nature and hence have to go around the galaxy baby-sitting other species that have it.

 

RATING: 5 STARS*****

S-TIER (GOD-TIER – OR IS THAT MONOLITH OR OVERLORD TIER?)

Top Tens – Heroes & Villains: Top 10 Heroes of Mythology (Special Mention) (2) Pan & Abraxas

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Collage of public domain images – “Sweet, piercing sweet was the music of Pan’s pipe” in captioned illustration of Pan by Walter Crane (Wikipedia “Pan”) on left and trace of an image of Abraxas stone or gem “The Gnostics and their remains” by Charles W. King, 1887 (Wikipedia banner image for gnosticism) on right

 

 

(2) PAN & ABRAXAS

 

Io Pan! Io Pan Pan!

Iao Abraxas!

Pan, the original horny god with the groin of a goat or as Bill Hicks styled him, randy Pan the Goat Boy. God of nature, mountains, shepherds and s€xuality – also the source of our word panic, for the divine mad fear he could inspire in people, including as savior of Athens, the invading Persian army at Marathon.

As a Capricorn goat boy myself, I’ve long been a Pan fan. Ironically, the only classical Greek god reported as dead – in a historical legend by Plutarch, with a sailor during the reign of Tiberius reporting a divine proclamation from an island that “the great god Pan is dead” – but reports of his death, to paraphrase Mark Twain, were greatly exaggerated. Pan was the one god that endured more than all the others, even to the extent of embodying in horned and hooved form all classical paganism as a whole in modern romanticism and neo-paganism. Perhaps aptly enough, given the pun on Pan – as the word for “all” in Greek also being Pan.

One might call it Pan’s odyssey – from mythic Pan through medieval and early modern Pan to his romantic rebirth, Edwardian height of popularity, and ultimately contemporary Pan. There’s just too much Pan – or is that too many Pans? – out there.

Sadly, one of my favorite historical legends of how Christianity embodied Pan as its devil – may be just that, a legend dating back only to the nineteenth century (following the hypothesis of Ronald Hutton to that effect).

I still prefer the legend. In one of my story ideas, a somewhat lost and forlorn Satan muses to the protagonist (with whom he has occasional chats) of his origin from Pan (as one of his multiple-choice origin stories). The protagonist calls him out on his conflicting origin stories, to which Satan replies “Do I contradict myself? Very well, I contradict myself. I am legion, I contain multitudes”. But then he becomes sadly wistful “I would give anything just to dance in the moonlight again, when I was not evil but only wild and free”.

Another of my mythic idiosyncrasies is that I tend see a matching figure to Pan in Abraxas, even if the latter has nowhere near the classical pagan firepower as Pan in popular culture.

One reason is something of a physical resemblance in their half-animal half-human form. Where Pan is essentially a satyr as goat from waist down and with goat horns on his head, Abraxas is similarly animal from waist down and from neck up, only more so. For the former, Abraxas has much the same animal proportions of Pan – only more eerie or eldritch as instead of the lower half of goat, as Abraxas had a serpent (or serpentine tail) for each leg, anguiped rather than satyr. For the latter, Abraxas goes hard into animal head territory – instead of dainty goat horns on a human head, Abraxas has an actual animal head, with the head of a rooster. Serpentine legs and head of a rooster – if there’s a divine figure as more overt phallic symbol, then I don’t know what it is, particularly if you use the alternative word for rooster.

As to what sort of divine figure Abraxas is, well, that’s not entirely clear – Gnostic aeon or archon, classical or Egyptian god, or magical figure?

There’s even more direct parallels with Pan in the inscriptions and images on the prolific engraved ‘Abraxas stones’ that have been located in archaeology. There’s the salutation of Iao for Abraxas, echoing that of Io for Pan – and according to Egyptologist E. Wallis Budge, Abraxas was a Pantheus or Pantheos, that is, All-God.

I particularly have a soft spot for Abraxas from two sources for my personal mythos. One is the 1970 Santana album of that name, featuring its psychedelic cover art with the gloriously naked and voluptuous black magic woman as its centerpiece. The other is Piers Anthony’s Tarot trilogy, in which Abraxas is an unlikely candidate as the one true god, boosted by his golden priestess and devotee Amaranth, one of the s€xiest fantasy or SF female characters I have read. Iao Abraxas, indeed!

 

 

RATING: 5 STARS*****

S-TIER (GOD-TIER – OR IS THAT PAN-TIER?)

Top Tens – Comics: Top 10 Comics (Special Mention) (1) Mad

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The literal face of Mad Magazine – Alfred E. Neumann – on the October 1982 magazine cover parodying Time Magazine’s Man of the Year

 

 

(1) MAD (1952 – PRESENT)

 

What, me worry?

Ah – Alfred E. Neuman with his iconic gap tooth grin and catchphrase as Mad Magazine’s fictional mascot and cover boy. According to Wikipedia, he actually preceded Mad as a visual image in advertisements and a presidential campaign postcard for Roosevelt, although the magazine named him and converted his original appearance as an idiotic figure to a more mischievous devil-may-care trickster – “someone who can maintain a sense of humor while the world is collapsing around him”. Amusingly – given his origins from a presidential campaign postcard – Mad Magazine has proffered him periodically as a joke presidential candidate from 1956 onwards with the slogan “You could do a lot worse…and always have!”

I was raised on Mad. Indeed, it was hereditary – I inherited it from my mother, who had classic collections of Mad from when she was a teenager and passed them on to me when I was a teenager. (I’m not too sure her parents – my grandparents – were impressed by this subversive publication – they were pretty straightlaced). And it has been a huge influence on my sense of humor and worldview ever since, mirroring its wider influence on parody and satire in popular culture. If you want to understand me, know that Mad Magazine is etched deep within my psyche (paired with Catch-22 and as part of an eclectic kaleidoscope with The Devil’s Dictionary and TV Tropes):

 

The film and television parodies – particularly as drawn by Mort Drucker, possibly the finest caricaturist ever (sadly passed away on 9 April 2020).

 

Spy vs Spy! Featuring the titular literal black and white Cold War-eque spies (drawn as, ah, bird-like people things?) outwitting each other with traps within traps

 

Don Martin – Mad’s Maddest Artist! And his recurring Fonebone character!

 

Dan Berg and his “The Lighter Side of” slice of life cartoons!

 

Sergio Aragones – with his “A Mad Look At’ recurring features and his marginal doodles (or “Drawn Out Dramas”)!

 

The classic Mad Fold-Ins!

 

And so on. Nothing was sacred for Mad’s subversive satire and sense of humor – sacred cows make the best hamburger – “Mad’s satiric net was cast wide. The magazine often featured parodies of ongoing American culture, including advertising campaigns, the nuclear family, the media, big business, education and publishing. In the 1960s and beyond, it satirized such burgeoning topics as the sexual revolution, hippies, the generation gap, psychoanalysis, gun politics, pollution, the Vietnam War and recreational drug use”.

Robert Boyd from the Los Angeles Times summed up Mad Magazine for me as well as himself and other fans, with the apt line “All I really need to know I learned from Mad magazine” – “Plenty of it went right over my head, of course, but that’s part of what made it attractive and valuable. Things that go over your head can make you raise your head a little higher. The magazine instilled in me a habit of mind, a way of thinking about a world rife with false fronts, small print, deceptive ads, booby traps, treacherous language, double standards, half truths, subliminal pitches and product placements; it warned me that I was often merely the target of people who claimed to be my friend; it prompted me to mistrust authority, to read between the lines, to take nothing at face value, to see patterns in the often shoddy construction of movies and TV shows; and it got me to think critically in a way that few actual humans charged with my care ever bothered to.”

And it forever tainted the way I view films and television – much as it did critic Roger Ebert:

“I learned to be a movie critic by reading Mad magazine … Mad’s parodies made me aware of the machine inside the skin—of the way a movie might look original on the outside, while inside it was just recycling the same old dumb formulas. I did not read the magazine, I plundered it for clues to the universe”.

 

RATING: 5 STARS*****

S-TIER (GOD-TIER)