Issue 4 April 2014 “Faerie Tales”
or “Abandon Hope: read The Good Book” or “Bedtime Tales of
Wonder and Astonishment. And heart-crushing loss, soul-rending hopelessness,
piteous vulnerability, life-sapping submission...”
Disclaimer: “Nothing is anything, but it’s not…” and “Even a good book can do
very bad things…”
(too many great
by-lines for this issue: couldn’t leave them out…)
Front Cover: Jojo imagining the concept of crazy Bible stories… without ever
having read one. Awesome free-form imagination.
Logo: For the Title
Logo, the next letter to be changed is the “o” turned into a star and crescent
(which in the 20th century sometimes came to represent Islam,
Islamic communities, or countries)
Page 1 Panel 1 this is a preface, to get readers somewhat
prepared for the crazy stories of Elijah (and his “man-servant” Elisha…) But
this back-story (1 Kings chapters 18 and 19) is just as bizarre:
Panel 4 Jezebel: whose name is so
reviled throughout history, threatened to kill Elijah
Panel 5 Elijah is afraid and runs away;
he is tired and weary and asks God to die
Panel 6 An angel gives him a nice cake,
cooked over coals, and a jug of water. Then he sends him to Mt. Horeb… because,
why not?! The idea here is that the superhero of this story is Elijah:
powerful, righteous, exciting, a prototypical comic book hero (but not without
his own flaws and failings). We naturally root for Elijah, but shortly we will
meet some less than admirable associates in theBCU (the Bible comics Universe…)
Now we’re all on the same page, and ready for some Bible!
Page 2 we see Dany getting very
sleepy-eyed, reading the 1611 King James Bible by the light of the candle Stan
gave him (Lucifer, the bearer of light)
1 Kings 21:19 more lovely Bible wisdom and
lessons. “Him that pisseth against a wall”: while this probably means “males
and dogs…” you might not believe the number of scholarly article that study
this ignoble Biblical expression…1
the only titles page written by hand into the background: “Faerie
Tales” has so many meanings here… “Bedtime tales of wonder and astonishment!
(And heart-crushing loss, soul-rending hopelessness, and piteous
vulnerability…) Accept meaninglessness! Submit to life-altering shame!”
“Continentur in hoc libro…” table of contents, contained in
this book
“ATU folktale types 401a, 410a, 706, 769” this is the Aarne–Thompson–Uther
classification system2
a way of categorizing folk tales, fairy tales, etc. these
numbers are to a variety of sick, twisted, perverse “fairy tales”, that are
astonishing to read: they are ancient, but are more messed up than any
purportedly “shocking” story today’s writers come up with. Really disturbing
stuff… shudder… skim through a few here if you are brave… 3
“Nothing is anything, but it’s not” pushing the nihilism of
“It’s all made up, all invented” even further…
“Even a good book can do very bad things” maybe TH main
theme of showing all the madness n the bible and in religions in general…
“OK Alias” you’ll have to ask Jojo why he wrote this here… I
can’t remember…
Page 3 panel 1 we
tried to hew very closely to the actual bible stories of Elijah from 2 Kings
chapter 1 here (we got a little more impressionistic later in this issue…)
The tattoo probably says “mom” or “dad” in fake Aramaic, but
I can’t really remember… so many gags…
The healer is holding a staff of Asclepius, (one snake)
The headgear were based on ancient images of hats and
clothes from the Levant, and Greece etc. like the pileus, etc.
Panel 2 Ba’al (Baʿal Zebub “occurs in the first chapter of the Second Book of
Kings as the supposed name
of the Philistine god of Ekron.” This is
our own interpretation of the god, sometimes described as two-horned, and we
decided to give him a staff like a caduceus (or like the serpent and cross https://gnosticwarrior.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Cross-and-serpent.jpg )
Panel 3
Elijah, “herald of the end-times” Elijah is prophesied to appear before the
apocalypse "Lo, I will send you the prophet Elijah before the great
and terrible day of the Lord comes,” immediately before the second coming of
Jesus. 4 Now yes, some people may say that Elijah looks quite
similar to former WWWF wrestling Champion, Bruno Sammartino. Well, you may be
right… Bruno is still a legend in Pittsburgh, but growing up there, he was
quite actually, a superhero to kids in the 60’s. Who else could ever portray
the most powerful prophet in the old testament?
The temple and altars are also based on ancient temples and
images of sacrifices, uniforms, etc.
And of course, the strongest, most powerful prophet has
visible power emanating from his hands: Kirby dots! Yessah!!!
Page 4 panel 1 we
even tried to get Ahazia’s home to be conceptually correct: he was
theoretically injured falling off a second floor lattice. I like the joke of
adding unnecessary articles before the letter “H” (“an + nouns starting
with silent "h": an hour; a + nouns starting with a
pronounced "h": a horse. In some cases where "h"
is pronounced, such as "historical," you can use an.
However, a is more commonly used and preferred.)
Panel 2 another
Hebrew letter joke: Elijah/Bruno’s belt says WWWF in Hebrew… the bible says he
was wearing a leather belt about his loins https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruno_Sammartino#/media/File:Bruno_WWWF_Champion.jpg
Panel 3 uh oh… watch out… Kirby dots building up
power…
Panel 4 the fire is so devastating, it instantly vaporizes
the skin and soft-tissue and clothes on the parts of the people it crosses on
the edges of the blast-zone
Panel 5 how’d you like to be captain number 2? Their
swords are shaking this time, and the pile of bones keeps getting bigger: this
sets up a sudden transition back to modern times and the real-world drama of
Dany
Page 5 panel 1
The prophet of the lord spoke death (foreshadowing). Also yes, there is
ghost-cow blood on the snow, also foreshadowing the tragedy to come. Also note
the different, and decidedly sneaky sound-effects we hear now: Derek’s
footsteps go “Crinch crinch crinch”, and when he knocks, we hear “Knick Knick”…
Panel 2 you can
see Dany’s window lit up by the candle, with the angelic script for “Danyael”
under his window. The signs say “Condemned”, but they mean more than just the building is
condemned…
Panel 3 this is
an actual condemned building notice, but why from Montgomery County, why not
Cook County… I do not know, go ask your dad…
Panel 4 inside
Dany’s uncle, drinking Devel beer and smoking Fortunas, while a rat and a big
spider fight it out for the last bean.
Page 6 panel 1
“Knick Knick Knick” even Derek’s knocks are creepy.
Panel 2 Derek
needs you to invite him in… we see Derek has Jehovah’s Witness buttons and
badges, and he is carrying a very similar bible, but his is from 1631 (we’ll
learn something VERY interesting about the 1631 Bible next month…). ICDFS the “uncle” only keeps dany around for
the foster money and to buy him smokes and run his numbers. We find out as we
go that he also lets the church abuse Dany for their own purposes, as long as
they bring the uncle food, money, etc (the nuns have been feeding him LSD to
give him psychedelic nightmares, the priest Bobson has probably been sexually
abusing him…)
Panel 3 dhs
Illinois dept human services (who provide food stamps for poor kids like Dany).
Derek is trading on the Uncle’s dependence on the Government…
his character is based on Derek Frost, from the excellent movie Source Code
(where delusional madman Derek Frost blows up a commuter train on its way into
Chicago; he believes the Earth is Hell and he wants to end all life so the
earth can start over again… and he is preparing to use nuclear bombs… more on
this later)
We see the spider defeated the rat, and is making off with
his prize, the last baked bean.
Panel 4 Illinois
Link Card does the same function as SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance
Program) benefits or food stamps. P.s. there is also another important Chicago
group called SNAP, “Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests”.
Panel 5 the
Jehovah’s Witnesses believe saluting the flag, saying the pledge of allegiance,
or singing the national anthem is a form of idolatry.5 Derek is
laying out his philosophy, about Babylon, the Earth’s governments, etc. His
motivation will become more evident in the next few issues.
Readers who are reading will have noticed that Derek is
barefoot in the snow. Creepy, but look more closely at his feet… something even
creepier will become clear soon…
Page 7 Panel 1
Derek is cracking himself up telling the uncle everything will be straightened
out by October 2014 (which just may turn out to be a certain Apocalypse time
round these parts…) “I’ll tell you about it in a bit…” is always a funny gag to
me, when certain characters believe they know something the other doesn’t, and
which will have dire consequences for the other person (and this always makes
the one who knows the secret guffaw)
Panel 2 here we
put in the sayings you can get from a Magic 8 Ball tm: It is certain; It
is decidedly so; Without a doubt; Yes definitely; You may rely
on it; As I see it, yes; Most likely; Outlook good; Yes; Signs
point to yes; Reply hazy try again; Ask again later; Better not
tell you now; Cannot predict now; Concentrate and ask again; Don't
count on it; My reply is no; My sources say no; Outlook not so
good; Very doubtful…
“Story and pencils by me…” (ummmm, yeah, these Derek Frost
pages were written and penciled by me…) And yes, he can’t even give it away for
free… (I told you, everyone was fair game for lampooning here: including me!) We
see that Derek’s home-made copy of “the Watchtower” is in fact the one on the
back cover of this issue of Sons of God. To which Derek’s scuzz-ball Uncle
replies “Why would anyone want some crappy parody rip-off comic? that book’s
got no value at all.” Yes, yes,
scuzzballs and genocidal maniacs, all decrying the worthlessness of a parody
comic-book about religiosity… ha…ha…
Panel 3 Derek’s
old old Bible (from 1631: aka “the Naughty Bible) is “verrrrry nice…” (from
Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the French castle guard) but it is not special
enough for some devious purpose: it’s missing a few very important chapters…
Panel 4 good gag
here: it’s not an 8-ball… if you turn it sideways, it’s “an Infinity Ball”! the
secret message it is telling Derek (1 Corinthians 6:10) is “nor thieves nor the
greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of
God.”
Panel 6 Rich
Corinthian leather was Ricardo Montalban’s most famous quote, from the Chrysler
new Yorker commercials in the 70’s. Derek is still trying to get invited in:
like a vampire crossed with a JW…
Panel 8 the
secret message for Dany’s uncle this time says “And the Lord God rained down
fire on them…”
Page 8 Panel 1
Back to Elijah and the King’s soldiers.
Panel 2 this is a
take off on star wars’ Darth Vader with each new unlucky promotee “Don’t fail
me again… admiral!” The narrator’s voice is being purposefully mischevious
here. The captain actually does say “Man of God,” he begged,
“please have respect for my life! Please have respect for the lives of these 50
men! 14 Fire has come down from heaven. It has burned up the first
two captains and all their men. But please have respect for my life!”
But here he also says “Zachor”6 as a way of getting Elijah to spare his life
after the rain of fire from above (“Aren’t we all Israelis here…?”) All of a
sudden he’s pretending to be a Jew, so Elijah will spare him. Zachor means
“remember”, and it’s a critically important phrase for Jews, to remember the
Holocaust and pass on the stories and legacies of the survivors so the world
never forgets.
Panel 3 Elijah
happily delivering the bad news to Ahazia. We added the touch of him bringing
the head of the statue of the “false God” Baal Zebub” from Ekkron (it’s
disturbing to see Baal’s head crying…)
Page 9 Elijah’s
journey (around 903 BCE): At the beginning of 2
Kings 2, Elijah travels from Gilgal to Bethel to Jericho to the Jordan
before being taken up in the whirlwind.
we put a LOT of work into this map, on several fronts, to try to make
sense of this odd chronicle: we looked through tons of old maps to try to get
the right names of the kingdoms at the time of Elijah, and their borders. 7
There has also been a lot of sleuthing surrounding what
years biblical events probably happened!
We put in a scale in both stadia and cubits (for the ancient
romans and the greeks who may be reading…) and remember there are MANY
different types and purposes of stadia and cubits…
There are many excellent websites analyzing Elijah’s travels
and other historical biblical locations8 and they involve historical
sleuthing and scholarly research: sometimes it is difficult to even figure
where old Biblical cities were, and several places could have the same name
(eg. Gilgal could refer to 4 different places in the Bible) It’s all kind of
fun, really!
As with all stories, I think it is important to have a point
of view: it just seemed to me that Elijah was a classical hero, but that his
weaselly little sidekick, Elisha, was more of a weak wannabe. With that, we
tried to construct a visual map of Elijah’s strange journey: with this, we try
to put real-world context on the miraculous stories, and also to have a reality
check about the horror and violence in these venerated sanctified tales:
eg here is the nice spot, by a stream,
where Elijah, our hero, killed 450 followers of the old God Ba’al…
We wanted to really showcase the locations of several
historic biblical landmarks, eg the River Jordan: it gives better context to
see how it runs between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea, right through the
Kingdom of Israel. And I always like a good map gag, with giant arrows, and
Elisha padding along after his hero, enraptured (with little hearts in his
eyes). Sometimes here we put the turning page gag also, at points where a new
story was to begin, or where urgency was signaled (you can see the next page
underneath the lower right corner, as if to say “Let’s get started!”)
Page 10 Panel 1the
river Jordan can be small and slow moving, or sometimes ripping with class II
or III rapids and some big drops. It is only wide at the Seas and tributary
inlets. We made this section of the river (near Jericho) much wider for
dramatic purposes.
Panel 2 Yes,
Elijah (Bruno Sammartino)’s belt says WWWF in Hebrew letters. Here is another instance
of one of my favorite old jokes: George Kirby’s classic story of the little guy
stopped by a cop for swimming on a private beach: “Sorry, but the sign clearly
says “Private Property, no swimming allowed”. The man responds: “That’s not how
I read it. It says “Private Property? No! Schvimming allowed!”” we’ll see this
little gag again in several more iterations: it just seemed like a surreal
running gag (like doing an Ernie Kovacs skit…)
Panel 3 all the
stuff you would see if the river Jordan suddenly parted: leech monsters, nun’s
glasses and the crucifix Stan tossed in the water from episode 2, and a brief
(confused) cameo appearance by what appears to be the celestial salmon.
Some readers who are reading, may have noticed a certain
similarity between Elisha and Riff Raff from the Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Silly twisted people…
Page 11 panel 2
again, we tried to be very accurate about maps and locations: Bethel is 12
roman miles, or 96 greek stadia from this spot: Maine has an inordinate amount
of cities named after famous countries, cities and states. The town of Bethel
is a favorite spot of ours: Sunday River is our favorite skiing place!
Panel 3 more Jojo
wackiness: his conception of Elijah being taken away in a chariot of fire:
driven by a spider (of course…)
Page 12 panel 1 Elisha,
in our story, is a fawning sycophant, so he covets Elijah’s “mantle”: not his
belt of power, rather just his swim trunks (essentially, he wants Elijah’s jock
strap)
A rare spelling mistake here: souirce. I’ll fix that some
day…
Panel 2 Elisha
wearing Elijah’s underwear, which of course says “BVD”… this is like Danny
Bonaduce wearing susan dey’s bra like a mask in the old Mad Magazine send up:
“The Putrid Family”:
Note Elisha still only gets pathetic, fizzling Kirby dots.
Panel 3 also,
when he tries to part the waters like Elijah did, they only part a little…
Panel 4 Here is
the George Kirby joke again: “Poison? No, drinking allowed!” Another weird
Bible story, about healing poisoned water this time (like the other stories
with poisoned stew, or snakes, etc.)
Page 13 panel 1
this sign is a Bethel, Maine joke: “Welcome to Bethel, Maine’s most beautiful
mountain village” is a sign you used to see driving into Bethel, ME. The
“Divided Kingdom” is of course, the Bible’s story of how the Israelite country
split into two: the Kingdom of Israel in the north and
the Kingdom of Judah (containing Jerusalem) in
the south.
Panel 3 “Sabbath
River” is Sunday River Ski Resort (the mountain in the background is their
official logo) Elisha called down bears to kill and eat the children.
Panel 4 bears
killing and dismembering little children… great noble and useful life-lessons:
thanks, Bible!
Once again, you can see the “turning page” gag in the lower
right hand corner, to emphasize the story-telling nature of the Bible tales
here.
Page 14 panel 1
around 550 BCE… the way most historians can date events like these is by the
rules of kings, cross-referenced with other sources from these times (from the
Masoretic texts here: of the Tanakh). Here are the crazy dreams of Daniel
interpreted by me and Jojo: (you’re welcome, History!)
Panel 2 we
decided to have the bear eating his own 3 ribs
Panel 3 this
leopard is based on a wild dancing leopard photographed with his mate9
Panel 4 it’s an
octopug, of course (squashing tiny people). Why? Ho ho ho, silly human… btw yak
yak yak, blab la bla is kind of a mantra for me, from George Martin’s cartoons
in the old New Yorker (back when the cartoons were sublime, back in the 60’s
and 70’s)
Page 15 we tried
to illustrate some of the psychedelic stories from the bible (“his throne was
flaming with fire, and its wheels were all ablaze…”), but jojo also came up
with his own imagery, every bit as wacky as the bible’s authors…
After this actual bible passage at the top, we invented the
dialogue about the burning sword 10 and had the little horn pipe up
with his own demands… foreshadowing what
comes in the later issues: the flaming sword of Uriel! (and why one character
covets it so badly…)
I love “the court was seated and the books were opened”.
It’s just about reckoning time… the books were opened to
Page 16 panel 1
Moses! In Exodus, 500 years earlier… JOjo just heard these stories for the
first time, so… theyah! Of course this is what Moses looked like! Now and
forever hence!
Panel 4 Yes, in
this image, Moses supposes his toeses are roses (erroneously, as it turns out…)
the dialogue here is not from the Bible: the burning bush warns of the danger,
that the flaming sword is missing (from the garden of Eden) and that flames
surround the sons of man (eternal damnation, banishment to hell…) Jojo’s
colors, pencils and inks are off the charts here: my favorite page in the whole
book (I only did the roses)
Page 17 panel 1
the book seems to be lulling Dany to sleep “There is a way…” the Bible here
says “Moses and the Hebrewites… So let it be written, so let it be done!” This
is, of course, Billy Crystal’s famous impression of Yul Brenner playing the
Pharaoh Rameses in “The Ten Commandments”. The other page says “There is a way
out. there is only one way. There is a way…” Dany has been having a “waking
dream”, incorporating the surreal Bible parables into hisexhausted, traumatized
consciousness. It’s called hypnagogia11 .
Panel 2 Poor
Danyael was never baptized, so he can never go to Heaven. (nice religion, huh?)
Panel 3, 4, and 5
this is a mash-up of several components: of course, the famous scene from “The
Shining” where Jack Nicholson ischopping away at the bathroom door where his
wife is hiding. But it’s also the old folk story “The Golden Arm”: it’s a
“campfire tale” you tell very quietly, scarily… “And where are your red lips?”
“All gone” “And where is your Golden hair?” “All rotted away…” “And Where is
your golden arm?” and suddenly you scream: “THOU
HAST IT!!!” (For those scoring at home, this folktale is classified as
Arne-Thompson type 366…)12
But there is a secret here. Don’t read it if you don’t want to know…
Ok, here it is… it’s actually Jesse (Jesus) calling Dany
into the flames: “Where’s my blade of fire?!” to the child’s doom. but Stan arrives at
the last minute again (Deus ex machina…?) and saves him… or does he? Does he
bear Dany away to a safe house in Idaho or Alaska, etc, or is he tricking him
to follow him into Hell, or…
Panel 6 Stan does
a parody of Jack Nicholson’s classic “Heeeer’es Johnny!” but in 2014, Johnny
Carson’s Tonight Show is now hosted by a new host, introduced by his announcer
as “Heeeeere’s Jimmmy Falllon!” Stan reprises his catch-phrase “You were
expecting maybe somebody else?”
Panel 7, 8 Leviathan
was considered to be the Hellmouth: the portal through which damned souls must
pass on their way to hell. Leviathan was also considered to be a “Chaos
Monster”: in perpetual conflict with the forces of “creation”. Stan is
proposing that the only way out of this inferno, is directly through the
Hellmouth (and back towards the ordered world of reality). But Dany being a
pawn of so many powerful, unscrupulous forces, it’s hard to believe this is a
safe passage for him… as the Devil, it’s Stan’s
thing to trick people, for his own purposes… there seems to be a GIANT
school of thought that the path back through the Leviathan’s mouth leads to
universal chaos, and UN-creation…
is Stan trying to help him? or trick him, for some unknown
purpose? I know what I think… you’ll have to decide on your own… does Dany go “straight through the flames and
into…”
page 18 “…Unspeakable
Tragedy”? This is the newspaper page that was partially hidden back in issue #3
page 12. now we can see the rest of the page: we see Dany’s house engulfed in
flames: we see Stan and Dany in the upstairs window; we see Derek Frost’s bare
footprints going through the snow, up to Dany’s door (but the snow has melted
all around the house from the intense heat…) The fire is playing tricks on our
eyes, and the word “Condemned” looks like it says “Damned”;
Fire trucks often have interesting but obscure words on the
sides, and sometimes nicknames. The far truck is nicknamed “Old Scratch” with a
drawing of a devil. the Chicago Fire Dept, like many big city fire depts., has
a certain number of Tower trucks (this one just coincidentally happens to be
Tower 666, and also ladder 666…) The near truck has the logo “Death” truck,
indicating fatalities in this fantasy comic-book world. Chicago Fire Station 98
looks just like a castle13 but I don’t remember why I wrote that…
I’ve lost the handwritten notes... these are supposed to be ghost-firetrucks,
part of an inescapable response to the events (so possibly not very helpful to
the victims…)
On the opinions page, we see opinions from such random
passersby as Frank Miller, Anton leVay, and Alan Moore. I lampoon everybody,
including myself, for taking my opinion way too seriously sometimes… “Somebody
innocent is going to get burned…” creepy…
The story titled “Bomb Scare” is taken, as exactly as I
could, from the excellent movie “Source Code”. Derek here is giving a
rapture-like apocalyptic message/appeal, but from Jehovah’s Witness
perspective: “God loves you and wants to do something special with your life.
Make sure of where you stand with him because he’s coming back again. Because,
the world is hell. But we have a chance to start over in the rubble. But first
there has to be a rubble…” if you know the movie, the idea is that in this
iteration/parallel timeline, Derek is still on the loose, and on a mission to
turn the world to rubble, to start the endtimes, because he has read the signs
in the religion he trained in: we’ll see why the JW’s believe the world will
end in October soon.
The story under the photo: here is a cameo from the Angel
Gabriel (so please imagine his lines read by Christopher Walken). The last paragraph is a takeoff on Colter
Stevens returning to try to stop the tragedy over and over, every 8 minutes in
the movie, and his mantra “Everything is gonna be OK”… the right column is a
bunch of references to Dante’s inferno, then references to Isaiah 30-33 (the
burning place); then there’s a description of Derek leaving the scene, with his
bare 4-toed feet. This reporting will become more important later, as reporter
Hally Scion follows the strange clues and occurences here, and elsewhere across
America
Page 19 panel 1
this is a takeoff on “Out of the cradle, endlessly rocking…” walt whitman’s
poem, which kept coming back in D.W. Griffith’s “Intolerance”. The fire truck
is number “Infinity”, a mystical spiritual firetruck, like the other demonic or
ghost trucks on the last page.
Also, here is the George Kirby joke again: sorry, it just
keeps making me laugh… “Warning: Leaving Chicago? Repent, He’s coming back
soon!” can you guess who it is whose coming? This is a tableau, parralelling
the two levels of storylines: Chicago, and…
Panel 2 The River
Jordan, the Holy Land, the land of Elijah
Panel 3 here is a
view that includes both “Chicagoland” (as residents are coerced to call it) and
“Israel-land” (as no one calls it…)
Here is the first news report on the celestial body: it’s
orbital period is 2014 years (from the year 0 A.D. aka 0 A.C.E.) “plus or minus
30 years…” because it is commonly believed that Jesus died when he was 30 years
old. This would make the body a “Long period” orbit because it is more than 200
years (some could take 1 million years to orbit the Sun!) “Most of the comets
seen close to the Sun seem to have reached their current positions through
gravitational perturbation of the Oort cloud by the tidal
force exerted by the Milky Way.”
This is called the Galactic Tide, and it seems appropriate for the Celestial
Salmon to swim the tidal waters back to its spawning ground here on Earth, as
an earthly salmon navigates back from the vast ocean back to its own singular
little spawning stream.
Panel 4 yes, the
cosmic salmon will be making his big return in 6 months, i.e. on October 2nd…
there seems to be a convergence coming on that date…
We LOVE drawing galaxies and stars and such
page 20 jojo
pictured leviathan as wishing to be a big prophet like Elijah or Jesus… but he
does not have their sophistication…
Back Inner Sleeve
this, of course, is the “Who’s that Pokemon?” game, from the original Pokemon
TV series (I pictured the ones from Indigo League): VERY popular in this house…
the silhouette being teased is from the next episode, Issue
5. The idea is that there are many other “Gods” in the world, of different
shapes and colors and powers, etc. the way kids keep trading cards of the
wonderful variety of Pokemon
Back Cover Watchtower cover for March
2014. So remember, “Sons of
God” also follows the parallel path of the maniacal, psychotic, barefoot JW Mr.
Frost, pursuing his own bizarre obsessive quest. We see the updates in his
quest, real time, on the back pages of “The Watchtower”: we see HIS version of
the story, as told in his own self-published private monthly edition of “The
WatchTower” (which themselves are parodies of the Watchmen” covers). This is
kind of like “Stella Luna”, the excellent children’s book about a little bat
who became lost and separated from her mother when a hawk attacked them, and
how she tries to survive. Well, if you look closely, at the margins of the
pages of stella luna, you can see a separate, parallel story told in simple
black and white dot images: it tells the story of what happened to the mother,
and follows the mother’s path in real-time, as she tries to find her baby. I
found this amazing when we first realized it was there in Stella Luna: it was a
whole secret world, right under our eyes, kind of a parallel universe. Well,
you can see Derek’s thoughts and plans and agenda, unfolding if you read the
back covers closely…
On this issue, you
can see that the number of souls from the small flock who have made it up to
rule with Jesus in Heaven is now up to 143,991.
The top quote was
always one of my favorite things to hear back in Catholic School, Catholic
Church, etc. “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart
the things which God hath prepared for them which love him.” this passage
always woke up great imaginings in me, of what heaven would look like to us
mortals (although there is a very short list of humans who have actually seen a
glimpse of what was in store in Heaven…)
Along this line, St.
Paul writes to the Corinthians about the “Third Heaven” where “He heard inexpressible things, things that man
is not permitted to tell." (2 Corinthians 12:2–4) The Greek says "caught away", not
"caught up" possibly reflecting Jewish beliefs that Paradise was
somewhere other than the uppermost heaven.14
This Watchtower is all about the wonder, the magick, the
surreal imaginings that await in Heaven… and there is no wilder, more unbridled
madness than Revelation. This is reality to Derek Frost, and he has based his
life and immortal soul on it: Derek, poor as a churchmouse, Mr. Self-Denial and
self-mortification/mortification of the flesh (look that stuff up if you want
some real disturbing stories…) and he is getting up to heaven, hoo boy, yessah.
In our house, the kids kind of love, kind of live in fear of
“Coraline”: this image is, of course, Neil Gaiman, who misheard/misinterpreted
St. Matthew’s famous quote about a camel passing through the eye of a needle…
oh, but wait, this might be “Other-Neil Gaiman” anyway… wait, so does that mean
all this is backwards…? P.s. Neil’s tshirt says “Welcome Home”: this is
foreshadowing the importance of Chicago’s Insane Asylum “Dunning”… welcome home
to the Sanitarium (cue Metallica), especially for one character in particular,
but as regards all the characters: “Are they all crazy? All imaginary
characters in some madman’s paranoid delusions/hallucinations?” But thosewho
have heard the wonderful music from “Coraline the Musical” will get the
reference to “Welcome Home” as well…
And how about the old Watchtower slogan: Watchman: what of
the night?” “The morning cometh… and also the night…” maybe that was supposed
to give someone courage, but it just kind of saddens and freaks me out…
This is all a look forward to/ in preparation for our next
episode: “A peek inside “The Kingdom””
Footnotes:
6) http://www.oychicago.com/article.aspx?id=9266&blogid=132
http://www.chabad.org/parshah/article_cdo/aid/346416/jewish/What-does-it-Mean-to-Remember.htm
10)
from Wikipedia "Watchers", "those who are awake";
"guard", "watcher"[3]) is a
term used in connection with biblical angels. Watcher occurs in both plural and singular
forms in the Book of Daniel (4th–2nd century BC), where
reference is made to their holiness. The apocryphal Books of Enoch (2nd–1st
centuries BC) refer to both good and bad Watchers, with a primary focus on the
rebellious ones.
11) Hypnagogia is the experience of the transitional state from
wakefulness to sleep: the hypnagogic state of consciousness, during the onset
of sleep. Mental phenomena that occur during this "threshold
consciousness" phase include lucid thought, lucid dreaming,
hallucinations, and sleep paralysis. From Wikipedia
12) The Golden Arm
can be documented at least 200 years back, but it has been told orally for
longer. This tale is part of the Aarne–Thompson Type 366 which means that a corpse comes
back from the dead to claim what was stolen from them, usually a body part,
article of clothing or object. This stems from the belief that “a dead man or
animal can find no rest until its physical remains are intact.” [1] from
wikipedia
Disclaimer: I am fully
aware of just how Zimsky this is: writing down all these sources and
inspirations and references for… well, for posterity. Theyah!
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