SI SPURRIER’s 13 Days of Myth-mas: Day 13 — THE ZEITGEIST

And on the 13th and final day of Myth-Mas,  Si Spurrier leads us into the holidays with … the Zeitgeist .

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Click links for previous Days of Myth-mas:

On the First Day of Myth-masSi Spurrier gave to us… THE ZOMBIE.

On the Second Day of Myth-mas, Si Spurrier gave to us … THE HORRIFYING PENANGGALAN.

On the Third Day of Myth-mas, Si Spurrier gave to us … THE SLEIPNIR.

On the Fourth Day of Myth-mas, Si Spurrier gave to us … THE LITTLE PEOPLE.

On the Fifth Day of Myth-mas, Si Spurrier gave to us … THE YARA-MA-YHA-WHO.

On the Sixth Day of Myth-mas, Si Spurrier gave to us … THE BLACK HOUND.

On the Seventh Day of Myth-mas, Si Spurrier gave to us … THE ANGELS OF MONS.

On the Eighth Day of Myth-mas, Si Spurrier gave to us … THE KAPPA.

On the Ninth Day of Myth-mas, Si Spurrier gave to us … OTTAR THE SIMPLE.

On the Tenth Day of Myth-mas, Si Spurrier gave to us … THE UNICORN.

On the Eleventh Day of Myth-mas, Si Spurrier gave to us … THE COMPTE DE SAINT GERMAIN.

On the Twelfth Day of Myth-mas, Si Spurrier gave to us … THE ENCANTADO.

After nearly two weeks of Myth-masSi Spurrier brings the season to a close with his 13th and final submission.  Rather than a new myth, Si turns to one of his favorite topics, namely the meaning of folklore and its place in the modern world — themes that he has explored before in books like Six Gun Gorilla, and he will delve into again in Cry Havoc.

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By SI SPURRIER

And at last we reach the end of this rambling jaunt through weird weirdosity. This final entry – forgive me cheating – isn’t really a myth at all so much as an abstract philopshical concept which, I believe, relates fundamentally to the whole shimmering canon of stories and ideas which we crudely package as “folklore”.

The spirit of the times, the dreams of the massmind, the tip of the subconscious iceberg, the art that is manifested from culture, the distillation of social interaction, the cutting edge of thought, the purest expression of mass relevance. 

Well. The Germans, ever-reliable, have a word for that. Zeitgeist.

Foklore, almost by definition, is the antithesis of the zeitgeist. The folklorification of something, after all, can only occur with time, when its moment of true relevance has passed. (Think of it this way: mold doesn’t grow on a fruit until after its picked.)

Sure, in some of the above examples – especially those whose euhemerism is obvious – it’s clear that it can be a really fast process. It only took a year for The Bowmen to become The Angel of Mons, for instance. In the case of the Compte de Saint Germain, he even managed to become a myth in his own lifetime, but only at the price of accepting that everyone knew he was a consummate bullshitter. His legend grew a lot easier after he was gone.

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I keep harping on about Cry Havoc, this forthcoming comic I’ve written, and this is the point where all these references come swirling together. Y’see, myths and monsters are not only wonderful and colourful and entertaining and creative, they’re also a glorious illustration – by contrast – of how literal our world has become. We spend our spiritual lives being pulled towards rationalist science in one direction, or fundamentalist religion in the other. We’re forgetting the wonder of fiction. We’re losing the ability to feel something from a story even when we know it’s not real.

For me folklore is a beautiful hybrid: a middleground between fact and fiction. These are ideas which – to one extent or another – have tasted belief. They’ve had some meat laid down onto their bones. They demonstrate perfectly that the divide between That Which Exists and That Which Does Not isn’t a simple binary yes/no, but a swirling continuum where meaning is so much more valuable than truth. 

Myths are dying out of our world. The zeitgeist grows more and more literal every year.

Cry Havoc is the story of how it feels to be one of those myths. How would you act? How would you go about reclaiming relevance for yourself and your people? Where does revolution end and terrorism begin? How far must a gun-toting monster push the envelop to reacquaint herself with the zeitgeist?

We’re fabulously proud of the result, and we hope you’ll agree it’s a smart, fitting, funny, bleak, bloody contribution to the ever-evolving world of folklore.

Cry Havoc is written by Si Spurrier, with art by Ryan Kelly, colors by Nick Filardi, Lee Loughridge and Matt Wilson, letters by Simon Bowland and design by Emma Price.

Issue #1 is published by Image Comics on 1/27/16. To avoid missing out, please ask your retailer to order a copy before the Final Order Cutoff on 1/4/16.

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Author: 13th Dimension

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