This Week in Illustration & Myth

Batman, Muscle Cars, Ancient Greece & Cards

Some things you thought you knew you let drop as you age. Some things you vaguely understood become reinforced and strengthened with time.

One of those: mythology is so necessary to understand reality that we weave it into everything.

I’ve brought a couple of things to help with that this week: First, I still have my Greek myth card game crowdfunding. I think you’d really like it and should pick up a deck. It’s fun. I put a lot of effort into the illustration to make it look great, and I used high quality stock to make it durable and beautiful. Check it out.

But I also just finished and put together a video essay on the 1989 Batman film. I’ve seen it countless times since I was a kid, but the more I learn about art history and literature the more I see the reverberating themes even in something that I once regarded as purely aimed at entertainment.

Themes of self-sacrifice, overcoming adversity and conquering one’s desires in order to better the common good or to show love for individuals is universal within great stories. When laid out as bullet points (as I essentially just did) it sounds a bit bland.

But likewise it sounds a bit bland to say to someone “the only colors you can use are blue, yellow and red.” When in reality, through those pigments, every conceivable color can be made. The best things are made of simple parts. What’s nutritious is simply nutritious, and it’s foolish to turn up our collective noses at the rhythmic simplicity of myth.

We’re fundamentally shaped by stories, so surround yourselves with good ones. Socrates (in Plato’s Republic Book 3) would certainly concur.

Something from Illustration Work

As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve spent almost a year working quietly behind the scenes on a graphic novel that I was hired to create. I didn’t write it, I’m just the hired pen who illustrates.

I can’t really share much from it, but I think I can share a page or two that depict some biblical narrative. There’s a few of these sprinkled through the book. See if you can identify the stories.

Live among stories that promote the Good.

J. Holt