Video: Josh Lane explores the role of superheroes in ancient Egyptian history
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
Superheroes are shards of broken myths. In a rational world of scientific knowledge that has abandoned the gods and monsters that once inhabited legends and beliefs, the last fantastic creatures that have firmly entered modern folklore are disguised fighters against criminals and villains endowed with supernatural powers.
Obviously, there is a direct continuity between superheroes and the ancient world, whose mythology has adapted to the specifics of modern society. In Josh Lane's Hero-glyphics, disguised fighters against evil - from the X-Men to Power Rangers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - appear on Egyptian papyri instead of Osiris and Anubis.
Moreover, they also include Thor - a superhero / god borrowed by the creators of comics and films straight from German-Scandinavian mythology. This reinforces the persistent feeling that Lane's ancient Egyptian comics are exercises in comparative mythology.
Depicting modern heroes, he applies the canons of the fine art of Ancient Egypt: the head and legs in profile, the torso is turned towards the viewer. This is one of the most ancient pictorial canons known to us. At least it was already installed by the time the Narmer Palette was created (about five thousand years ago).
Three thousand years later, during Roman rule, this peculiar manner of portraying people and gods was still at the height of fashion. Why, with the exception of the era of the dissident pharaoh Akhenaten, the artists of Ancient Egypt were not looking for fresh design solutions? Why didn't you experiment with proportions and volume?
At leisure, in their workshops, most likely, they searched and experimented (the portraits of the brief Amarna period show what happens if the artists are allowed to go all out). But in general, the Egyptians clearly demanded that the art of constant repetition of the same thing. It was the embodiment of the ancient faith and the herald of eternal truths. So why fix something that can't break?
Of course, the same can be said for superheroes. Heroglyphs look funny precisely because their characters are so recognizable. The superheroes, who first appeared in 20th century comics and have infiltrated everything from blockbusters to Lego blocks, are no stranger to daring appearances. But the core set of identifying features remains unwavering. As much as Batman suffers, he will not stop dressing as a bat.
For the ancient Egyptians, who believed in gods with the heads of lions and jackals, this would be close and understandable. But the feet turned to one side must be preventing the superhero from developing the required speed in space.
Since we are talking about superheroes in different genres and eras, we recall that the artists of the WonderBros design studio tried to imagine how the posters with their image might look like if Pablo Picasso took over to draw them; Maria Danlakis draws pin-up female superheroes; and photographer Paul Armstrong filmed the "reportage" series about Captain America - "Scenes from the life of an aging superhero" (Everyday Occurances of Aging Superhero).
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