Who's Who in Jesse Moynihan's Forming (NSFW)

Robert Boyd


Forming II by Jesse Moynihan

I wrote about Jesse Moynihan's highly amusing götterdämmerung Forming a couple of years ago. The second volume, Forming II, has just been published (and you can also read it online at Moynihan's website). I thought about writing a review of the second volume, but such a review would have been too similar to the first. Suffice it to say, Forming II excellent.

But it occurred to me as I read Forming II that it's hard to keep everyone straight. There are so many characters in these books, and they come from such a wide variety of mytho-religious traditions. So I decided I'd make a list of all the characters, who they are in mythology and who they are in Moynihan's hilarious mash-up of mythologies.

I realize that this post will be utterly obscure to 98% of this blog's readers. And I admit it's a totally fanboyish post to write. All I can say is, check out his comic--you can read it on your computer for free--and decide if you're interested. Or just skip this post!

I thought about organizing it alphabetically, but I decided instead to do it in order of the characters' appearance in the story (more or less). That way, you can read it along with the books or online strip. But keep in mind--my descriptions of the characters will frequently contain spoilers.

There are several characters that have no name (yet) and no mythological counterpart--the Yeti-like creature that defeats Atys, the snake-man who aids Lucifer, the personification of death that visits Nommo on Dogon, etc. But I wanted to concentrate on the identifiably myth-based characters.

Two characters who are mentioned but don't exactly appear in Forming are Ahura Mazda (father of Mithras) and Ain Soph. Ahura Mazda is a Zoroastrian deity, and Ain Soph in Kabbalistic lore is God prior to his self-manifestation.


Mithras

Mithras. In the book, he is a powerful, high-tech being from planet Dogon who has come to Earth in 10,000 BC to develop a mining colony. He is the son of Ahura Mazda and his assistant on Dogon is Nommo. He weds Gaia and fathers several children, who rebel against him.

Mithras was a Roman deity. It was assumed for a long time that he was associated with the Zoroastrian angel, Mithra, but apparently this link is now considered dubious. There is not much known about the Roman Mithras (although much is known about his cult). The Persian (Zoroastrian) Mithra was subordinate to Ahura Mazda, and was associated with cattle, the morning sun and justice.


Nommo

Nommo. Nommo is Mithras' put-upon assistant back on Dogon. He is contacted in his dreams by Lucifer, who is seeking outsiders to help him escape from his hellish prison at the center of the Earth. Lucifer later transforms Iapetus into Nommo.

In Dogon mythology, Nommo is not necessarily a person but a type of person--amphibious, hermaphroditic creatures. (The Dogon are a tribal group in Mali.) The Nommo are also associated with "ancient astronaut" claims, which sort of fits here.


Themis (left) and Gaia (right)

Gaia. She is a work-boss in Mithras' colony who becomes Mithras wife. We later learn that she was instructed to do so by Ghob, the gnome king. She has several children with Mithras--Brontes, Steropes, Arges, Cronus and Rhea--as well as two, Themis and Iapetus, with her lover on the side, Noah.

In Greek mythology, Gaia is the primordial goddess who represents the Earth. She is the mother of a whole host of mythological beings, including the Cyclopes, the Titans, some of the Muses and many more.


Cronus and Themis

Cronus. Cronus is one of the sons of Gaia and Mithras. Ghob instructs him to rebel against Mithras.

Cronus in Greek mythology is one of the Titans, a son of Gaia and Uranus. He becomes leader of the Titans and kills Uranus, only to be killed in turn by his son Zeus.


Left to right, Brontes, Steropes and Arges

Brontes. A son of Gaia and Mithras, he is a Cyclops.

In Greek mythology, Brontes is one of the three Cyclopes born of Gaia and Uranus. Brontes is also known as the thunderer, and all three brothers are expert craftsmen, forging Zeus's thunderbolts, Poseidon's trident, Artemis's bow and arrows, etc.

 
Steropes

Steropes. Another Cyclops son of Gaia and Mithras.

In mythology, Steropes is known as "lightning."


Arges

Arges. Another Cyclops son of Gaia and Mithras. He is contacted by Lucifer in a scheme to overthrow Mithras.He ends up in the pit of Tartarus, guarding a gem that Lucifer needs to escape his prison.

In mythology, Arges is "bright."


Serapis meets the native humans

Serapis the Androgyne.  He and his posse of Nephalim guards land on Earth sometime after Mithras. They are law enforcement figures whose job is to shut down Mithras' illegal mining colony--but Serapis wants instead to get in on the action.

Serapis is a Graeco-Egyption god, supposedly devised by Ptolemy I to bring the Greek conquerors and Egyptian subjects closer together. He is, in a sense, a Greek version of the Egyptian god of the afterlife, Osiris.


Serapis and the Nephalim Guard

Nephalim Guard. They are clones of Serapis, acting as his henchmen.

The Nephalim appear the Torah as offspring of the "sons of god" and the "daughters of men."


Thenis and Mithras

Themis. Themis is a daughter of Gaia and Mithras. She wears a blindfold and can communicate telepathically. She contacts Cain by telepathy when she becomes worried about the degenerating state of her mother.

Themis was a Titan, representing Justice and divine law.


Iapetus and Lucifer

Iapetus. A son of Noah and Gaia, he is prematurely aged during the overthrow of Mithras. He keeps running things more or less as Mithras had, under the influence of Lucifer. His face is ripped off by Ghob, but he gets a new face--Nommo's face--courtesy of Lucifer.

Iapetus was a Titan, and a god of mortality. He is one of the sons of Uranus and Gaia--but he is sometimes linked to Japheth, one of the sons of Noah.


Lucifer

Lucifer. At the dawn of time, Lucifer wills himself into being, declaring himself independent of Ain Soph. He is trapped at the center of the Earth and contacts Arges, Nommo and the unnamed snake-man to try to free him.

Lucifer is, of course, the angel in the Christian faith who rebelled against God and was cast down.


Michael holding Mithras

Michael. Michael is an agent of Ain Soph who battles Lucifer. During the battle, they inadvertently cause the universe to come into being. As punishment for this, Michael casts Lucifer into the center of the Earth, where he plots his escape.

The Archangel Michael is mentioned in Jewish, Christian and Islamic scripture.


Adam

Adam. One of the humans encountered by Serapis when he and his Nephalim Guard land on Earth. Like all humans before the aliens came, he could communicate telepathically with other humans and animals. He was vegetarian, but Serapis corrupts him into eating meat. He seems to fair pretty poorly under Serapis' "civilizing" influence.

Adam is the first human in the Jewish, Christian and Islamic faiths.


Serapis, Adam and Sheshai

Sheshai. Another of the Nephalim.

In the Bible, he is one of the sons of Anak.


Rhea

Rhea. A giantess, she is the daughter of Mithras and Gaia. She loves her brother Cronus and has a baby, Zeus, with him. After Ghob rips Iapetus's face off, she engages with Ghob in an epic battle.

In Greek mythology, Rhea was a Titan, married to Cronus and the mother of Zeus. She hides Zeus from Cronus so that he can grow up and defeat his father, freeing his siblings, the Olympian gods, whom Cronus had swallowed.

 
Noah

Noah. Noah is one of the people of Atlantis not enslaved by Mithras. He is Gaia's lover and father of Iapetus and Themis.

In Jewish, Christian and Islamic traditions, Noah is the last of the pre-Flood patriarchs. He saves humanity and all animals by building an ark. His sons are Ham, Shem and Japheth.


Ghob

Ghob. The gnome king, he forces Gaia to marry Mithras, knowing that such a union would produce children capable of overthrowing Mithras. He later attacks Iapetus and rips his face off and subsequently engages in an epic battle with Rhea and Zeus.

Ghob doesn't appear to come from any ancient mythology as far as I can determine, but in modern "magical" practices, he is associated with the element of Earth and is the king of gnomes.


Serapis and Eve

Eve. Another of the humans Serapis encounters. He teaches her English then rapes her, impregnating her with Cain.

Eve is the second human in the Jewish, Christian and Islamic faiths.


Serapis and Talmai

Talmai.  One of the Nephalim.

In the Bible, Talmai is a son of Anak and a member of the Nephalim.


Arba

Arba. Another of the Nephalim.

In the Torah, Arba is the father of Anak.


Anak and Atys

Anak. One of the Nephalim.

Anak is a figure from the Torah, an offspring of the Nephalim.


Atys

Atys. He comes from the same place as Serapis and Mithras. Repeatedly bested by Serapis, he finally seems to have the upper hand only to be defeated by what appears to be a Yeti, who turns him into a large stone.

Attis was a Phrygian god of self-mutilation (he castrated himself ) and vegetation.  At one time, he was associated with Atys, the son of Croesus as mentioned in the Histories of Herodotus. That identification was apparently spurious, though.


Emperor Mainyu

Emperor Mainyu. He sent Atys to assassinate Serapis for going rogue.

Angra Mainyu was the evil opposite of Ahura Mazda in Zoroastrianism, a sort of Satanic figure.


Janus

Janus. On a whim, Janus manipulates time and space to help Atys.

Janus was a distinctly Roman god (having no Greek counterpart). Two-faced, he was the god of beginnings and transitions.


Cain

Cain. Child of Serapis and Eve. Through communication with Themis, he becomes aware of the gem that Lucifer lost. His battle with Nommo and the army of Titans causes the destruction of Atlantis and the seeming death of many characters. (But with Gods, death is not always the end.)

In the Bible, Cain is also the son of Adam and Eve, and kills his brother Abel--the first murder.


Zeus

Zeus. Zues is the blue skinned offspring of Rhea and Cronus.

In Greek mythology, Zeus is also the offspring of Cronus and Rhea, but he kills Cronus, who had hitherto eaten all his brothers and sisters upon birth. These siblings become the other gods of Olympus and Zeus is their king. His overthrow of Cronus leads to the battle between the gods and Titans.


Left to right: Adam, Abel and Seth

Abel. A son of Adam and Eve. Half-brother of Cain.

Abel, is, of course, the first murder victim in the Bible. (But not the last!)

Seth. A son of Adam and Eve. Half brother of Cain.

In Jewish and Islamic traditions, Seth is the third son of Adam and Eve, born after the murder of Abel.


Metatron and Noah

Metatron.  "Mediator between higher and lower gates," he seems to be a messenger on behalf of Ain Soph, appearing to Michael and to Noah at various times.

Metatron is an archangel in Jewish and Christian folklore, although he does not appear in canonical scripture.

The Return of the Cosmic Techno-Gods from Space

by Robert Boyd

Within the comics community, Jack Kirby is revered. I have mixed feelings about his work. There is something inherently juvenile about it. It doesn't have the richness, the multivalence I look for in art. There is not a sense of deep humanity in the work, nor irony. But at the same time, it has a vigor--the vigor of certain folk art or of expressionist painting. He was no folk artist, but he was the industrial age's equivalent--an artist whose training and early career lead him to be a journeyman artist toiling within the commercial entertainment industry. But within this field, which has a tendency towards uniformity, he stood out drastically. One can think of certain respected comics artists who were his peers--John Romita, John Buscema, Neal Adams--and although each of these artists had a distinct style, compared to Kirby they were virtually the same artist.

Kirby, on the other hand, was unique. No one really imitated his style--not until much later, when such imitations were the results of deliberately post-modern strategies. If I had to describe Kirby figures, particularly from his work in the sixties and seventies, I would say they look like a rough-hewn wood carvings of figures that have somehow been coated with multi-color chrome. His work was simultaneously crude and futuristic.

And he created a genre, a type of character, that was unique. These are cosmic techno-gods. The first he created was Thor and his fellow Asgardians, which were created in 1962. Stan Lee was the co-creator of these characters. I won't try to parse the credit more finely than that. Of course, anonymous Norse holy men created this mythology. But Kirby and Lee turned these eternal myths into technological creatures. The technology was not ever really explained, but you could see it in the way that Asgard was portrayed--as a gleaming, high-tech megalopolis in space.


Jack Kirby, Galactus

I think the next cosmic techno-god was Galactus, the planet-devouring giant whose herald was the Silver Surfer. He was a bit more impressive as a god--much larger than humans, Galactus seems to be the embodiment of some elemental force of nature. But despite that, he also is a technological being. He has a space station and he must use equipment that he constructs to consume planets.


Jack Kirby, Galactus' space station

Kirby (sometimes with Lee and sometimes alone) created any number of techno-gods in the 60s and 70s to menace or mystify his super-hero characters--the Watcher, the High Evolutionary, Ego the Living Planet (who for obvious reasons is quite hostile to Galactus), Darkseid and the inhabitants of Apokolips, the Highfather and the inhabitants of New Genesis, the Eternals, and so on. It is my understanding that these characters and more are discussed at length in a new book called Hand of Fire: The Comics Art of Jack Kirby by Charles Hatfield, but I haven't read it yet. (It's on my to-read list.)


Jack Kirby, The Eternals

The reason I bring up Kirby and his creation of this type of character is that I've recently come across three comics that seem directly influenced by Kirby, but which come out of the world of art comics. These are Vortex by William Cardini (The Gold County Paper Mill), By This Shall You Know Him by Jesse Jacobs (Koyama Press), and Forming by Jesse Moynihan (Nobrow Press). As I mentioned in a review of the latest Kramer's Ergot, there seems to be a movement in art comics away from the quotidian, the realistic, the autobiographical. This is a big deal. Since the mid-70s, the default position for comics-as-art has been to tell narratives of ordinary lives. It was an extreme reaction to the continued reliance of "mainstream" comics on juvenile fantasy as its primary subject matter. In some ways, the realism of such comics as American Splendor or Palookaville could be said to be a reaction to the work of Jack Kirby. While there have always been exceptions to the realism trend (for example, Jim Woodring), around 2000 there was a major swing away from realism as an artistic ideal towards a use of the motifs of children's genre comics. (To clarify, when I say realism, I am not discussing the drawings style. Sometimes the drawing is quite expressionistic. I refer instead to the content of the stories.)

If the motifs of children's comics are fair game for art cartoonists, then Jack Kirby is likewise an acceptable source. In each of these comics, the basic ideas of Kirby's techno-gods are reused. Each artist picks and chooses what aspect of Kirby's project he will employ. And they also feel free to call on other sources and also to subvert Kirby's approach. The results are varied but fascinating.


William Cardini, cover to Vortex #1

There have been two issues of Vortex so far. I have discussed Cardini's work before here (an exhibit at Domy). That review from a year and a half ago contained this confession:

If it sounds like I haven't fully digested this art movement (and it is a movement), you are right. I've known the Fort Thunder artists for over a decade and I'm still trying to understand them--to devise a framework or theory that makes sense of their work. I feel I am about halfway there.

This is still true. Maybe I'm 2/3rds there now.  Vortex continues Cardini's project of creating a universe of techno-gods.

Welcome to the psychedelic space fantasy cosmos of the Hyperverse, a realm filled with immensely powerful beings who battle over worlds with strange geologies, and hoard advanced technologies left by ancient starfarers.

Mountains shift from molten to crystal in moments, and clumps of rock are inhabited by malevolent intelligences ready to hurl face-melting spells. [from the introduction to Vortex #1]

 William Cardini, Vortex #1 page 3

Vortex tells the story of Miizard. He is lured to a world where he does combat with an extremely powerful alien creature. The battle, which takes up the entirety of the first issue, recalls mythologies. Miizzard is sliced into bits by his adversary, but the bits are alive and become multiple Miizzards, like Krishna. He defeats his opponent by devouring him, as Cronus devoured his children to prevent the prophecy of his being defeated them to come true.


William Cardini, Vortex #1, page 32

Cardini draws with a thick, watery line and fills the spaces between with a variety of patterns. His work recalls Kirby's in a way-both use thick black lines and black shapes in a non-chiaroscuro way (which reinforces their lack of realism). But Kirby's techno-gods had a connection to the human world. They looked like people and engaged with human beings. Cardini creates a pitiless, inhuman universe. The motives of the characters may not be "evil" (they include curiosity and a desire to be released from bondage), but all the characters are violent and selfish. I believe Cardini is thinking of these characters in terms of natural forces--erosion, volcanism, planet formation, novas, etc. Forces that shape worlds but are vast and impersonal. But I think by making his characters so venal, he weakens this metaphor.


Jesse Jacobs, By This Shall You Know Him, cover

Jesse Jacobs plays homage to Kirby on the cover of his book By This Shall You Know Him. The technological structure open to space appears to be made of wood, and in this is similar to the way Kirby often drew such structures (Kirby's were shinier, though). If Kirby had drawn this cover, all the crenulations would appear to be inexplicable technological apparatuses. Here they seem to be a remarkably complex piece of carpentry--made of purple wood.

The story here is about a group of techno-gods Ablavar, Blorax, Zantek and their teacher, who is unnamed. Their relationship to their teacher is much like art students to their professors. They work on projects that they show the teacher in a critique session (aka a "crit"). The other students are permitted to comment on the work as part of the crit. (In my review of Kramer's Ergot, I proposed an admittedly vague theory about artists who I called "The Art School Generation" and their willingness to dive into genre. This "crit" undertaken by techno-gods weirdly confirms this theory.) One of the gods, Ablavar, creates the Earth (populated by dinosaurs) as his project. Zantek criticizes it harshly and Ablavar decides to destroy the dinosaurs with a a meteor storm and start over.


Jesse Jacobs, By This Shall You Know Him, cover p. 18

Ablavar then creates mammals, birds and non-dinosaur reptiles, which his teacher and Blorax appreciate highly in the crit. Even the "exalted one," a techno-god who seems to be the superior to the teacher, appreciates them. Only Zantek disdains them, but his dislike for them appears to be the result of jealousy. He comes up with a plan for revenge--he creates humans. His Adam and Eve are like cave-men, with Eve being the smarter of the two.


Jesse Jacobs, By This Shall You Know Him, cover p.47

Zantek seduces Adam by teaching him to eat animals. Eve decides that Zantek is a bad influence and forbids Cain and Abel from associating with him. (It should be said that Jacobs never names these first humans, but the seem to be acting out a version of the Genesis story, so I am using the Biblical names.)


 Jesse Jacobs, By This Shall You Know Him, cover p.73

And as in Genesis, Cain commits the first murder--because Abel, under the influence of Zantek, has been killing Ablavar's animals. Once Ablavar learns how Zantek has been subverting his world, he begins to fight with him. Like Kirby's Eternals or Galactus, Ablavar and Zantek are giants. The Earth and its inhabitants are usually depicted in shades of purple, while the techno-gods are mostly blue. So even when they are on Earth, they seem separate from the Earth. And as Ablavar and Zantek battle, civilization appears around them. Their fight, which is appears to be completely physical (punches thrown, stuff hurled), apparently takes place over millenia.


Jesse Jacobs, By This Shall You Know Him, cover p.80

A key difference between Kirby and Jacobs is that Jacobs is willing to make his techno-gods into actual gods--they create the Earth and populate it with animals and humans, just as most of the gods of myth and religion did. Kirby was working in a context of commercial comic books aimed at children.  He wasn't in a position to supplant established religions with his own mythology--it might have caused controversy, And controversy might keep the Red Ryder BB gun manufacturer from buying ads in Thor or The Fantastic Four. Jacobs is free to explore religious ideas more directly than Kirby. He can posit Genesis as an art school crit, and no one will be too bothered.


Jesse Moynihan, Forming, cover

Forming by Jesse Moynihan likewise is willing to take on actual religions and myths, suggesting a creation of the Universe and of Earth that is similar to but distinct from the origins told in various world religions. His characters come from Greek mythology (including late Graeco-Egyption fusion), the Torah and Kabbalah, Zoroastrianism, medieval folklore, Dogon myth, and maybe a few I have missed.


Jesse Moynihan, Forming, page 6 bottom panels

The story begins in 10,000 BC (although it flashes back to a much earlier time later on). Mithras has been sent to Earth to exploit it in the classic colonial way. Humans on Earth, at this stage, have a telepathic oneness with nature. Mithras lands in Atlantis and immediately starts creating a crappy mining colony with  giant slaves. To placate the humans, he marries one, Gaia.


Jesse Moynihan, Gaia and her offspring

This leads to one of the most bizarre aspects of the story, the mixture of myths. Noah and Gaia secretly have two children, Iapetus and Themis (who are two of the Titans in Greek mythology). In the meantime, the androgyne Serapis lands in Africa with the intention of setting up his own outlaw mining colony. His first encounter with humans, Adam and Eve, doesn't go well.


Jesse Moynihan, Forming, page 29 bottom panels

But Adam is eventually co-opted  by Serapis. Just to complicate matters, we see a flashback in which a battle between Lucifer and Michael (who with his blue skin looks very Krishna-like) causes the universe to come into existence. Lucifer is punished by being placed in the center of the Earth.


Jesse Moynihan, Forming, page 24 bottom panels

Lucifer influences things by communicating with people on the surface. Likewise Ain Soph (the Kabbalah's word for God prior to his self-manifestation) is influencing Noah through visions.


Jesse Moynihan, Forming, page 39 top panels

And the gnome king Ghob is trying to undo the mess that Mithras has made. He communicates secretly with Mithras and Gaia's children (various Titans), influencing them to revolt against Mithras.


Jesse Moynihan, Forming, page 51 top panels

The number of characters in Forming is huge, and their motivations are complex. And this is just volume 1. The story is serialized on Moynihans' website--you can follow the continued story there. But despite the complex plot and numerous characters,  the basic story is one of colonialism and the problems that persist after the colonial power has been driven out. Ghob is outraged that Cronus starts building cities after overthrowing Mithras. He wants things to go back to the way they were before. But this is a new age. As one character puts it, "You will wake at the end of the Third Age: the Age of Total Bullshit, to save us."

That is one thing that distinguishes Forming (and By This Shall You Know Him and other related art comics) is the language of the characters. Instead of using the elevated speech that Kirby and Stan Lee gave to Thor and Galactus, these characters use a vernacular that sounds decidedly un-god-like.

Moynihan's art doesn't try to blow your mind the way Kirby's often did. In fact, despite its subject matter, it has a kind of matter-of-fact quality. (This quality is reinforced by the unvarying grid pattern of the panels.)  And yet the cumulative effect of it is powerful. The book is printed in an over-sized format, which helps you see just how beautiful it is. Moynihan's water-coloring deserves special mention.

It is impossible for me to imagine these comics existing without the example of Jack Kirby. And like Kirby, we don't have any complex, realistic human characters here. None of these artists are trying to create, say, a story like Jaime Hernandez's "Browntown" (from Love and Rockets: New Stories vol. 3), a powerful, realistic family story. But using techno-gods permits the artists to deal with subjects in interesting, metaphorical ways (art school, colonialism). It also acknowledges the history of comics, finding a way to be in dialogue with the past without replicating it endlessly, as most modern mainstream comics do. Forming, Vortex, and By This Shall You Know Him are also valuable as exemplars of a current practice in the world of art comics that doesn't have a particular name, but which definitely exists. I wish I had a clever word or phrase for it. Post-realism? Something like that.