INKTOBER 52 2024 Week #20: MYTHOLOGY

“Mythology is fascinating and, in my opinion, a great source to mine for inspiration. Having it as an Inktober prompt was almost paralyzingly too broad, though. There’s just so much, because basically every culture that has ever existed has their own mythology. Greek myths are probably the most well known in western culture. Norse mythology is quite entertaining and full of action and adventure. There’s Chinese and Japanese myths that I know far too little about, but also appear quite vibrant. Then of course there’s Egyptian, Aztec, Native American…You get the point?

We named our three kids after mythological figures, one Greek, one Norse, and one Japanese. There’s probably an angle I could have taken there for this prompt, but I couldn’t come up with one. I ended up asking my wife to do a little word association and tell me the first thing that came to her mind when I said ‘mythology’. After concurring that there were way too many options, she said ‘minotaur’, and that’s what I went with. I have the minotaur and labyrinth on my mind anyway, as they are major components in a graphic novel I’ve been working on. I realized I didn’t know a ton about the mythical beast (or if I did, I have since forgotten it) outside of its common visual representation in other creative works. As I try to cater to an all-ages audience, I’ll refrain from summarizing his origin story, but I will share that the reason he was trapped in the labyrinth was because he was uncontrollable and liked eating people. I find that odd for a creature whose ‘beast’ half is a well known herbivore. I guess that’s Greek mythology for you?”

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