Creator
My name is Dan Monroe and I am the Creator (for good or ill) of the Mythic T comics Universe. I have always been very interested in the old stories of mythology, even from an early age I would hunt down and devour each book which had a story about Thor, or Hercules, or any of the mythic gods and monsters. By the time I was eight years old I was a budding artist (I was actually selling pastel portraits of people at the time, true story), and I could most probably recite every story of myth known, as well as being able to describe each dinosaur and fossil that had been found at that time. My parents being Evangelical ministers (yes, they were both ordained ministers) were often amazed, and a bit horrified. They did not like my interest in mythology and tried to discourage it………….a lot! I soon found comics and realized there were several comics of the time which had stories of Thor, Hercules and others in them. For some time I was content to read those comics and I would draw the scenes out of them, and the heroes and put them into their own stories. That is how I learned to draw comics and cartoons.
Over the years, life took over and I became a fine artist doing the art gallery thing, and later an illustrator (which I have done freelance for over fifteen years), and I even taught University level art class for a while. Even though I had done these things, my love and interest in mythology never died. I often found myself doodling out cartoons, or comics of the mythic monsters and deities I loved as a child. About three years ago I had some time in between illustration assignments and so I started to draw some character designs of Thor. I did several drawings and paintings of him and finally settled on one design in particular which struck me as a bit funny. I liked the idea of drawing him in a cartoony way where I could use over sized and ridiculous proportions.
I also drew a quick sketch of Hercules and placed them side by side. I thought it would be funny to draw Hercules wearing the Nemean Lion as his clothing since so much mythology has him wearing the indestructible skin as armor, but I thought the lions arms and paws should be dangling in funny ways and area’s. I pictured the cat’s paws clawing at the air in a sort of mimic of Herc’s movements. I designed Thor so that he would have this really long flowing mane of red hair and beard. His hair I thought would actually be full of static electricity (Storm god, after all), and would whip around and flow with his movements. In this way, I really wanted to make Herc’s lion, and Thor’s hair into a sort of personality to itself.
My original idea was to put these two fellows together on some sort of adventure, but then I remembered there were stories already of them together, courtesy of the large comic publishers. So, I thought I would add another god to the mix. I drew several idea’s and different deities until I came up with Morrigan. I settled upon her for a couple of reasons:
1: She is not really used all that much
2: I just like her imagery
3: Her sexiness would balance the massive amount of testosterone of Thor and Hercules.
Morrigan is the Morgan Le Fey character of Arthurian legends, a banshee, one of the Tuatha De Danann, a daughter of Emmas, among so many other things. She is often depicted as a crow flying over a battlefield picking out the hero who died in the most heroic way so she can escort him to the afterlife. She is depicted in ways which closely resemble the Valkyrie’s of Norse mythology. She is an ancient Dark Queen and so most, if not all sorceress type characters have been based (if even loosely) upon her.
Being the ultimate sorceress, she commands mighty magics and seems to have her own ambitions. She will help Thor and Hercules because she clearly has no real choice in the matter due to the circumstances. She is really the pesky sister figure who pits Thor and Hercules against each other from time to time with her teasing.
The reason these three mythics are ripped from Earth and deposited on an alien planet is simple. It makes for a much better vehicle for the story. I can take these mighty beings out of their own comfort zones and away from everything they know and all their support characters and throw them into a situation in which they have to rely on each other. In this atmosphere I have the freedom to do literally anything I wish to do and not be shackled by the ghosts of their past. Their own mythologies and identities will remain intact for the most part, however, there is no real mention of the time of Earth’s history they are individually ripped from. It is almost sure they will say and do things which may seem out of the norm for them.
I first thought of the soft swear Ye Gods! while watching my daughter in one of the High School Musicals that she was performing in. It was named the Music Man. One of the female characters was an especially excitable type and would holler out “Ye Gods!” quite often. I really fell in love with the expression. Instantly I had visions of Thor and Hercules under a banner titled “Ye Gods.” Over time as I thought and doodled and began to draw the characters I felt it would be better to change the word “Gods” from it’s divine form to a more rustic spelling. “Ye Gawds!” was born.
