04 sphinx
04 sphinx
Last Gasp 1972
John Thompson gives us one of the most lavishly illustrated comix from the underground era with Tales From the Sphinx. (The indicia in the book indicates the title is Sphinx Comics #2, so we’re going with that as well, but “Tales from the Sphinx” just sounds cooler.) The book begins with “These Forces of hGwa,” a 22-page historical opus that mostly takes place in ancient Egypt and involves a Tibetan shaman, an Egyptian king, and super-intelligent aliens from the galaxy Andromeda.
The story opens with two pages of a young couple (the shaman and his wife) making love, depicted in Thompson’s distinctive style. As in shunga (Japanese erotic art), the couple’s genitalia is prominently displayed as a spiritual and joyful axis that merges two lovers in ecstasy. This tantric precept of sex as an act of reverence is one of Thompson’s hallmarks. Rather than emulating pornography, he portrays sex in the manner of the Kama Sutra, where lovemaking is but one facet of virtuous and gracious living that celebrates the pleasures of human life.
The young lovers are interrupted when a starship approaches their abode. An envoy from Andromeda urges the shaman (named Toth) and his wife (a priestess named Rda) to come to Egypt to help the emperor quell an insurgency by an “ancient and hideous power” named hGwa that threatens to “establish a catastrophic reign of illusion upon the Earth.”
Toth and Rda arrive in Egypt and agree to meditate on the emperor’s grave problem, but they are interrupted again by a demigod named Thoth, who reveals a prophecy to the couple: you cannot prevent the emperor from falling to the hGwa, so you need to return to your home in Tibet. “Wait there for 100 years to this day,” Thoth tells them. “Then return to Egypt and wait at the sea-of-reeds. A valiant prophet will meet you there. You are to guide the followers of Aten [the one true God] out of the wilderness into Zion.”
In the middle part of the story, the oppresive forces of hGwa put the emperor and his wife into a deep sleep (to last 3,333 years), take over Egypt, install corrupt pharaohs, enslave its citizens, and erect shrines to pagan gods and idols. This angers Aten (again, the one true God), who calls upon another shaman named Umsheh to free the slaves and lead them out of Egypt. Umsheh accepts this task and, if we hadn’t picked up on it before, we soon realize that “These Forces of hGwa” is telling the story of the exodus of 600,000 Jews from the iron rule of Pharaoh Ramses II. And that Toth and Rda are there to meet Umsheh (Moses) and the Jews at the Red Sea and lead them to Canaan (Zion).
Thompson pulls off a pretty neat trick of assimilating the story of the Jews exodus from Egypt into a supernatural tale involving intergalactic travel and an alliance between Egyptian emperors and alien royalty from outer space. “These Forces of hGwa” suffers a bit from extensive narrative in text boxes instead of dialog, but given the scope and complexity of the plot that was virtually unavoidable. As always, Thompson’s remarkably detailed illustrations not only encourage us to ponder each scene, but help us comprehend the narrative.
Following the story, Thompson provides “Eight Drawings,” which actually number ten, each taking a single panel and all of them worthy of hanging in an art gallery. He provides the same pleasures in the next issue, which is reason enough to collect both issues, but if you especially enjoyed the adventures (and lovemaking) of Thon and Rda, Sphinx #3 will provide another chance to appreciate them.
John Thompson – 1-34, 36
2 – untitled • 3 – These Forces of hGwa • 25 – Eight Drawings • 35 – Watch For Our New Titles (Ad) • 36 – untitled