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Friday, August 24, 2007

Elisha and the She-Bears

In trying to come up with a good silent comic, I started thumbnailing out an interpretation of the Bible story about Elisha and the She-Bears. Not familiar with that one? It was always one of my favorites. From 2 Kings 2:23-24:

"...as he was going up the road, some youths came from the city and mocked him, and said to him, ‘Go up, you baldhead! Go up, you baldhead! So he turned around and looked at them, and pronounced a curse on them in the name of the Lord. And two female bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the youths."

The sheer wantonness of Elisha's vengeance for teenagers/children making fun of his lack of hair always struck me as horrifically macabre and somewhat hilarious. Until I started trying to draw it:





Now I'm not as much of a fan. I've abandoned the project, as drawing a bunch of middle schoolers getting mauled by bears is an emotionally taxing experience, and is probably not all that psychologically healthy. Don't want to give myself whatever the artist version of PTDS if I can help it.

Which means I'm still at square one. No good ideas. Crogan's is back on track, but I'll be hornswaggled if I can think of any non-swashbucklery comic ideas. I want some stuff for SPX, which is only six or seven weeks away, and the SCAD anthology is having a contest with a scholarship prize that would cover my last two quarters. Grr!

Liz and I are going to Chattanooga on Saturday to spend the day with Chad Thomas and his girlfriend Jill. Hopefully talking with him and spending the day away from the drawing desk will help me come up with some ideas.

1 comments:

Suzanne said...

It wasn't only Elisha's bald head the kids were making fun of. It was the taking-up of Elijah to heave. Just look at what the kid's were saying to him. They were roughly saying to get out of there. Why didn't you go up (to heaven) too. We don't want you here.
You don't mock God and you don't mock God's messengers. Elisha cursed them in the name of God, Whose actions and servants were being ridiculed.
Respect for God is the beginning of wisdom. This is the kind of respect that children need to learn. It is very dangerous to make fun of what God is doing. This was a lesson that needed to be learned by the kids and their parents.
It is still relevant to us today. God is to be honored and revered. His servants are to be respected for their position. Children are to respect adults and adults are to do these things themselves, teaching them to their children. Then God is able to shower us with the rich blessings that He wants to give us.
Hope this helps you to understand the dynamics of this story a little more.