The Gods Below

While I don't have the DVD collection of all the episodes of G.I.Joe, I am fortunate enough to have a specialty station that airs the reruns of the show on Sundays. And because of that luck, I was able to watch one of my very favourite episodes just a few minutes ago - "The Gods Below"

I've always had an affinity for the Egyptian mythologies from since I was very young. Long before I started watching Duke and the rest of the team, I was into reading Egyptian mythology, as well as Greek, Norse, and Japanese and whatever else I could lay my hands on. Having read deeper into the mythologies since then (including the Book of the Dead) and watching a great deal of Discovery specials, it was really neat to see how close they were to the commonly accepted theories and translations.

Gone was the balance to check the heart against the feather of Ma'at. I guess it would have been a no go for the story if they ripped Duke's still beating heart out of his chest to weigh. And even worse if it proved unworthy and consumed by Ammit. Rather they had the Joes, being Lady Jaye (who could read Egyptian heiroglyphs), Bazooka, Alpine, Barbecue, and Duke along with the Dr. Marsh whom had discovered this ancient tomb floating on a huge Ankh through space to be weighed in front of Ma'at and Amun Ra. And then flying out of Amun Ra's eye was Sekhmet the Destroyer. I've always liked Sekhmet. It was cool to see a winged flying version of her.

Did I mention that the Joe team stumbled into the chamber of Osiris? And that Osiris was voiced by Peter Cullen (whom if you don't know, voiced Optimus Prime in Transformers...) affecting a lower voice? Well, it was. In hindsight I thought that was kind of cool - Optimus Prime and Osiris share the same talented voice actor. And of course, Eeyore too. No one ever seems to mention that Eeyore was also voiced by Peter Cullen. Is it because no one wants to admit to having watched Winnie-the-Pooh often enough to have realized it?

Time out - I have to go finish what I was working on earlier and have now been procrastinating about through writing this blog post - I'll return to edit my post and drop in a new image. Okay the time out is finished - I came back and posted up a sketch of Sekhmet. I was going to draw her with the wings like they did in the G.I.Joe episode, but chose not to in the end.

By the way - if you're in London, or will be in the area before August 5th, why not drop in to the Red Gate Gallery to view the Mail Me Art: Medium Without a Message exhibition? There are over 700 pieces of artwork on display from all around the world - including mine! And they're all available for purchase.
Find out more here.

You can also pick up a copy of the book: Mail Me Art: Medium Without a Message at the exhibition or by visiting their site here.

I haven't yet been able to find my envelope hanging in the photos that have been posted, but I know it's in there somewhere...