Before we start this history in to the comic book, we need to know exactly
what a comic book is!
The history of the comic book in the U.S. is divided into several ages or historical eras: The Platinum Age, The Golden Age, The Silver Age, The Bronze Age, and The Modern Age.
we here at Alternative Mindz wish our web designer and editor Shakil a very happy birthday
happy birthday
to a great friend and brother
from all of us
Kabuki performers during the earliest years of the genre were primarily women. Kabuki is thought to have originated in the dances and light theater first performed in Kyoto in 1603 by Okuni, a female attendant at the Izumo shrine. The word kabuki had connotations of the shocking, unorthodox and fashionable, and it came to be applied to the performances of Okuni’s popular troupe and its imitators. Because an important side business of the onna (women’s) kabuki troupes was prostitution, the Tokugawa shogunate disapproved, banning the troupes in 1629 and making it illegal for women to appear on stage. Wakashu (young men’s) kabuki then became popular, but in 1652 it was also banned because of the adverse effect on public morals of the prostitution activities of the adolescent male actors.
With both women and boys banned, kabuki became a theater of mature male performers, although before yaro (men’s) kabuki was permitted to continue performing, the government required that the actors avoid sensual displays and follow the more realistic conventions of the kyogen theater.
The century following the legal mandating of male performers saw many developments in kabuki. Onnagata (female impersonator) roles became increasingly sophisticated, and Ichikawa Danjuro I (1660・704) pioneered the strong, masculine aragoto (rough business) acting style in Edo (now Tokyo), while Sakata Tojuro I (1647・709) developed the refined and realistic wagoto (soft business) style in the Kyoto-Osaka area.
The kabuki stage gradually evolved out of the noh stage, and a draw curtain was added, facilitating the staging of more complex multi-act plays. The hanamichi passageway through the audience came into wide use and provided a stage for the now standard flamboyant kabuki entrances and exits. The revolving stage was first used in 1758.
In the merchant culture of the eighteenth century, kabuki developed in both a competitive and cooperative relationship with the bunraku puppet theater. Although he concentrated on writing for the puppet theater after 1703, Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653・724) wrote some plays directly for kabuki and is considered one of Japan’s greatest dramatists. Around this time, kabuki was temporarily eclipsed in popularity by the puppet theater in the Kyoto-Osaka area. In an effort to compete, many puppet plays were adapted for kabuki, and the actors even began to imitate the distinctive movements of the puppets.
The fall of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1868 resulted in the elimination of the samurai class and the entire social structure that was the basis for the merchant culture, of which the kabuki theater was a part. There were failed attempts to introduce Western clothes and ideas into kabuki, but major actors such as Ichikawa Danjuro IX (1838・903) and Onoe Kikugoro V (1844・903) urged a return to the classic kabuki repertoire. In the twentieth century, writers such as Okamoto Kido (1872・939) and Mishima Yukio (1925・970), who were not directly connected to the kabuki world, have written plays as part of the shin kabuki (new kabuki) movement. These plays combine traditional forms with innovations from modern theater; a few of them have been incorporated into the classic kabuki repertoire.
While remaining true to its traditional roots, both in the staging of the plays and in the closely knit hierarchy of acting families that define the kabuki world, kabuki today is a vigorous and integral part of the entertainment industry in Japan. The star actors of kabuki are some of Japan’s most famous celebrities, appearing frequently in both traditional and modern roles on television and in movies and plays.
The gag reel is finally up. Get to see the funny outtakes from this short. Check it out at AlternativeMindz.com/filmz.
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God, that was tough but its done. and knowing myself it will end up not being the same when we film its a good enough shooting script
THE UNDERWORLD: understanding the myth
A TRIP TO THE UNDERWORLD
This story is very similar to the Orpheus story in the Greek myth. It’s said that this is not just a coincidence, the myth in Greece or the Oriental countries might have come to Japan through China and Korea.
FOOD OF THE UNDERWORLD
It’s not clear what exactly Izanami ate. In the Greek myth, Persephone ate some pomegranate in the underworld so she could not go back to her mother.
THE UNDERWORLD
it’s been written that in the beginning the Gods created heaven and earth …the god Izanaki (Izanagi) and the goddess Izanami created the islands of Japan ( Izanaki (Izanagi) and his sister Izanami married, and bore the islands) and also other gods (deities).
Their fruitful union formed many great and powerful things until one day, when Izanami gave birth to the god of fire Kagutsuchi (fire deity), Izanami died from the burns.
Izanaki felt he could not live without his wife, so he went to the underworld to see her.
When he saw her, she said, “I already have eaten the food of the underworld, so I can’t come back to you. But since you are here to see me, I’ll ask the god of the underworld if I can go with you. You have to promise me one thing. Do not try to get a look at me until I come back here.” However, Izanaki could not wait and he went to the palace of the underworld. There he saw his wife’s dreadful body with worms crawling all over it, and the terrifying gods of thunder. Immediately Izanaki ran away and he used a big rock to block his wife from running after him. That is the rock which divides the underworld and this world.
this lower part is taken from wiki
Izanagi is a deity born of the seven divine generations in Japanese mythology and Shintoism, and is also referred to in the roughly translated Kojiki as “male who invites”, or Izanagi-no-mikoto.
He and his spouse Izanami bore many islands, deities, and forefathers of Japan. When Izanami died in childbirth, Izanagi tried (but failed) to retrieve her from Yomi (the underworld). In the cleansing rite after his return, he begot Amaterasu (the sun goddess) from his left eye, Tsukuyomi (the moon god) from his right eye, and Susanoo (tempest or storm god) from his nose. The story of Izanagi and Izanami has close parallels to the Greek Myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, but it also has a major difference. When Izanagi looks prematurely at his wife, he beholds her monstrous and hellish state and she is shamed and enraged. She pursues him in order to kill him. She fails to do so, but promises to kill a thousand of his people every day. Izanagi retorts that a thousand and five hundred will be born every day.
There are similarities also between Izanami and Izanagi on the one hand, and the Mayan deities Itzamna and Ix Chel. Among the Maya as among the Yamato, the male god is a gentle deity, creator of the sun and moon, while the female goddess (Ix Chel in Central America) is only benevolent while in company of her husband. If isolated from him, she becomes a malevolent goddess of floods, destruction and death. She has a serpent growing from her head, much like Izanami in Yomi.
God Izanagi and Goddess Izanami were married to each other. Izanami could give birth to anything. One day she created the island of Japan. Izanami died when she gave birth to the god of fire from deadly burns during labor. By then she had given birth to 14 islands and 35 gods.
God Izanagi was desperate about the loss of his beloved companion and went down to the underworld to search for Izanami. He also found her. Izanami told Izanagi to wait for her. But he should not turn his head and try to look at her until she would be back.
the guy did not do what his wife told him and followed her instead. In the palace of the underworld he found her in an appalling condition. Terrified, God Izanagi ran away and blocked the entrance to the underworld with a huge rock so that his wife could not follow him.
Shadows of the city
In 1993 I created a three arc story that would span three types of mediums: film, radio, and comicbook. Shadows of the city was to star three assassins. One was blind which would be told as an old style radio drama. Next was deaf and would be told as a silent movie and last the mute as an action comic.
Due to lack of funds we never worked on the any of them and saved the story for later use. After working for googo studios up in the Bronx, I wanted to film something and the itch to film a silent movie came back. I filmed Shadows as a series of short action clips to show before feature films.
Not happy with most of the film footage, I stopped the film only making a short out of all the film we had. The silent film look wasn’t working for me after so many attempts. I decided to dump the silent film look and opt to make the shadows an online comicbook.
Now after nearly 15 years. I am pleased to bring you Shadows of the city! Our first full comicbook for your enjoyment, we will also be showing the short flick “Hunting the Hacker” which was one scene out of the whole Shadows of the city film.
