Myra’s talking about the events from the One-Eyed Bear, if you have forgotten. She gave that horse skull to a demon.
Don’t forget that I’m having a BIG WINTER SALE at my Plesiostore until the end of the year! Use the code “JIMINYJAMINY” and get 20% off your purchase! This includes Borogove decks and also signed copies of the Cautionary Fables and Fairy Tales anthology!
34 Comments
gabe is… a girl?
Gabe, as an Angel, is neither male nor female. It’s just what Eustace seems to associate Gabe with. I tend to use male terms myself.
I kinda like that Eustace is defaulting to female terms here, just because a male default is so common.
Myra’s using masculine pronouns though.
Gabe is Gabe, seems to be more masculine then feminine, and seems to self identify as male. The Nightmare(the skull) is possibly female, though.
I am as confused as you, Ink. What sources is Kory basing this off of? Angels are not genderless in the sense that they’re transsexuals, or don’t like gender distinctions. They’re asexual. They’re not into dirty dancing with either gender.
If Gabe was rebelling against God (which I think he might be), there’s no way he would have been allowed to keep his angel status.
So, I’m not sure what info Kory is using, here.
Gabe is genderless. The angels in Skin Deep are genderless. There are references in Kory’s tumblr. http://korybing.com/post/6077082293/its-worldbuilding-wednesday-ask-me-questions
The only reason they’re referring to Gabe as he or she is because it’s hard to refer to someone with another pronoun. There is nothing suggesting Gabe prefers one gender over another. It’s just how other people are referring to Gabe.
I don’t think Gabe can be really rebelling against God if he follows many numerous religions and for all he knows the instincts that force him to do good actions come from some higher being.
With due respect to Kory, though, it’s literally impossible to follow every religion. All of them contradict each other. If you followed every religion, you’d be doing something wrong in each one, because you have not expressly followed said particular faith. Especially when some of those religions don’t believe in angels.
So, I think the dude’s got issues. No wonder the poor thing drinks.
You know, in some religions, such as Hinduism, there is little to no concept of apostasy, heresy, blasphemy, or “doing it wrong.” I’d take that to mean it’s quite possible to follow every religion– or do the next best thing, and follow everything that matters from every religion. There is a great deal of crossover.
I admire your point, but I’m afraid it still doesn’t work. You are right in that they follow a conglomerate of religions, and declares that there is no absolute truth, but that is an absolute in and of itself. Everything is relative to them. As a result, Hindu families are generally not too happy if one of their kids converts to another religion.
So, if Gabe followed every religion, he would have to follow both monotheistic and polytheistic religions, which, on both sides of the coin, would get him in trouble. It’s sort of a logic bomb. But then again, maybe Kory’s pulling a Steven Moffat on us. ;)
Wearing symbols of every religion for protection is a far cry from observing their every stricture. If it comes to that, even within single religions there are contradictions that make full observation impossible (not to mention extremely annoying to anybody born less than 1500 years ago and almost certainly illegal in most civilized countries)
Given that monotheistic religions and polytheistic religions quite obviously believe in either one or many of *entirely different concepts* (what monotheists mean when we say “God” is something that, by definition, there *can’t* be more than one of), I see no reason why one can’t believe in both concepts.
Really, whose idea was it to use the word “god” for both? They have no similarities at all!
Well, if Gabriel’s been around since Creation (or even just since “Gabriel” was conceptualized), then he probably knows firsthand about a great many scriptures that can be safely discarded if you’re field-stripping a religion. Stuff put in by neo-fundamentalists and their ilk, justifying points that the source material doesn’t support, or things that are genuinely holy word but were never meant to be taken at face value. Strip all that out, and it probably gets a lot easier to reconcile different faiths.
You are confusing “Dogma” with “Religion”, I think. Dogma, simply put, is/are all the little rules and regulations made up/put up by the leaders of individual religions and even sects within the same religion.
Religion itself, is the overall set of beliefs as a whole, i.e. “We were created by an outside creative force (God, Allah, Jehovah, Gaia, The Great Flying Spaghetti Monster, etc.)”, “It is better for your immortal soul to treat others as you wish to be treated.” That one HAS an Immortal soul.
Many religions have the same/similar sets of beliefs. It’s the dogma that differs. So if Gabe is following just the beliefs, there is little conflict.
Also, Skin Deep is Kory Bing’s made up world: SHE makes the rules therein. So, wow, just relax!
Simply put, angels are 1001% inhuman. The human form is so alien to them you’re lucky Gabe has the right number of limbs.
Literally, angels are so unlike humans that in the myths, they always greeted humans with the phrase “Do not be afraid” because angels were supposedly utterly terrifying to behold, and that’s only the regular and archangels. Anything else, like the thrones or the virtues or the fucking Seraphim were so alien that they would probably break the mind of any mortal who viewed them.
angels are neither male or female, but they’ve referred to the nightmare as female, before. even in the wiki, the nightmare is referred to as female.
The way Gabe is turning his head, and his expressions, in the last two panels makes it look like he’s following Myra and Eustace’s conversation. Maybe they have a right to be nervous.
Did anyone notice all the magical symbols on Gabe’s coat? It doesn’t look like Enochian symbols though. Are the symbols for show or for something else?
According to the character page from Orientations… ‘He/She collects various religious artifacts and believes in all religions at the same time.’ I also seem to recall remembering it being mentioned that he wears a lot of symbols and jewelry as methods of good luck and for other mystical reasons. I think that the symbols all over Gabe’s jacket are just another one of these examples.
Looks like a veritable mish-mash. I can see various planetary and elemental symbols, some English runes, a Tai Chi (yin-yang), an Aum symbol, a pentacle, an ankh, a star of David, an eye of Horus, and the triqueta-and-circle adopted by John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin, which is supposed to indicate a confident and competent person. That might be the symbol for Scorpio cut off at the bottom, and there also appear to be two Christian ichthyi, one with feet. As for whether Gabe put them there, or just acquired the coat “as is”, your guess is as good as mine.
The triqueta also represents the Triple Goddess in Neopaganism and the Trinity in Christianity. Icthys is also spelled out in Greek below the elbow in panel three, at least three or four styles of Christian cross-
…aaand please tell me that I’m seeing this wrong. Is that a symbol for the Destruction school of magic in the Elder Scrolls games?
If you’re referring to the hand symbol thats almost directly below the mouth of the nightmare skull, it looks very similar to the symbol for the school of Destruction in Skyrim. Hopefully, the below link actually links to the wiki page on that school.
http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Destruction_%28Skyrim%29
If we’re wrong, then please ignore everything I’ve said. =)
In that ackenpucky, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a Deathly Hallows symbol from the Harry Potter books, or a Grace from the Sword of Truth series (by Terry Goodkind).
*GASP!* *Quivers in delight* A new word, that I’ve never heard/seen before!! :D And it’s not in my online dictionary! OOOO, RESEARCH TIME!! …Ackenpucky…hhmmm… *wanders of in a delighted haze*
Character interactions! Whee!
Also, maybe being away from his home Avalon contributes to Eustace’ nerves? He’s the homebody while Marshall’s the wanderfoot, right?
While they are in Arkansas, could they stop by an visit the Fouke Monster? I think we have the makings of Boggy Creek part 5!
Yay, I’m pleased to see Gabe again, he’s an intriguing character and I’ve wanted to see more of her.
I wonder if Gabe won the Nightmare in a poker game.
I wonder if Gabe lost and got Nightmare in a poker game as well. But we shall see
In Constantine Gabe seemed to be female too. Of course Michael was portrayed as male. I think it is what you expect to see.
Gabe senses a disturbance in the force.
In all seriousness though, I’m pretty pumped for this new tale. :D I’m looking forward to seeing the new characters and learning a bit more about what’s going on with Gabe.
Also a Chi-Ro, Shinto gate, and Norse Runes, both singular and compound.
Now I wanna know what Gabe sounds like
You’re so interesting! I don’t think I have read anything like this before. So wonderful to discover somebody with some unique thoughts on this subject matter. Seriously.. thank you for starting this up. This website is one thing that is needed on the internet, someone with a bit of originality! eadadkegcbea