Friday, August 05, 2011
Rhysop's Fables
Today is the official launch day of Rhysop's Fables!!!
Toad in a trombone! Joy and coconuts!
We all know that Aesop wrote fables; but he wasn't the only one. Hesiod and Archilochus preceded him, and a great many authors came after him. For example, the Panchatantra is an Indian collection of animal fables that was written down in the 3rd Century BC, possibly by the writer Vishnu Sharma. For centuries afterwards, other authors also attempted the composition of fables. Phaedrus, the Roman fabulist, flourished in the 1st Century AD and was the first to write fables in Latin; Vardan Aygektsi was an Armenian priest who wrote fables in the 13th Century; Leonardo Da Vinci made his own contribution to the genre two hundred years later; and let us not forget Jean de La Fontaine, the most sophisticated fabulist of them all, who turned Aesop into delightful verse in the 17th Century!
Those are just a few authors who have accepted the challenge of writing fables. There were many others. Fables are for everyone. There's no reason why we can't all be fabulists! So please allow me to present a selection of my own fables. In keeping with tradition, each fable is followed by a brief moral. I will keep adding new fables as I write them. The plan is eventually to write maybe 200 new fables. I'll attempt to illustrate some of them myself; others will be illustrated by brilliant real artists, including Chris Harrendence, Anthony Lewis, Adele Whittle and anyone else who cares to have a go!
Click on this link and enter the world of Rhysop's Fables...
# posted by Rhys Hughes @ 10:26 AM 
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Hey Rhys,
I really enjoyed these. Some of them I didn't quite get, others put a smile on my face. I love bad puns. I enjoyed the fact that you had some sequels in there (annoying, because of the way Blogger displays posts, I saw the sequels first...grr...LOL) Good stuff. I hope that you can get these published someday, with appropriate illustrations! I have a friend who's last name is Mead that also enjoy this kind of stuff and probably would like the one about the Viking, the Gnome, the croquet ball, and the mead (a friend in mead is a friend indeed...)
Question one---in the big logo header on the August set, what is the poster in the background? Looks like a map from an issue of National Geographic.
Question two---also in the header, what are all the stuffed animals? I recognize the frog and the penguin, but I'm not sure about the quadrupeds or the flyer (pteranodon, pterosaur, pterodactyl, etc.) They are all very cute, though!
Question three---accompanying the Walnut Whip fable, there's a picture of a doll dress on top of an action figure. I don't recall seeing a caption, did you make this one? If so, what action figure is it and do you know where the doll dress came from? It was bizarre, but totally suited the fable in question.
I think my favorite (so far) is CloudCuckooLand, about the continents. It had great visual imagery. But overall, the entire collection feels like classic fables (albeit updated for the 21st century reader). I clicked follow to, well, follow it! +1 job!
Gordon Long
I really enjoyed these. Some of them I didn't quite get, others put a smile on my face. I love bad puns. I enjoyed the fact that you had some sequels in there (annoying, because of the way Blogger displays posts, I saw the sequels first...grr...LOL) Good stuff. I hope that you can get these published someday, with appropriate illustrations! I have a friend who's last name is Mead that also enjoy this kind of stuff and probably would like the one about the Viking, the Gnome, the croquet ball, and the mead (a friend in mead is a friend indeed...)
Question one---in the big logo header on the August set, what is the poster in the background? Looks like a map from an issue of National Geographic.
Question two---also in the header, what are all the stuffed animals? I recognize the frog and the penguin, but I'm not sure about the quadrupeds or the flyer (pteranodon, pterosaur, pterodactyl, etc.) They are all very cute, though!
Question three---accompanying the Walnut Whip fable, there's a picture of a doll dress on top of an action figure. I don't recall seeing a caption, did you make this one? If so, what action figure is it and do you know where the doll dress came from? It was bizarre, but totally suited the fable in question.
I think my favorite (so far) is CloudCuckooLand, about the continents. It had great visual imagery. But overall, the entire collection feels like classic fables (albeit updated for the 21st century reader). I clicked follow to, well, follow it! +1 job!
Gordon Long
Thanks Gordon! Your comments are much appreciated!
The poster in the background was a free poster with one of the British Sunday newspapers (can't remember which one). It shows the planets of the solar system on the other side all in scale with each other. But the side I chose as my background is just a view of our solar-system from beyond the orbit of Pluto...
As for the animals: from left to right we have Ptula Graark the pterodactyl, Rothko the fox, an unnamed penguin, a Komodo dragon and then the frog's head in the mirror (it's a magnifying mirror and the frog wasn't in focus to my eyes when it was in focus for the camera, and vice versa, so it was tricky to judge!)
For the walnut whip photo I took a toy model of Harry Potter and thrust the walnut whip down onto his head with sufficient force to enable it to rest on his shoulders.
Thanks for your questions!
Regards to you!
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The poster in the background was a free poster with one of the British Sunday newspapers (can't remember which one). It shows the planets of the solar system on the other side all in scale with each other. But the side I chose as my background is just a view of our solar-system from beyond the orbit of Pluto...
As for the animals: from left to right we have Ptula Graark the pterodactyl, Rothko the fox, an unnamed penguin, a Komodo dragon and then the frog's head in the mirror (it's a magnifying mirror and the frog wasn't in focus to my eyes when it was in focus for the camera, and vice versa, so it was tricky to judge!)
For the walnut whip photo I took a toy model of Harry Potter and thrust the walnut whip down onto his head with sufficient force to enable it to rest on his shoulders.
Thanks for your questions!
Regards to you!
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