Christopher Knowles

Our Gods Wear Spandex: The Secret History of Comic Book Heroes is a fascinating look at the modern superhero, tracing the genre's origins all the way back to ancient mythology and occultism. Since it's release this fall, Our Gods Wear Spandex has garnered rave reviews in every corner. Author Christopher Knowles reveals the four basic superhero archetypes - the Messiah, the Golem, the Amazon, and the Brotherhood - and also details how the occult Bohemian underground of the early 20th century provided much of the inspiration for the modern comic book hero. Knowles' treatise shows how superheroes have drawn on influences as wide and varied as HP Lovecraft, Carl Jung, Aleister Crowley, Madame Blavatsky's Theosophy, and ancient Egyptian sun worship.

Knowles has contributed to Comic Book Artist and Jack Kirby Collector magazines, produced comics for Sirius and Radio Comix, and done illustration and design work for Toy Biz. He also collaborated with Saturday Night Live cartoonist Robert Smigel on the X-Presidents graphic novel. Knowles currently works as a freelance artist specializing in superhero licensing and merchandising.

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YOUR BOOK TAKES THE POSITION THAT MODERN SUPERHEROES ARE THE NATURAL EXTENSION OF THE ANCIENT TRADITIONS OF GODS AND HEROES, GOING BACK TO THE BEGINNINGS OF CIVILIZATION. WHAT WAS THE IMPETUS OF THIS IDEA FOR YOU?

It's not a new idea, but it seemed to me that after Kingdom Come, superheroes had changed in a very deep and profound way. The way they were written and drawn changed, and they've since taken on the flavor of gods. For instance, you don't see many superhero parodies anymore, where they were once very popular. Artists whose work is labeled as "cartoony" are no longer as popular. You can look at the example of John Byrne - he came into the business when the artists like Jack Kirby were losing favor with the fans and a generation or so later, the tables have turned on Byrne. This is the Alex Ross Age in one way or another, and Ross is quite clear that he sees these heroes as being more than human and that his stories are mythology, not entertainment. Heroes are confused with gods repeatedly in Kingdom Come.

STORIES OF GODS AND HEROES IN OLDEN TIMES OFTEN SERVED AS TEACHING TOOLS FOR THEIR READERS, IMPARTING MORAL VALUES AND IMPORTANT LIFE LESSONS. ARE THERE SIMILAR IMPACTS THAT SUPERHEROES HAVE HAD OVER THE YEARS, AND IF SO, CAN THEY CONTINUE TO PROVIDE RELEVANT LESSONS TODAY?

A lot of fans took moral instruction from superheroes - Alan Moore said he got his sense of right and wrong from Superman. And again, see Alex Ross for example. To me, mythology is about living in an imperfect world, and superheroes exist as moral fantasies - righting the overpowering wrongs of the world. Personally, my favorite characters were the ones who reflected how I saw the world. Characters like Conan and Kamandi existed in a world that was a dog-eat-dog nightmare and were more concerned with survival than questions like morality. But at the same time it was the very powerful and lucid morality of Stan Lee's writing that had a very powerful influence on my thinking.

YOU'RE OBVIOUSLY A FAN OF SUPERHERO COMICS? HAVE YOU TRIED ANY SUPERHERO PROSE STORIES?

I think the superhero is a primarily visual genre. I think that's at the root of its appeal.

WHAT ABOUT THE GENRE'S ROOTS IN THE PULP FICTION MAGAZINES OF THE EARLY 20th CENTURY? COULDN'T THE SUPERHERO HAVE BEEN BORN JUST THE SAME HAD HE REMAINED SOLELY IN PROSE, RATHER THAN COMICS?

I can't really see it. The pulp heroes were so much different, and even there they were heavily dependent on the visuals - the covers and the spot illustrations. This goes back to Ancient Egypt- they used visuals to inspire awe. It's tough to do with words alone. I'm delving into this history on my blog - superheroes are nothing new and the history gives you a much more profound appreciation of the genre.

ALONG THOSE SAME LINES, WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE RECENT EXPLOSION OF SUPERHEROES OFF OF THE COMICS PAGE AND INTO MOVIES AND TELEVISION? DOES THIS RECENT SURGE MARK SUPERHEROES AS A PART OF THE UNIVERSAL MYTHOLOGY YOU WRITE ABOUT, RATHER THAN A GENRE BOUND SOLELY TO JUST ONE MEDIUM?

I actually can see a future where superheroes move from print to other media entirely. I could see comics themselves becoming more of an eclectic medium and superhero stories being told in more kinetic ways - cartoons, movies, video games. Don't forget, superheroes were adapted to film and radio almost from their inception.

GIVE US YOUR THOUGHTS ON A COUPLE OF TELEVISION SHOWS THAT FOCUS ON SUPERPOWERS, IF NOT SUPERHEROES: THE 4400 AND HEROES.

I think all of them stem from Jack Kirby's Silver Star series in a way. The 4400 was my favorite of the three. Excellent show, particularly in it's first two seasons. Very upset it was cancelled. Heroes needs to focus its plotting - the second season has been almost impossible to follow. If I were asked I would recommend they have Sylar kill off most of the characters and focus on the Petrelli-Linderman axis. I just don't care about any of the new characters, and Mohinder's voiceovers are insufferable. With this kind of storytelling, less is more.

WHAT ARE THE SI MILARITIES WITH THE SILVER STAR SERIES?

Silver Star was one of Kirby's really off-the-wall 80's series. It was about an emerging new race of
super-beings - Homo Geneticus - who are unaware of each other's existence. Most of them use their superpowers to make money and don't wear costumes. Just as with Sylar in Heroes, there's a character named Darius Drumm who is killing off the other superbeings so he can be top dog. It's not Kirby at his most cogent, but like his other early 80's work, it's got a lot of energy and conviction. A lot of the ideas you see in Heroes have precedents in Silver Star.

IN THE SECTION OF YOUR BOOK ON "HOLLYWOOD HOMEGROWN HEROES", YOU MENTION THAT MOST ATTEMPTS TO CREATE SUPERHEROES OUTSIDE OF COMICS HAVE BEEN MISERABLE FAILURES, DUE TO THE INSINCERITY OF "PREFAB HOLLYWOOD PROPERTIES." YOU DO MENTION A HANDFUL OF EXCEPTIONS - THE INCREDIBLES, THE MATRIX, ETC. WHAT SETS THEM APART FROM THE FAILURES?

In a word? Conviction. The Wachowskis and Brad Bird are true believers, guys who grew up reading great comics. Earlier attempts were muddle-headed cash-ins- the product of people who hated the source material and resented being reduced to writing it. The same applies to a lot of the earlier TV superhero adaptations like the 70's Captain America TV movie, which went out of its way to insult comics fans. You had some idiot on a motorcycle wearing a helmet and a baby blue leotard- the contempt for the character was stultifying.

I was always aware growing up in the 70's that we were being fed toys and cartoons and TV shows by tired old hacks who had a pathological hatred of children. Go look at that stuff sometime and then compare it to the stuff from the 60's. It was only in the comics that the energy and wildness of childhood was respected. And certainly not in the late 70's DC Comics, which for the most part were as dreary and deliberately insulting as the cartoons of the time.

I'd say Marvel Comics were the only thing out there speaking to kids then, which is why the industry is kept afloat by guys my age. The comics were there for them when nothing else was and they never forgot that. It wouldn't be until the early 80s that DC became readable again, and I really have to credit Dick Giordano with turning that company around. And again, he was a true believer. You can't be in this business if you don't believe in what you are doing 1000%.

IF READERS WERE TO TAKE AWAY ONLY ONE THING OR IDEA FROM YOUR BOOK, WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE THAT TO BE?

I'd like them to use it as a springboard to look deeper into the sources of these types of stories. I
would especially like anyone involved in writing or drawing comics to delve into the works of Carl Jung. Studying his work and integrating his theories into your own creativity is guaranteed to make your work deeper, wider, and more resonant.