Red Phantom notes - Dibbuk Box and other RP tidbits

Long story short... A Dybbuk is a ghost who escapes from Hell and comes back to Earth to fulfill something unaccomplished. Many times, the spirit is driven mad with anger. Other times, it's quite peaceful. There have been instances of dybbuks in other non-Jewish works. For example, the Patrick Swayze movie "Ghost" is an example.

Often times, the dybbuks who turn evil and insade are those who are turned away from Hell because their crimes in life were to heinous to properly punish such as suicide, patricide and the like.

Tell me this isn't PERFECT for a ghost story.

PLEASE read the immediate link. It's a wonderfully chilling story!
http://www.dibbukbox.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibbur
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qliphoth
http://www.ghostvillage.com/legends/2003/legends32_11292003.shtml

A dybbuk painting


A dybbuk horde


A picture of a supposed Dybbuk haunting


A scene from the movie "The Dybbuk"

(You might be wondering about the spelling of the word dybbuk. I've seen many variants so for the sake of "no reason whatsoever" I've decided to use the spelling I'm used to.)

This has great potential for a horror story. It's perfect because NYC had a strong Jewish populace in the 30s and 40s.

I cannot wait to start work on this and the "Skinwalker's Lament" stories. The Horror of Chinatown and The Axeman of New Orleans also have horror elements but it's focused more on the magical aspects with regards to spells, incantations and the like. While the Dybbuk and Skinwalker stories are going to be the "OH MY @#$%-ING GOD!! WHAT IS THAT?! AARH!" type of horror.

My friend from college (St. John's University) said the following when I was talking to her about the dybbuk legends, jewish ghost stories and medieval art & stories:

I love jewish ghost stories especially the legends in Prague. Years ago I read a book called "Magic Prague by Angelo Maria Ripellino. I beg you to read this book, you are one of the only people I know who can appreciate it. The back cover reads:

This book attempts to go beyond the tourist cliche of Prague as the "golden city" to bring out all the mystery, ambiguity, gloom, lethargy and hidden fascination of the city on the Vltava. Ripellino slips into the style of melodrama and ghost stories as he writes of the time of Rudolph II, the alchemists, the Jewish quarter, the Golem, the pubs, the funeral malevolence of its architecture, of Holan and Kafka, of Meyrink and the Czech Dadaists. with this dense cast of characters Ripellino brings out the sorcery of the Bohemian capital in a compelling mixture of fact and fiction. This vast fresco of Prague life provides much more than a literary and cultural history of the city, it is both a celebration and requiem."

This is a book I always go back to when I want to feel enchanted and inspired. Btw I have a saturday gallery talk at the cloisters on April 28 entitled "Death and Dying in the Middle Ages". Mark your calender!!

So if you're up by the Cloisters, drop by and say hi to one of my best friends Berfu. She works as a curator there and as a art history teacher at Hunter College.

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Web Comics Nation is a fine company but something about the way they set up the comics leave something to be desired. I must remember to search for other free hosting sites so I can move Crusader Comics elsewhere.

The following are early sketches of 3 Triad members from the first "issue" of the Chinatown story. Even though it's a work in progress, Steve's done a bang-up job. He's done a VERY good job capturing the look and feel of the mobsters in the way I described them. It's going to be damn interesting to see the final illustrations.

Liu Zhao - a quietly efficient member of the Heavenly Sword Society Triad
He operates the Lo Pan's Heavenly Pharmacist as a front.


Lao Tse is the number cruncher of this front.
His smallish frame hide the soul of a violent sadist


Despite his apparent genial nature, Jimmy Wei is capable of delivering bone crushing strikes

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