Anonymous Author Critiques Neil Gaiman's American Gods through Instagram Comic

March 17, 2021 - PRLog -- Myth has many interpretations, but B. L. A. & G. B. Gabbler use some interpretations to interact with myth as living, breathing stories and to add to the meta nature of their own mythpunk book series, the Circo del Herrero/The Blacksmith's Circus.

G. B. Gabbler is only one half of the couple behind the series and that half runs an Instagram account secondarily used for sharing memes about mythology and videos of automata. The two topics might seem a bit odd until you learn what their mythpunk book series is about: the god Vulcan's ancient automata. "The Greco-Roman god, also known as Hephaestus, built robotic creatures known as automata," Gabbler said when pitching the first book originally. "Neil Gaiman's American Gods doesn't really cover Greco-Roman myth in his book, but the television show does. When B. L. A. found out that the Starz show was going to introduce a character named Vulcan who was the 'god of guns,' well, that was when it started." Gabbler recounted that B. L. A., other half of the couple, took offense at this and started pointing out flaws in such representation and, later on, flaws with the book and show's plot in general. "I could see their point," Gabbler said. "That's why I made the comic. To poke fun at some of the tropes and fallacies we see in some lazy interpretations." The comic consists of slapdash, meme-like pictures of statues or paintings of Greco-Roman gods with speech bubbles. "It was just one more way to get the point across—a point readers will also pick up on in our series," Gabbler added.

Their fantasy series will be releasing the third and final installment soon, titled The Lathing. It follows The Automation and The Pre-programming. "Volume 3's title makes you think of a lathe—it's meant to remind you that the gods and the Automata in the series have been worn down and reshaped in some way after Vulcan rebooted things," Gabbler explained. They will also be starting a series on their website called "Cogs Rate Gods" where they will interview each other on their thoughts about a specific deity.

You can find full book release details, including a synopsis of Vol. 3, on their website at circodelherreroseries.com. Gabbler's full comic is at @g.b.gabbler on Instagram. The first volume, The Automation, is permafree on the Internet Archive.