Joshenilia (7)

By: Joshua Glenn
December 14, 2015

One in a series of posts exhuming the juvenilia and significant objects of HILOBROW’s Josh Glenn.

At some point during my undergrad career, while majoring in Religion, I started doodling — in my school notebooks — short comic strips about a superhero known as Zenman. I think it was probably during the school year 1989–90; or perhaps in 1990–91.

All ZENMAN strips were drawn, in ballpoint pen, during class time. However, somewhere there is a full-page comic that I drew more carefully, with a nicer pen. Somewhere.

Elsewhere in my files, I suspect, are better examples of ZENMAN strips than the ones shown here. But since these are the only strips that have surfaced, so far, here we go.

In the strip reproduced above, Zenman attends a lecture by an eminent professor, whom he strikes with one of his most potent weapons: the Shut-Up Fish.

Does Zenman remind you of the enlightened souls in Zen stories who strike those seeking enlightenment in misguided ways with broom handles, frying pans, and other ready-to-hand objects? That is very much on purpose.

Zenman’s reactions to a situation were always unpredictable. Called to the scene of a crime, he might decide that the criminal was less in need of the ol’ Zenman treatment than the victim. He tended to haunt college campuses, springing out of nowhere in order to smack enlightenment into someone.

Note, however, that Zenman didn’t have a problem with unenlightened types; in fact, one of his supposed foes, Frog in the Swamp of Life Man, could sometimes be found chilling in the Zencave. Zenman was mostly concerned with intervening in the lives of those who seemed, on the surface, to be highly enlightened.

In the strip reproduced above, Zenman and one of his arch-rivals, Dookeyman, each hurl their weapon at a young man with glasses, a goatee, and checkered shorts — i.e., yours truly.

Dookeyman’s name, as I recall, was derived from dukkha — the Buddhist term commonly translated as “suffering” or “unsatisfactoriness.” His weapon? The dreaded logorrhea grenade.

A note on Zenman’s costume. He wore a rather baggy white bodysuit, with scaled shorts (á la Robin, the Boy Wonder) over the leggings. Boots, gloves, cape: the works. On his chest was emblazoned the letter “Z.” His mask was a yin/yang symbol; he peered through the symbol’s two circles. His headgear featured a starburst thing around the edges.

Fun fact: The strange markings on the Shut-Up Fish actually spell “Shut up.”

Some ZENMAN strips were reproduced in my 1990-era zine, LUVBOAT EARTH. Perhaps I should scan those and post them here, one of these days.

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Joshenilia (7)

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