Artist:
An unknown member of the Quest Cult
Medium: Religious fanaticsm with a touch of homoeroticism
This week, we bring you a painting depicting one of the early rites of
the bizarre "Quest Cult". The cult's roots can be traced back to the founding
of the "Honorable East India Company" (also known as "Johnny
Company"), which was founded by some of the early British colonizers
of India. Their ventures made them so wealthy that they soon were enjoying
a life of pure indulgence and boredom.
As with most bored nouveau riche, they eventually turned to strange rituals
and secret societies. Having been exposed to the many exotic religious
rites of the East, from the hash smoking Sadhus
to the ritualistic sex of tantric
yoga, they used this knowlegde to create strange rituals of their
own. Their rituals were meant to symbolize the union of the eastern and
western traditions in an attempt to reach new heights of physical and
intellectual power. Unfortunately, this usually consisted of a bunch of
rich white men taking a lot of drugs and doing unspeakable things to little
Indian boys.
The figure of "Johnny Quest" was their Messiah, a mythological young member
of the Johnny Company who had gone on a "quest" into the dark interior
of the Indian subcontinent, searching for ultimate knowledge and power,
and never returned. Every week, the members of the Quest Cult would choose
one of their pool of Indian boys to be the spiritual servant to their
ascended master Johnny Quest. This lucky boy (known as the Hadji) would
sit on a cushion in the center of their vast hall, stoned out his mind.
For that week alone, he was considered to be too holy to be used for any
of the cult members nefarious purposes.
These dark practices of the Quest Cult were later hidden under a veil
of secrecy, in an attempt to keep them from the public eye. And in a subliminal
attempt to lure new younger members into the cult, the cult members created
a cartoon based on the mythical adventures of their young savior. Johnny,
his friend Hadji, and their two older male guardians, (paragons of intellectual
power and martial power, respectively) travel the world, having adventures
together.
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