Issue #34

Leon x Lykos - Chapter XXXIV

Leon and Lykos go to the headquarters of the Sacred Band and find out there’s one more thing they need to do to officially join the band.

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Behind the Scenes! - Herakles sketch

This is the main design for Herakles you’ll see throughout the comic.

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The Song of Eyala Troy - Part 2

In these pages Eyala finds her parents but doesn’t like what she sees.

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I Read Stuff - The Iliad, by Gareth Hinds

So I recently started the habit of reading a little bit before bed every night and it's honestly been life changing. Not only is it a nice way to relax and wind down before going to sleep but it’s also helping me make progress on books that, frankly, I should’ve read a while ago. So I figured I’d share with you guys some of the books I’ve been reading.

I just finished reading Gareth Hinds’ graphic novel adaptation of The Iliad, and I loved it. If you read this newsletter then you already know I’m a big fan of Greek mythology so seeing this story beautifully illustrated through Hinds’ watercolor paintings was a real treat and very inspiring for my own comic endeavors.

My takeaways from The Iliad:

• I really enjoyed just how bright and colorful the book is overall. It’s easy to forget in the modern age, in which many things left to us from ancient Greece are now stark white, that the classical world was a colorful place.

• The color of the weapons and armor stood out especially. Hinds used a golden-yellow color for the bronze arms of these ancient warriors which to me felt like a refreshing visual compared to the grays often used to depict metal weapons in fantasy stories.

• I loved the way Hinds depicted the gods in contrast to humans. While humans are depicted naturalistically, the gods or portrayed to be glowing with monotone colors. It’s honestly fairly similar to how I depict the gods in Leon x Lykos, though Hinds and I differ on some of the color choices for the gods.

• Reading this makes me want to draw more Greek mythology in style of Leon x Lykos like I did for “Classicstober” back in October.

• A lot like George O’Connor of the Olympians series, Hinds does a great job at making this heavy ancient subject matter accessible to all ages and fairly easy to read.

• The comic does not make any direct allusions to Achilles and Patroclus being lovers. Of course it would’ve been awesome if it did, but in fairness to Hinds I don’t think the Iliad itself ever explicitly refers to them that way and it was more of a commonly held cultural belief in ancient Greece that the two were romantically (and sexually) paired. Still Achilles is very, very upset about the death of his special friend and it’s totally platonic when he commands that they be interred together after his own death.

• Hinds also has an adaptation of the Odyssey and I look forward to reading that soon.