I totally vanished* during December and January so here's a very large, very big, very gigantic update on my life, my career, my wanderings, and pre-2023 thoughts.

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So I was pinged to this fascinating post that spoke of the strange muddying that comes from interpretating and appropriating epic literature. It was an epic by itself, starting from allegory to how people tend to project their contemporary sensibilities (or false claims) to old things to comics to the theory of Monomyth to fandoms. Here then my Alexander Comic emerges, and this is how I was pinged, because the author, Owl*, referenced that old nugget about If My Alexander Comic is Fanfic or Not.

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Thoughts on the above. The sequel to Apropros of Nothing.

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Last weekend I received feedback from my editor, A, finally completing the second of a two part alpha reading stage- allowing me now the comfort to feel I've reached far along enough that I can start talking about the thing. The writing thing.

I wasn't sure how to document the Writing Stage of Alexander Comic (or my graphic novels in general). It's not as instant, fast or natural as the rest of the graphic novel making process, when it's just me reading or sketching or drawing, and I can just post a screenshot/photo accompanied with a quip. You can't really show much with writing; only the end result. Additionally, I have this superstitious belief that the period of making a story come to life should be treated as sacred, private, personal. Talking too much about the writing while you're supposed to be doing the work is an invitation for a jinx, or at least... it invites said jinx to me.

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Some thoughts on making things exist. The joy and fear of it all. A sequel to this post on Passion and Work and Adulthood.

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The unofficial start of the residency (at home).

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A year in... and I think I've got him. Disclaimer: I won't deny it. Alexander is impossible to get an accurate picture of. His personhood is made out of sand and everyone brings their own bottles to shape him into. I don't think my jar of sand is the One True Alexander, nor will it ever be. But the good news is, all the other jars aren't that either. The nature of his (after)life is elusive. That's what it is. But I think I've gotten a hold of him. I mean this in an authorly, character-study sense. I think I've found something interesting. (more…)

Most Alexander-the-Great-inspired fiction is arguably a fanfic of the man himself. This includes that 2000 year old tradition called the Alexander Romance, which is basically (simplistically) an isekai alternate universe history of the Macedonian hero going on wacky adventures, retold over and over again by writers and artists who admire his achievements. But what happens... when the author of the 21st century Alexander Romance is not herself a fan of Alexander?

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Thoughts on the in-progress art direction for my Alexander the Great graphic novel/comic.

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