The Art of Doktor No

Preface

Start of the new year always welcome both retrospection and formulating plans for the future. So lets begin.

Retrospection

The year 2021 was quite productive for me, in fact last 4 years were constant improvement of my art skills. I managed to do mostly erotic pin ups and some random OC’s designs (that did not went far enough) fanarts (like series of reimagination of classic “Witcher” saga books covers) and various experimental studies. In the same time I upgraded my hardware and now I can add serious 3D into my mix of techniques.

But time marches on, I am not content with lack of serious goals and challenges, hence I decided to start new grand project.

What?

I present you: “Cuauchtli”:

An action adventure fantasy comic about eponymous travelling mercenary warrior (whose name pronounced [ˈkʷaːʍ.t͡ɬi] means “Eagle” in classic Nahuatl) in a world inspired by cultures of pre-Columbian civilizations, like Aztecs (and other Nahua peoples), Maya, Incas etc. A story of both adventure and self-discovery in ever changing world.

Its a very risky setup, and despite fantasy setting it needs lots of research on historical source of inspiration, but I think I can manage that challenge. My sources are mostly books written by people with academic credentials, like Alfonso Caso, Inga Clendinnen, Frances Gillmor, Esther Pasztory, John Pohl and others. Also historical epic novel “Aztec” by Gary Jennings is another source of inspiration, due the historical accuracy and vivid storytelling.

Why?

My feeling is that the best way to stay creative is to reconnect with things from your childhood. Pre-colonial Mesoamerica was my point of interests then, and I blame comics that I read as a kid for igniting it:

Another reason is that history in general and sociopolitical matters are other areas of interest for me, and I have completely useless degree in political science, that begs to be utilised in my grown-up years. It would be handy during world-building.

Fantasy set in Mesoamerica is very rare but not unusual. The Netflix’s “Maya and the Three” CGI series and CrunchyRoll’s “Onyx Equinox” anime serial are most recent examples, ditto indie comics like Daniel’s Parada “Zotz” (more alternative history than fantasy) or “Codex Black” webcomic by Camilo Moncada.

I am approaching this topic with a great care and respect, because we are talking about cultural heritage of indigenous peoples of Central America, not made-up stuff. And I take “Avatar the Last Airbender” as an yardstick of how Western creator can make fantasy story in setting inspired by non-Western culture while being respectful and true to source material.

How?

This format requires me to be consistent with my artwork and be productive. Making comics is art all by itself, and it is quite complex process with yin-yang-like philosophy, but with words and pictures being in balance in order to effectively tell the story.

Another challenge would be building not only credible world but also storytelling and character development. I never before wrote fiction by myself (with exception of crappy SF novel in my high school years), so I need to familiarise myself with creative writing techniques.

So far I created early draft of first chapter and early panel layout of it. Its harder to make than it sounds, but very satisfying in the end to see the preliminary results. Also I did some studies of Aztec weapons after historical sources:

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Where?

The comic will be published online for free as webcomic on this server on dedicated subdomain. I cannot rule out Patreon/Kofi support or merchandise but these things seems to be too distant possibility to be considered seriously for now. Also I am exploring ways to meaningfully promote it on social media, but prospects looks bleak considering how busy and biased they are.