The Art of Doktor No

Another buffering of episodes.

New year began with a slow build up of “buffer” of pages. I underestimated the required amount of work plus some life hurdles had contributed to slowdown.

The comic is mirrored on Tapas.io, the only difference is a slight censorship to keep it compliant with TOS of this service: https://tapas.io/series/Cuauhtli/info

In the meantime I am still doing historical research and buying new books:

“Onyx Equinox” – a hard to watch failure

In the meantime I finally watched “Onyx Equinox”, and I did not liked it… It is a macabre meat-grinder with unsympathetic protagonists and lousy writing. It is also a final confirmation that Mesoamerican fantasy setting is like magnet attracting mean spirited creators¹ (with noble exceptions of “Codex Black” and “Zotz”).

Seeds of inspiration

In my country decades ago there was a huge obsession about Native Americans. So huge that Amerindians had become some sort of mythical creatures, that kids badly wanted to be like one, emulate and fantasize about. By modern standards it is problematic, deeply culturally insensitive and cringe-inducing.

From left: poster for film about summer camping scout boys who called their troop “Blackfoots”, kids’ book literally called “And also you could become an Indian”², and classic “going native” novel set in 18th century Venezuela.

That fascination was extended to Maya, Aztecs and Incas. The residue of that trend was present during my childhood in the 1990’s, and I can remember reading comic adaptation of Bernal Diaz’s memoir about Cortez expedition to Mexico, Mesoamerican story arc of “Thorgal” comic series (image on the right), or watching “Mysterious cities of Gold” anime series on TV. For a kid in 1990’s the world of warriors dressing like mythological creatures and animals, pyramidal temples and gods like Feathered Serpent has planted deeply in my mind the idea of Mesoamerica as a place for great adventure. Later, as an adult it was expanded by solid historical knowledge, and made possible to realise in comic form.

Please take my comic as an attempt to resurrect that idea, but in mature, well researched and respectful manner.

1. Miss Alexandra had admitted on Twitch livestream she was struggling, edgy student during making first draft of the show in 2009: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JA5X291xa6M ↩︎
2. In finale of film adaptation of that novelette a boy meets real Amerindian and becomes member of his tribe… http://sfkadr.com/pl/movies/195/i-ty-zostaniesz-indianinem.html ↩︎