Lords of Death and Life, 1492-2008.
Seven years ago I came up with an idea for a webcomic that would showcase everything I loved about Mesoamerican art and culture. After two false starts, a pile of used up markers, and plenty of blood, sweat, and tears, Lords of Death and Life is now complete.
Well, nearly. I want to go back now and fix up a bunch of panels that are bothering me. And I have to figure out how to print the bloody thing in time for Stumptown. But it's online right now and you can read it, beginning to end.
Whatever else I've said about this comic let it be known that I'm glad it's now out of my head and down on paper for everybody to read. I trust the last seven years have not been a waste of time. I learned an awful lot about comics and an awful lot about the Maya and ended up with a passable finished book.
Heh. As a final irony, though, I was on Google Earth the other day and I discovered that the site where Xicalango once stood is now marked on the map with a little sticky note. The note wasn't there when I started the comic and it turns out I guessed the wrong spot on the Laguna de Terminos! The real site is about ten kilometres further down the coast, with a sandy beach instead of the swampy lagoon I put at the edge of my fictional city. On Google Earth you can even see a square patch where the ruins are- I assume this is the central temple complex- and it's much smaller than the one I drew. I still have yet to find a single book or online source that describes Xicalango apart from it having a lighthouse, being a trade port with a high Mexica population, having lots of caocao plantations, and being the birthplace of Cortez's translator during his invasion of Mexico. I've never seen a single map or picture of the ruins. And I looked pretty hard.
Well, I did my best. Historical fiction is tough. Now I feel like writing some sci-fi. *rubs hands together in anticipation*
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jdalton) wrote,
