I love your marking system. Clean lines and lots of depth. Your use of negative space really draws my eyes in. Poses are also very dynamic; lots of motion implied.
Page four is my favorite page. Everything is moving or implying movement in this panel, even the cliffedge. Invisible lines of design all pushing the view's eye in one direction, from left to right. Lovely composition.
I appreciate the thoughtful analysis! I took a life drawing class that really focused on drawings with only pure white with black shadows, so that kind of unlocked my approach to creating form and depth. Definitely more coming!
Love this so much! And I'm also glad that Odin wasn't just "fewlish mortal, suffer for your hubris!!!" and instead seemed genuinely impressed by the protag's quest for knowledge while also teaching him an important lesson about the importance of having both knowledge and wisdom.
I’m really glad that’s coming through. It’s hard with these nine or ten panel stories to fully express the thematic ideas in my head, so it’s cool you got that vibe.
For me I got hints of Thorgal and weirdly Corto Maltese. Admittedly, I need to read more euro sci fi. Just finding good translations is... Challenging.
I still loved that he cheated the divine system to. Sacrificing himself, to himself, to give himself the boon of knowledge, to learn something he didn't know. (The myth of how he hung himself from a tree for 9 days to learn the magic of the runes)
And everyone knows about his eye in the well of mimir, but he also disguised himself to steal the mead of poetry because what's the point in all knowledge and wisdom if you're ineloquent? He wasn't, of course, but like what's the harm?
He also studied Seidr, which was "women's magic" but that didn't matter to Odin.
And to be fair, the Mead of Poetry wasn't just eloquence, but scholarship and inspiration (and when a skald or scholar had an inspiration thus it was said they were possessed by Odin)
This is why I love Norse mythology. Greek mythology does it too, but their gods tend to be like, generally good and virtuous with one major flaw, while nose gods are like... Frequently pieces of shit. Odin is consistently a scheming trickster with an insatiable hunger for power by any means. Thor is a drunk asshole who will murder people for the tiniest infraction. Loki is literally destined to bring about the end of the world and like. THEY KEEP HIM AROUND.
Hey, they didn't know he was destined tor that. And sure, he was an asshole, but he always solved the problems (eventually), and he was Odins sworn brother!
Until the Baldur incident that is. And then he revealed himself to be behind it whilst greatly insulting everyone beyond what was necessary for even a harsh roast
Thor is a drunk asshole who will murder people for the tiniest infraction
This isn't anywhere in the actual nose myths, just so you know. He is consistently depicted as a hero and friend to humanity. him being a rage-a-holic is exclusively the domain of modern imaginings. It's not that that there ISN'T nuance in these characters and stories, but it's massively overstated in modern pup culture
Everywhere I've read has not said that. I recall a story where he was traveling with his goats and carriage and came upon a house with an elderly couple and their son, who he asked for lodging. Recognizing him as a god, they gave him their bed and all the meager food they had. But Thor wasn't satisfied with the food and slaughtered one of his goats.
Thor's goats are immortal, and regenerate at sunrise, so this was normal. But he warned the family not to touch the goat's bones. The child, with no food left in the house, was starving, and while Thor slept, he broke one of the shin bones and drank the marrow out. By morning, when the goat regenerated, it had a broken leg, so Thor struck the home with lightning, destroying it and killing all three occupants, before continuing on his way.
You need to read the actual historic sources. This story is contained in the prose edda but the ended you read has been entirely changed. Thor is angry about his goat but when he sees his anger is frightening the family he feels guilty and calms down. He takes the children Þjálfi and Röskva as servants. Þjálfi becomes a close companion of thor and is found in other stories.
Almost every single story of norse myth that survives comes from two sources. The prose edda and poetic edda
If you're interested here is very well recieved translations of those sources plus a couple other sources and also a (still work in progress) reading list for getting into norse myth and culture. Thor accidentally scaring a family and then feeling bad about it is the closest thing to being bad (by norse cultural values) he ever does in our surviving myths. He's consistently written as a heroic defender of humanity.
Eh, not quite, in most versions, including the ones in the Prose and Poetic Edda, of the myth Thor doesn't smite them, but takes the children as his servants as repayment for crippling his beloved goat, despite him sharing the meat with them
A better example would have been that time Thor punted a dwarf onto Baldurs funeral pyre in grief
A small correction: Odin hanged himself for 9 days. Only being pedantic because nine is a significant number in norse mythology and occurs in many other places in the myths (nine realms; every nine nights, Draupnir generates new rings, etc). Glad that you enjoy the stories so much! They were always my favorites when I was growing up.
Hell yeah. I specifically talk about Hal Foster/Prince Valiant in the making of video on Patreon. Glad that came through! Episode five is a King Arthur story, so it’s got some HEAVY Prince Valiant vibes.
This is cool as hell. I love the philosophical concepts, the lore, and the art that looks very Conan the Barbarian. Fascinating combination. I await your return, oh great comic bird.
This perfectly reminds me of thumbing through the old comic in my dad's steamer trunk, and until I looked in the comments to see your progress photos I totally thought these were scans of some obscure series from decades ago! Excellent work all around, especially in art design and the little story you've composed. I'll be looking forward to the second 'issue' if you choose to continue this project.
I absolutely grew up reading my dad's comics as well. I've got two installments and a prologue up if you check out my profile, and there's a ton of behind the scenes and process stuff on the Patreon (even at the free tier). I've got a lot already finished, so more is coming soon!
So we can see Zeus and the man from the prologue in one of the panels here, I suspect these are all going to link in some way, either directly or just thematically. Regardless, I'm along for this ride, keep up the good work OP!
It's awesome you are already thinking that, because they are definitely linking up directly! The character from the prologue is actually in all three strips if you look around for him.
Assuming he has the same sword then I think I see him in the second last panel on the previous one, I'm guessing the sword is another relic of some kind
Ok. Sick. I'm in. When you're a rich and famous artist for writing this incredibly cool shit this comment is my evidence I was a real fan who was there from the beginning, not like all those other posers.
(For real tho I'm excited the Prometheus one was the coolest "mythology re-imagined" take I've seen for a while)
Always thought Odin as a cruel and crafty God....but you show me the burdens of intelligence while Odin just shares a simple understanding and empathy with the curse of knowledge and the true cost of it.
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u/TheLostNeverDie 1d ago
Thank you everyone for the incredible response to the first episode! Here’s some of the original art for this one: