Monday, January 12, 2015

Modernist Fantasy World


Here's another test panel for what was then "The Flaming Ramparts," my graphic novel set in the world of the Noantri. (Yes, the same keyword that got Lamberto Fedeli to include me in his rant mailing list.) In this whole endeavor I am very much inspired by the Belgian graphic novel team of Francois Schuiten and Benoit Peeters who have created incredible architectural fantasies together. 

I imagine my Noantri living in a rather bleak world of new settlements, "Noantri New Earth." They have not been there long enough to create an artistic world of elegance; most of them live and work in plain modernist buildings which I borrow from early to mid-20th-century designs. There is also a strong Mediterranean quality to the Noantri's built environment and cities, because that is where most of them live. In this test panel, Enlil the techno-wizard stands on a rooftop gazing at the smoldering crater of Mount Aitna, which will soon menace the city with blasts of ash and a huge outpouring of lava. 


Ink, watercolor, and colored pencil on illustration board, 3 1/4" x 6", 1999.

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