HELLo!
Charismatic Mexi-can cartoonist extraordinaire Geladaa brings you the first weekly update into the ongoing creative process of IN HELL.
I´ll be developing the second chapter of IN HELL, titled “Sons and Daughters of Elysium”.
The posts in this blog will provide hopefully interesting ideas and art to chew on each week, leading up to the release of “Sons and Daughters of Elysium”.
Yes, erudite reader, the title IS a reference to the “Ode to Joy”; the poem written in the summer of 1785 by German poet, playwright, and historian Friedrich Schiller. Famously used by Ludwig van Beethoven in the final (fourth) movement of his Ninth Symphony, the fantastically euphoric and triumphant piece that has pretty much been acknowledged by the world (and certainly by yours truly) as the anthem of humanity.
It goes like this (translated from German):
Joy, beautiful spark of Divinity,
Daughter of Elysium,
We enter, drunk with fire,
Heavenly one, thy sanctuary!
Thy magic binds again
What custom strictly divided;
All people become brothers,
Where thy gentle wing abides. (https://youtu.be/jfb8oYJEfwU)
While the first chapter focused on the conflict that erupted within the group of heroes, the second will show them rediscovering deep bonds of love. Indeed, I intend to make it quite the moving affair, a picture of humanity united. Not as mindless drones, but as free individuals that feel profound empathy towards each other, an empathy, a love, beyond the shadow cast by nihilism.
I certainly don´t read “Ode to Joy” as having any relation to socialism. On the contrary, socialism, being entirely motivated by misery and resentment, is the furthest possible thing from a movement based on joy, which is what I will show in my book.
Characters moved forward by joy, first towards each other, then, together, towards an uncertain, hopefully heroic destiny.
Let me share a peek into the second chapter then:
Here you see a slice of a page. In it the teens are certainly getting along much better than they where back in chapter I.
I want to really develop many ideas I have around expressing different kinds of dialog. What do you think Arthur could be saying here?
Chapter II is a bit of an interlude before the story goes into much grander, much more fantastical territory, but I am very much committed to making sure every single page can be someone´s favorite out of the whole work. No "filler" or "busywork" allowed, no "exposition".
From this point on I will be posting one update per week! Please look forward to that.
Cheers!
Geladaa
PS. I want to invite backers to consider purchasing, if they haven´t already, the two other books available at my website. If you enjoyed the first chapter of “IN HELL” you are sure to enjoy them as well. In you did not enjoy the first chapter of IN HELL, get them anyway, they might be different enough that you´ll like them.