Info
Dhalmun: Age of Smoke.
In my short career as a webcomic author, besides the few superhero parodies I created, I’ve always wanted to do something in a bit more serious tone. For some reason there’s not so many superhero stories published online, probably due to the fact that this market is already filled with plenty of comics by the biggest USA publishers. Also, the form of a webcomic is probably better suited for strips.
Still, I’m here and besides the complete lack of budget, I just feel more comfortable with publishing online, as I’ve been doing it for the last few years.
The story of „Dhalmun” starts somewhere in 2005 (or maybe 2006, I honestly don’t remember), when I published my first webcomic called „The Swords of Chaos”.
The story progressed slowly, and my lack of skills as both writer and artist didn’t help much. Still, somehow I managed to get to episode three (at the same time I published the first episodes of „The Chinchilla-Man”), with a new title „The Blades”:
I started feeling the story doesn’t make much sense, and with The Chinchilla-Man growing relatively popular, I decided to shut down the project. But as the time passed, I still had the same ideas in my head, and as they evolved, I thought it might be a good moment to give it another try. This time I wanted to keep it simple, less pretentious inner monologues, more of a character-driven story, but still strongly inspired by all the cool stuff from my childhood, like Batman: TAS mixed with a sort of a hip-hop flavour.
This one was simply called „Diggs”. As with the previous project I struggled with both the art and the story. Unsatisfied with the outcome and once again drawn to other projects, once again I decided to quit. But once again, the ideas stayed with me.
In 2010 I started thinking: „How should I approach this story, so i could actually finish it, without leaving it once again after several pages?” I felt that if I quit once again, I’ll have to reconsider my whole career as an artist. I mean, if I can’t bring myself to finish a story, it’s just pointless. What I decided to do is start with a small story in a big universe. Something I can handle and let it grow. A place where I can put different ideas, whether it’s fantasy, sci-fi or superhero.
At first I did two short stories in a fantasy setting – „Dhalmun: Age of Steam”. They’re more of a prologue to a bigger story I wish to continue soon, maybe with another artist as I just can’t do all of it in a timely manner myself.
Then, in 2011 some politicians from few different parties proposed to make a slight, almost non-existent change in the Polish law regarding the anti-drug policy. The proposition sparked a ridiculous reaction from the opposite side, it was just silly. But the whole situation pushed me towards starting to work on the first episode of „Dhalmun: Age of Smoke”.
Is there any artistic progress in comparison to my first two attempts? I hope so. Will I be able to continue this story? I believe I will.
Peace.