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swiftgold (swiftgold) wrote in scans_daily,
@ 2009-05-01 20:45:00

Entry tags:

creator: eric shanower, theme: trojan war, title: age of bronze

Age of Bronze
Age of Bronze is a comic series by Eric Shanower depicting the Trojan War, and I just love it and wanted to share. I had to read the Iliad and the Odyssey in school, and though I got the gist, it is somehow a lot different when you have an image to associate with the characters - especially when it's art this good-looking!

The archaeological background was heavily researched and it really shows - these aren't your usual toga-clad players, but rather very plausible Bronze-Age Myceneans and Trojans. The stories of the characters themselves - past and present, and enough relatives to make the Summers family tree look pedestrian - are interwoven to present a unified story despite the varied origins of the original myths.

The first issue is available on Image's website here: http://imagecomics.com/onlinecomics.php I should warn that there is a NSFW scene.

There are more samples and information on the official website here: http://age-of-bronze.com/aob/index.shtml

And here is a page from the first trade, "Age of Bronze: A Thousand Ships":

I guess, before I try to figure out which parts of the three trades I should scan (there are so many interwoven storylines, as in the original), is there much interest in more? (Also - how does the page limit of scans work with trades of over 200 pages each?) And since this is such a well-known story - if there are any particular storylines or parts you'd like to see, I could certainly scan those over something else. The trades I have only cover the prelude to the actual fighting part of the war as of yet, though, but the pencils on the official website are certainly promising some great stuff in future issues :)

Hope I've done this right, I never posted much before, but this was something I really wanted to share!

(Post a new comment)

	volksjager 2009-05-01 09:59 pm UTC (link)
	Totally agree love the book. You won't see Patrocules show up as Achilles "cousin" here... (Reply to this)

	khaosworks 2009-05-01 10:05 pm UTC (link)
	I adore the way Shanower weaves in the supernatural bits but still makes them ambiguous enough that there seem to be rational explanations for them. I was particularly impressed by his retelling of Cassandra's origin. (Reply to this)

	suzene 2009-05-01 10:46 pm UTC (link)
	This is really a fantastic series -- beautiful art, fantastic attention to detail, and very human characters. I am going to cry like a baby when Troy is sacked. (Reply to this)

besamim
2009-05-02 12:15 am UTC (link)

I'd heard of this series but until now haven't seen anything from it. What beautiful art! Also, I like how Shanower's dialogue is natural and colloquial (there being no need to use Elizabethan or even Victorian English just because the story takes place in the distant past), without slipping into self-parody.

Thanks for posting this. Once I come into some money again (*sigh*) I'll have to pick it up.

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	ashtoreth 2009-05-02 12:26 am UTC (link)
	::facetious:: Cool, Navajo and Aztecs in ancient Greece. :) (Reply to this) (Thread)

	jlroberson 2009-05-02 07:07 am UTC (link)
	Actually, think Turks. What you see above is set in Troy. That's why the faces are like that. Shanower did his research. This, as far as we know, is how the Trojans look. (Reply to this) (Parent)

jlroberson
2009-05-02 07:06 am UTC (link)

THE BEST(this and BERLIN) indie comic coming out right now. A single issue is worth DC's whole line.

It's too bad but one part of the story, and one of the best parts, isn't yet available in the trades(and buy the trades, now. Period. You'll love them, which is the story of the house of Atreus itself in the Special, which you can probably find cheap on Ebay. It's quite different from the series--more mythological in tone. And it's truly fucking horrifying.

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	lieut_kettch 2009-05-02 08:19 am UTC (link)
	So do the Mycenean women were authentic Bronze-age fashions? (Reply to this) (Thread)

	ian_karkull 2009-05-02 07:11 pm UTC (link)
	Yes. Each issue contains back material on Shanower's research, lists of pronounciations for names and he he frequently engages in lively discussion with the readers in the letters section. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	jlroberson 2009-05-02 07:44 pm UTC (link)
	He does often use dress designs that are more properly Cretan, but we have a lot more visual reference on what Cretan women wore than Mycaenean, and it's likely they were similar, as clothing changed less rapidly then than now. (Reply to this) (Parent)

irenem
2009-05-02 03:10 pm UTC (link)

Another reason I love my school: the library is up-to-date on Age of Bronze paperbacks (and Blue Beetle.) I read them during breaks between classes, and got hooked back into mythology (I loved the stuff in middle school, got tired of it, stayed away for a couple years.)

It's some good stuff, and makes for great convos with the English faculty. The only thing I wish were different (and only at certain points) is that I think it would be AMAZING in color. The lineart stands on its own, but it's nice to imagine...

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	suzene 2009-05-02 04:41 pm UTC (link)
	I think the recent Elfquest recolors have cured me of ever wanting to a story that was originally black and white given color. The pastels, how they burn! (Reply to this) (Parent)

jlroberson
2009-05-02 07:54 pm UTC (link)

What's interesting is how he links up all these stories that have never actually been put together in this way. It's true: the story of the Trojan war is more properly called a genre than a story. The Iliad takes place somewhere near the end of it, for instance. THE TROJAN WOMEN and AGAMENON are after. And so on. It's all separate stories and fragments and traditions. Shanower is the first to try to tell it as one big macro-story.

But not as mythology, though it is, really, but a social one: it's the story the later Greeks told to explain how their civilization had come to be. The people who I mean are the ones we think of when we think of "the Greeks" as in the scientists and Spartans(the ones in 300 are the later ones--"Sparta" as we understand it wasn't the same in Helen's time) and philosophers. This isn't those Greeks. The Mycaeneans were, to the Greeks, a lost civilization that preceded the Dark Age caused by the Dorian invasions (we don't really even understand the Mycaenean language)--these to them were what Robin Hood or King Arthur is to us.

But without reference to the gods! Except in that the characters consider them real. But at no point are we given an objective representation of gods, rather characters perceiving an event as god-driven, like a storm. Which takes the mickey out of people saying films like TROY were weakened by removing the ILIAD's reference to the gods. No, it was just a crap movie, that's all, and that was the least of its problems.

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ian_karkull
2009-05-02 07:08 pm UTC (link)

God, I love this book so much. I grew up with the story of the Trojan War as a bedtime story, and it's fascinating to see the myth come to life in such a naturalistic and human way.
If only it would come out more often!

As for suggestions, I'd definitely post some of Achilles' and Patroklus' story. This community'll eat that right up.
Personally, I thought Helen's initial seduction and arrival at Troy were really great scenes, plus the main story from Sacrifice was very moving and gave great insight into the workings of Bronze Age society.

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jlroberson
2009-05-02 08:01 pm UTC (link)

Shanower's Achilles is fascinating. And to be honest, I think it's interesting that Shanower has not depicted him or Petroklus at all sympathetically all the time--the way Achilles leaves his wife is treated as being cold and mean, as is Achilles. But then, a constant theme throughout is that these men treat women who are not their daughters like garbage. The whole plot is driven by, basically, what was a property agreement over Helen.

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bluefall
2009-05-03 01:32 am UTC (link)

Well, that was kind of a theme of the original as well. There's an implicit critique of the barbarous Greek society and the way the Greek heroes are mostly oathbreaking selfish misogynist douchenozzles compared to the more civilized, decent Trojans there... which is only slightly more noticed by people who encounter the story than the fact that Romeo and Juliet is not actually supposed to be an adorably romantic love story, but it's nevertheless present in the text, and it's really cool to see a retelling that actually picks up on that.

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