Aflamnah

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The concept is to deliver a graphic novel that is unusual and intimate in a physical and tactile way. The book will emulate the sketchbooks which provided the genesis of the characters and storyline, the style of the artwork will hold true to the origins of the sketchbook development, providing an intimate experience between artist, reader and narrative.

The Story:

The Resurrection Lands

There is, in every culture, a myth relating to the underworld. Not hell or even heaven, but another – neither good nor evil – a place of waiting; for those unfortunate enough to pose a problem to humanity’s higher authorities. This myth, as many others, involves a beautiful maiden who attracts the attention of the guardian of the waiting place. Who is he? A fallen angel, a god of Greek memory – or Etruscan, a djinn or ‘Death’? Either way, in every story, a romance, a rape, a relationship, takes place. And it is with the progeny of this union where our story lies.

Here we are in the waiting place, dead lands, for dead people. The air is stale, the land barren. Cities old and new, rise up along horizons as you move through this place, desolated and destroyed these places that have died as surely as their one time inhabitants. Perhaps we see the crumbling buildings of Hiroshima, Gaul, Dresden. Ozymandius’ great eye watches from the dust. Twin towers, splintered needles. Here is where our five were born and now live, the abandoned children of the guardian. It is this waste they must cross to find him again, and the way out.

Meet Renaldo, fourth of the five. Mischievous and cunning. Hand in hand with Renaldo is trouble, and in this sequence the trouble is big. The Foe. The Foe is The Five’s predator; they have spent their lives evading him even as he spends it pursuing them. An inexorable dance. But one not without rules, like a game of tag, it has a temporary ‘out’, the safety zone. Any place linked with travel, here a bus stop, provides respite, and hope too, for travel suggests a place to go, and that is exactly what the five are searching for.

The second sibling is Zarqaa, the long-sighted one. So long sighted, that she can see into the next day enabling her to know the whereabouts of the five and their situation, Herackles, however, is hidden from her unless he is with the one of the others. Zarqaa is largely considered the leader and is an arbitrator between Herackles and the other three, she understands something that the others do not.

With her in another safe zone – a boat – is Grace. The youngest of the five, Grace is also the most naïve. He asks the questions and needs protection, being significantly smaller he has fewer defences and is becoming increasingly worried about the hostility surrounding him. He relies on the others and they are compelled to protect him.

Their discussion is interrupted by Taniwha (Tun-ee-faah). The reckless one. Taniwha will do and say as she pleases. This can be helpful and maddening at the same time. Her style is to act first, and let someone else pick up the pieces but it comes at a price. Zarqaa and Herakles have tenuous control of her.

Herackles The oldest and most experienced of the five. they suspect that he understands the motivation of the foe. but He is a reluctant to speak of it which frustrates and bewilders the other four, but his age and experience commands their respect- though they remain wary of him. Herackles is the key to this story and unlocking the mysteries surrounding them.

The story came from the drawings, the genesis of them were sketched out on a train from Paris to Antibes. Even before that, though, was my love of the Moleskine to draw in. Initially entitled ‘Drawings on a Train’, years of drawings fill small black notebooks, until the book itself becomes as precious as the images within. This collusion of creation and material gradually became far more than the sum of its parts, and for this reason, the final book will imitate a sketchbook, creating an intimate look into this world, like a discovered journal. Perhaps it is the Guardian’s own record of the tale.

To support this project is to support a project that embodies the principles of creation, exploration and quality of a story and determines to include the reader as part of the process.

The project is a mix between the sketchbook and the graphic novel. It will be presented as if the artist himself as passed his sketchbook onto the reader. The publication will include rough work and imperfections providing an organic insight to the creation of the work and be a object of quality.

The final work will be an 80 page book with a hard bound cover. Instead of a glossy full colour image on the cover, the title will simply be embossed into the cover, paying homage to the sketchbook.

The first edition will be in a run of only 500, each book signed by the artist and editioned (numbered). The purpose of this is to create a book that is handed directly from the artist to the reader. Editioning the work and limiting the first edition is a means to provide a precious object to the audience.

The funding will be used to produce and publish the project, including promotion and distribution.

Stefan Messam has been drawing for as long as he can remember. This had become so much a part of what he loves he chose to study at University. Hailing from Aotearoa, New Zealand he gained a Masters Degree in Design, majoring in Illustration and Visual Narrative. Exploring visual storytelling has become a passion, especially with regards to its history and development and its place in today’s context.

He currently teaches Illustration and Design at the College of Arts & Creative Enterprises at Zayed University in Dubai, UAE.

His work looks to explore conventions of identity and the range of codes and symbols we construct for ourselves to remind ourselves of the things around us, memories, day to day routines, passions and secrets. The goal is to bind these into a narrative in order to construct a compelling narrative. This work is a playful look at this concept, with cryptic sets of symbols and codes that are never really meant to be read, only acknowledged as a depth of identity and personality.

Useful Links

• http://www.skkm.net
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wX5V_-jWeBw
• http://www.facebook.com/TheResurrectionLands