Bovodar vs the Deer Queen

Behold, Mary MacArthur’s best work yet.  The deeper we delve into the Bovodar and the Bears project, the more she surprises me.  I’ve already shown a black and white of this full-page spread elsewhere, but it’s so vivid once we see it in color.

Just a bit of a recap of what I said previously about this page:

This year, Mary MacArthur and I are working on Issue #3 of the Bovodar and the Bears comic. And it is VERY relevant to this ongoing battle within Hollywood. It is in this very part of the story that Bovodar and his friends are captured by the evil Deer Queen.

This adversary, fashioned in the same league as the Ice Queen of Narnia, is no benevolent ruler. A tyrant, this disordered doe has usurped a stag’s role, crowning herself with a golden, artificial crown of antlers, and surrounding herself with sycophantic followers. The image above is some of the most fantastic work I’ve seen yet from MacArthur, and I was shocked when she first presented it to me this weekend. I absolutely had to show you guys.

A little commentary about this art. Perhaps you’ll notice the seating position and posture of the Deer Queen. Brownie points if any of you guys can name what she looks like in the comments box. I absolutely love how Mary portrayed the “gay orbiter” effeminate lions on the right. These pathetic predators have sacrificed their natural, virile nature to become subdued subjects to an animal who’d normally be their prey in the natural world. I like the locks of their manes—they look like band members from Queen on their 70s album, News of the World. And the censure in the front, with the smoke pouring out and intertwining up the page, with the court filled with deer like that—it’s positively Dionysian. Fun fact: I said to Mary “Maybe you should play Venus in Furs by Velvet Underground when you draw this thing.” The overall effect is what you see above. Yes, I’m gushing, guys, but this panel deserves it.”

Not a few people have correctly guessed that the evil Deer Queen, here, is meant to resemble the infamous Baphomet statue that’s been trotted out these recent years.  And, really, the entire setting is meant to look like some kind of a satanic enclave.  Were someone out there to deify Nature and flesh out just what a pagan paradise would look like, the Deer Queen’s court is one such example.

The Deer Queen is one of the first villains Bovodar and his friends come across.  She is local, being only a few days walk away from his home.  She has a domain within which she rules, and there are many clues that she was utterly undeserving of inheriting it.  Her existence is a complete reversal of the natural order.  There is absolutely nothing normal on any level with how things are conducted under her rule.  If her court seems to resemble some sort of a twisted, self-indulgent, King-Herod bazaar, it’s supposed to.  

In her city, the first thing Bovodar and his friends should be thinking is: “How do we get out of here?”

The New Edition And Other Projects

Bovodar and the Bears will soon be transformed into a new edition, and there will be a brand new cover that will capture the eye better than before, courtesy of Mary MacArthur (whom you can follow at Snowflake Clockwork). Now, before all this, I used to not like the idea of having to re-release a book. But then, I remember how Tolkien himself re-released The Hobbit several times. The first edition came out in 1939, and it wasn't until 1951 that he released a second edition. He had to fine tune his manuscript and conform it more to The Lord of the Rings.

As a matter of fact, in the second edition of The Hobbit, Tolkien made Gollum more aggressive against Bilbo and more possessive of the One Ring. In the first edition, Gollum was going to give Bilbo the ring if he lost the riddle game, and at the end of the game, he showed Bilbo the way out of the Misty Mountains. But in the second edition, Gollum ends his part in the series by shouting: "Thief! Thief, Thief, Baggins! We hates it, we hates it, we hates it forever!"

Bovodar and the Bears, will have similar circumstances. Bovodar, after all, is a part of a three-book series. His character grows throughout the books, and his trilogy fits into a larger universe surrounding the Wolf King. So it's not impossible to think that some content revisions will occur, as well as a few new edits.

Bovodar and the Dragons

Work on this novel continues. Bovodar was a young man swept away by the world in Bovodar and the Bears. But in the second book, he's on a mission with an objective. And he's a little older. He has wants and desires. A young man, he begins to think about what he'll do with his life, how he'll make an income--and let's not forget about the ladies. Deeper conflicts about the wider world strike him hard, and he's confronted with some religio-philosophical issues that he’d never considered. He meets more people on this journey, and their struggles as they travel alongside him only exacerbate his confusion about what to make of the magical realm they live in. Something about their world just doesn’t jibe with the natural order of the universe, and it lingers over them like a sort of odor.


Bovodar and the Bears Graphic Novel
Work on this continues as well. But the novel will be separated into three sections, separately released to the public. As stated before, illustration work on this is being done by Mary MacArthur, whose amazing artistic talent is the most suited for a work such as this. Look forward to more of her work on this project with future releases and blog posts.

A Second Edition And A New Cover

Today, we are actually one step closer to completing an actual book cover for the novel, Bovodar and the Bears.  Not only is yours truly working on a second book, and not only is my colleague Mary MacArthur working hard on illustrations for an upcoming graphic novel, but we also have this:

This is going to be the new cover for a new edition of Bovodar and the Bears.  I think it's much better than the older cover, which is more plain and doesn't convey much.  I'm hoping that it's little visual snippets like this that'll help readers grasp this story better than before.  There is more to come, to be sure.  So keep an eye open.

And for those who are wanting up-to-the-minute updates as they happen, a newsletter is being put together as well.  So keep your eyes open; some strangers are coming over for dinner!

The She-Deer

Bringing Bovodar and the Bears into the visual medium has its challenges.  For example, how shall we portray the Deer Queen and her minions?  Specifically, I'm wondering how the legs will be portrayed.  If the kneecaps are bent in a convex direction, then we no longer have anthropomorphic deer---instead we have deer people with human legs.  On the other hand, if we keep the Deer People 's kneecaps concave, it will be natural in the way a deer's legs ought to be, but how will they walk with such legs?

On the other hand, mythical fauns are portrayed in art without too much trouble.  So who knows?

But as long as I'm bringing up deer people, there actually is precedent for imagining a tribe of hostile she-deer.  I'm referring to the myth of the Deer Women, told by the American Indians in my part of the country.

From Infogalactic.com:

Deer Woman, sometimes known as Deer Lady, is a shape-shifting woman in Native American mythology, in and around Oklahoma, the Western United States and the Pacific Northwest. She allegedly appears at various times as an old woman, or as a young beautiful maiden, or as a deer. Some descriptions assign her a human female upper body and the lower body of a white-tailed deer.

In various folklores, the Deer Woman is described to sometimes be seen as a beautiful woman just off the trail or behind a bush, calling to men to come over. Deer Woman is often said to have all the features of a normal young woman, except her feet which are shaped like deer hooves and her brown deer's eyes. Men who are lured into her presence often notice too late that she is not a natural woman, and are then trapped by her magic to waste away until death.Other stories and traditions describe the sighting of Deer Woman as a sign of personal transformation or as a warning. Deer Woman is also said to be fond of dancing and will sometimes join a communal dance unnoticed, leaving only when the drum beating ceases. 

According to Ojibwe tradition, she can be banished through the use of tobacco and chant others say that you can break her spell by looking at her feet, which are in fact hooves. Once she is recognized for what she is, she runs away.

In local native lore, the Deer Woman is a seductive siren.  But in my story's universe, this tribe of she-deer are more like evil Xena Princess Warriors.  And while native lore has the Deer Woman as a half-woman-half-deer sort of nymph, my deer folk are all  animal.

What If It's A Graphic Novel?

Seeing as how Bovodar and the Bears is directed more towards younger people, I suppose it might do to perhaps make it into a comic book or a graphic novel.  I've discussed this idea before.  But the question is: what would this kind of a story look like?  Hint:

 

Getting the Train On Track

Other pursuits for the past few years have diverted my attention from my original passion, which was working on this fictional universe that I write about on this blog.  Those diversions have distracted me on a weekly basis from putting any energy into producing original, fictional content.  Home life, work, the world and its problems--it can all be a huge block for what a guy originally sets out to do.  I feel like the ever-procrastinating George R.R. Martin with this project. 

All that said, I've had a lot of thoughts about getting book two finished, sent to an actual publisher, rather than doing the Kindle-self-publishing thing, and perhaps even getting Bovodar and the Bears illustrated in some fashion.  I think that this story could be better told in a visual medium, truth be told. 

And with that, here is an illustration from a close friend who occasionally helps me along with this vision.  It is a scene in which the great owl, Gabbella, dived down to snatch away Bovodar's friend, Grep Humblemine, the little mole who served as his butler.