I didn’t initially intend to do updated covers for each individual book… but I foolishly thought, well, since Book One is completing its rerun, it would be nice to celebrate with a nice drawing, especially for the Super Secret Personal Project. And so I was possessed to sketch out a series of illustrations for each […]

↓ TranscriptAnd so we conclude this chapter, a story about two unlikely people who are meant for each other. One is a gentle man with a scholarly aura, who prefers to blend in rather than stand out, to be a storyteller than the hero of a tale. The other is a fire of woman, who […]

:’) This is the first of my actually traditionally hand-marbled designs appearing in this edition of the comic. The next page will be the full thing. ↓ TranscriptIt is now 1680, the year we first met them in the beginning of this chapter. Zeynel and Ayse are walking together, hand in hand, speaking quietly between […]

Updated the dialogue to be clearer with what I was actually intending, and to clarify the relationship between Zeynel, Ayse and Safiye. It’s a question I get sometimes. This scenario is also another prose spin-off elaboration. Ack, maybe I should continue work on it for TCM’s 50th anniversary. ↓ TranscriptNot long after, during an expedition […]

Efraim still has enough salt to give out even in his old age. ↓ TranscriptSeveral years later, Efraim is in bed. He is much older now, at death’s door. He asks for his son. “Memo, habibi?” Zeynel stands up from where he was seated at the end of the bed. He looks older too, balding […]

Cut out a line to make this declaration stand out more, and be more ambiguous, since it’s not clear who is the one saying it. ↓ TranscriptExpressing what they have both felt for a long time, he tells her, with no fear in his voice, no anxiety, because it is the truest, clearest calling in […]

↓ TranscriptThe baby, like the first, does not survive. After the funeral, Zeynel, dressed in dark robes as Ayse is, sits down beside her. They both look tired, having had no time to care for themselves. Zeynel quietly tells Ayse, “There’s no point hurting ourselves like this. We don’t have to do it again, if […]

:’) ↓ TranscriptZeynel fusses over a very pregnant Ayse. “Take it slowly now. I promise I won’t go overboard with the hype this time.” They gaze at each other, while Zeynel’s hand rests on Ayse’s belly. Suddenly, they feel a kick. “Oh!” Zeynel gasps. A moment’s pause. “OH!” Zeynel excitedly turns to his mother, seated […]

:’) ↓ TranscriptA few months later, they are ready to try again.