This book was first self-published as a webcomic in 2016.
Thumbnails were drafted in a Moleskine notebook, then sketched, inked and coloured in Photoshop. The text was lettered in the author’s handwriting.

This was my first ever completed graphic novel, which I made long ago in my early twenties at the primordial epoch of my career. I am grateful to the countless people across the years who helped in its becoming in its various forms: family, friends, Jen Linnan (agent), Carina Taylor (designer), Katie Berntkat (designer), Atla Hrafney (editor), Lizzie Kaye (editor), DeAndra Lupu (editor), and Romain Galand (editor). A special shoutout to the readers who followed the comic since it dropped in 2016 and supported the crowdfunding of its first editions. You all are the real ones.

My book owes its existence to galleries, libraries, archives and museums for the preservation and digitisation of manuscripts and cultural treasures that influenced its making. In particular, I want to thank the Turkish Cultural Foundation, the Turkish Sephardic community, and last but not least, the folk historians, storytellers and weavers of Türkiye who continue to carry their legacy into the future. May the nightingale continue to sing his song forevermore. Teşekkür ederim. Thank you, endlessly.

The Carpet Merchant of Konstantiniyya was nurtured and made on the unceded lands of the Yalukit-willam of the Boonwurrung people.

The marbled, or “ebru“ background is painted by me, using traditional ebru tools and techniques. It’s not perfect ebru, but that’s what I like about it. (Maybe it’s cope…) The imperfect-but-that’s-the-point approach is one I had used to direct my remastering of TCM, for what I hope will be the last and final time. I kept most of what I had drawn when I was 21, as I wanted to respect the vision of my younger self.  But I enhanced some parts where I could, particularly the ebru backgrounds in some of the layouts – which I originally drew digitally. The digital ebru was alright at the time, but today I wanted more of a rawer, visible author’s touch.

Thank you to Eslem at Anatolia Art Studio in Melbourne for guiding me in the creation of my own ebru prints, which you will see in future pages of Volume 1.

The sketches are recent doodles of the main cast of TCM. I thought it would be cute to feature them here, partly because it’s nice to see raw lineart and mostly because there’s a lot of empty space to fill. (The frontmatter is meant to have corporate publishing paraphernalia on it, which I don’t have available right now)

And the new title design! I’ve a whole process post in my blog regarding the title, but the short of it is that it’s a synthesis between Ottoman calligraphy and the 17th century French/English Roundhand, bringing together the two cultures & civilisations that we will be encountering in the story.