Month: March 2018

“Ancyklopek” (“The Little Ancyclops”) is a Polish three-book cycle (so far…) with the text by Piotr Dobry and the ilustrations by Łukasz Majewski, published in 2016 by TADAM:

• Ancyklopek – 1 – Świat okiem Ancyklopka (The World through the Eye of the Little Ancyclops)

 

• Ancyklopek – 2 – Wszystkie psoty Ancyklopka (All the Pranks of the Little Ancyclops)

 

• Ancyklopek – 3 – Ancyklopek na placu zabaw (The Little Ancyclops at a Playground)

All three parts feature the Little Ancyclops and they are ajdusted to the perception of a small child (for example, the first part is in black-and-white). The authors draw on the potential of the ancient myth: for example, the readers observe the Little Ancyclops in the sandpit and they learn that the Cyclops are very talented builders.

Indeed, to confirm, it is enough to have a look at the “Cyclopean Wall” at Mycenae;-) (phot. by Athinaios at English Wikipedia):

The books are funny and simple, however, they convey a serious message of tollerance and acceptance for other beings.

Read more:

• https://www.komiks.gildia.pl/komiksy/ancyklopek/1 (also the source of the covers above)
• https://www.facebook.com/ancyklopek/
• You can find more pictures and an interesting review (in Polish) on the blog by Dzika Jabłoń: https://dzikajablon.wordpress.com/2016/11/24/cynamon-ancyklopek/

Found by Katarzyna Marciniak

 

Robin Kaplan, known as The Gorgonist, is an illustrator dealing with children’s books, games, and comics. The artist has just finished creating her first book with Penguin USA [1]. Recently, she also lent her illustration, titled “The Lonely Gorgon”, for the cover of upcoming anthology “Making Monsters”, dedicated to new literary works inspired by the ancient monsters (prepared by the Institute of Classical Studies & Futurefire.net).

On Kaplan’s website, titled “The Gorgonist – Monstrously Charming Comics & Illustration” , we can find many interesting works related to Classical Antiquity and mythology. We encourage you to have a look at them! 🙂

Here are just a few examples:

• Hydra
• Pegasus
• Phoenix
• Nymphs
• Dryad

Found by Katarzyna Marciniak (debt to Twitter:) )

Elaborated by Dorota Bazylczyk

See more:

• [1] Read more about The Gorgonist – link
• “The Gorgonist – Monstrously Charming Comics & Illustration” Website
• Read more about the upcoming anthology “Making Monsters” – link 
• Publication titled “Accessing the Future – A Disability-Themed Speculative Fiction Anthology” (Lulu.com, 2015) by Djibril al-Ayad & Kathryn Allan, with the cover of The Gorgonist – link
• “Stuff We Love: The Gorgonist’s monstrous, nerdy, and charming art” by Lisa Granshaw (Oct 6, 2017) – link
• The Gorgonist‘s illustrations for children’s books – link
• “Ushala” comic by The Gorgonist – link
• The Gorgonist‘s Blog – link
• The Gorgonist on Facebook – link
• The Gorgonist on Twitter – link

 

This article may contain content inappropriate for children and young adults.

Altered Carbon (age rating: +16) is a new sci-fi series produced by Netflix, based on the novel by Richard K. Morgan of the same title.

The series presents a detective story set up in the dystopian future (in terms of style it is similar to “Blade Runner”). The main difference between the contemporary world and the future world shown in the series, is the invention of the ‘cortical stacks’ – storage devices that contain person’s consciousness, which may be placed into any suitable body or a ‘sleeve’:

Altered Carbon series is highly classicised. The richest people called Meths (a reference to Biblical Methuselah – the longest-lived person in the Bible) have the means to gain immortality. The Bancroft family, leading among the Meths, stylise themselves as the Classical Gods. It is particularly visible in the style of clothes of Miriam Bancroft and the way of her husband Laurens’ behaviour. They even chose to build their house on some ‘island’ in the sky, thus they can literally be above the humans.

“(…) a lot of steps were taken to make sure the Meths look disconnected from the rest of humanity—the biggest example being the use of natural fibers, as in Altered Carbon’s world they are extremely rare and expensive. And of course, some of their outfits reflect ancient Greco-Roman gods, a purposeful nod to their godlike status.”

[Read more in the article titled “Altered Carbon‘s Costume Designer Talks About Designing Gods and Fetishizing Superheroes” by Beth Elderkin]

Takeshi Kovacs, the protagonist, is a kind of superhero called from hibernation to investigate a murder of Laurens Bancroft. There are also other literary allusions, like for example one of the characters – Edgar Allan Poe, an owner of a hotel, and the Edgar Allan Poe hotel itself – witty and interesting as a proper Poe should be.

Found by Dr. Hanna Paulouskaya

Elaborated by Dorota Bazylczyk

See more:

• The Official Trailer of Altered Carbon: