The Pack #1: A Wolf in Egypt is the first issue in a graphic novel series about a group of Egyptian werewolves trekking through a fantasy version of ancient Africa.
In a recent post on Bleeding Cool, writer and illustrator Paul Louise-Julie discusses the research and motivation behind The Pack:
If I could create a mythology for the black diaspora based on the tales of our ancestors, I could redefine how we see ourselves – how the world sees us. If Tolkien could do it, so could I. For the next 5 years, I studied everything from ethnolinguistic blood groups, to Ancient African history, art and ruins… I studied artistic objects from each African culture and broke them down into fractal codes. By doing this I was able to recreate fictional civilizations and cultures that looked genuinely African but that were purely fantasy.
I have no idea if The Pack lives up to its premise, or if it’s even any good as an adventure story, because I haven’t read it yet. All I have to go on are the tiny preview pages on the iBooks page, and Lousie-Julie’s Facebook page (although even at small scale, the colouring and design look lush and meticulous). However, the series has two things going for it already, in my view:
- it’s a self-published labour of love created by one individual with a vision, and
- it’s a werewolf story that’s not about angry white guys. Bring on the werewolf diversity, I say!
(While researching Louise-Julie I found this piece on Colossal about his sculptures and 3D paintings, which, like, dude, if this is your aesthetic, count me in.)
The Bleeding Cool post has much more background on the graphic novel and Lousie-Julie. It’s a weird but interesting read, as though the Bleeding Cool guy said “you have 30 minutes to send me an email about your thing, which I will then copy-paste, typos and all”. Lousie-Julie’s passion is clear, though, and I hope The Pack is a success.
The Pack #1: A Wolf in Egypt is available now for Amazon Kindle and Apple iBooks.