Thread by @MythicLore

Okay, #WyrdWednesday... all this talk of lore-inspired comics and graphic novels, and NOBODY has shared the best of them all... yet! 🏆

🏺I give you... 'Age of Bronze', by Eric Shanower! 🏺

Saying "best of them all" is a mighty claim, and here's why I think the arrow hits the mark in this niche:

#1: Its the most historically accurate depiction of the Trojan War myth in visual media that I'm aware of.

Certainly more accurate than any movie or TV show.

I spent months digging through research & art during peak COVID, looking for reference material for a semi-accurate depiction of bronze age clothing, daily life & architecture (WIP).

This comic series absolutely NAILS IT, albeit w/ a bit less skin and in conversational English🤷‍♂️

The high queen of fantasy, RIP/long may she reign, was on the same page, apparently:

"The drawing is excellent, the language lively, and the research awesome."- Ursula K. Le Guin

Example: Troy is SHAPED LIKE THE ACTUAL RUINS dug up in Hsarlik, Turkey

- from when the archaeological record shows evidence of a war that *probably* inspired legends of the "Trojan War", backdrop for the ancient Greek 'Epic Cycle', of which only Iliad & Odyssey survive intact.

This Shanower fella did his homework. The clothing, architecture & scenes are wonderful.

No "oh, it's ancient history so make 'em look like classical age Greeks"The Trojans look like Anatolians, different from the "Greeks", who look like Myceneans, not classical age Athenians.

He even got the flippin' COLUMNS right.

See, in that era they hadn't figured out how to have large rooms in multi-story stone buildings without a tons of columns to hold the ceiling up (save for domed grave sites, if memory serves).

Thus... tons of columns:

I've seen worse drawings of Troy in history books.

This is a very believable depiction of a room in a Mycenaean palace, and that is a spot on take of a dress of that time period (Minoan-inspired).

Even the ships are well-researched. No, triremes hadn't been invented yet (still centuries away), but they had more basic galleys.

I'm going to gush a bit more, but something to point out, and part of why I implore you to buy the color version...

Much of what we see from ancient history is depicted as drab and beige, but that's just so, so wrong.

The colors used in the graphic novel are generally washed out / lighter, but you get the picture I hope.

Mycenaean palace frescos were VIBRANT.

Those dots and swirl patterns are straight from the archaeological record.

This is a believable Mycenaean throne room for a powerful Mycenaean wanax.

Also, I will say that I like that the artist gave Agamemnon a villainous mustachio, haha

Just... perfect. All of it. I'm so jealous of how good it is.