The Chiblia Book of Samuel Work in Process
Subscribe to our Newsletter for more artworks and coupons
This is just another one of my chibi little works in process. The scene shown here is from the book of Samuel. The king Saul was worried about loosing the battle. Whenever he was worried about something, he used to consult Samuel. However, by that time Samuel had died. Since the King could not accept the prophet’s death he went to see a necromancer. Here, the maiden is conjuring the spirit of Samuel to speak with the king. As you can tell from my drawing, Samuel isn’t too happy about having his peaceful slumber disturbed. Can you imagine being awoken so early in the morning to speak with an insecure prick?
The long and short of it is that Saul loses the battle. It is one of the particular interesting episodes of the old testament. It shows actual magical powers. As you may expect, this scene is rarely mentioned during Sunday school. The implications alone are sin worthy. You do not want people to think they can actually summon their recently deceased to speak with them. There is a lot of mention of dead people coming back to life in the Bible. Still, the mention is more limited as far as ghosts are concerned.
I guess it was just a rare, magical induced occurrence. The way the scene describes it, Saul was able to see Samuel’s spirit. Most people cannot see the dead during these modern days. They always need a medium to interpret the words of the dead. I think this shows how much the current magical community has declined in this modern day. During the time of the Old Testament, the maiden was told to summon the ghost, and she was like no biggie. It was a simple ability, like an everyday type of job for her. I suppose there are some things that cannot be helped. As you may or may not have noticed, the shepherd staff features prominently in my manga. I use it to visually mark all the prophets.
It starts with Moses. From him, on I have all my chibi prophets holding the shepherd staff. It is a good visual cue and whatnot. Most people underestimate the effort that goes into each little chibi panel. I am trying to tell a story without using any words. I decided to do so after reading an interesting comic my Lynd Ward. He told a story just using lithographs and no words. I thought it seemed like a good idea so I started making my chibi manga in that fashion. I think it makes it a bit more universal. Also, it saves a lot on translators. The Chiblia reads well in any language, because it does not rely on it. Most mangas tend to rely on words a lot. There are even like a lot of pages with mostly text.
I am not a big fan of mangas that use too many words. If I wanted to read words, I would pick up a regular novel. Whenever there is filler to be had, the mangas fill the screen with inner monologues. This is then translated to the big screen. All in all, it tends to make the scenes drag on forever. This is why I like the Berserk manga a lot. The fellow doesn’t think too much throughout the battle. He also doesn’t run his mouth. Most of the heroes in anime shows spend most of their time talking while fighting. I do not think people can hold a proper conversation while fighting. I do not know when this talky trend started. I find it very distracting. Most of my regular mangas do not do a lot of talking .
I do dialogues, but the dialogue is not like the main focus. I always draw the images first, and then figure out where the dialogue will go. Most of my mangas are visual, instead of a talking experience. Westerners are not immune to the talking craze. I be like, shut the hell up and get to the fighting. I doubt people in the real world talk a lot, while fighting. All the few fights I have seen in the real world, outside of the professional world do not include a lot of talking. Well, I suppose this is just about it, as far as comics and mangas are concerned. The first three volumes of the Chiblia are found on both Amazon and in our Artsy Sister store if you are interested. All the scenes are visually oriented. If the scene is not visual, I just move right along. I made this drawing with a Strathmore paper pad. I then drew the lines with my Sakura Pigma Micron pens. I hope you find this information useful.
