Reimena Ashel Yee

The Carpet Merchant of Konstantiniyya Volume 1 rerun Book Two Update 8 of ??? (READ the Latest Update, starting from this page)

I am back from the convention rush... with TWO devastating scenes: Zeynel's bargain with God, and his failed attempt to leave Ayse.

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If you can believe it, the very first draft of TCM ended at the point where Zeynel successfully leaves. This was before I committed to expanding Book 1, and then suddenly, his departure no longer made sense. It became obvious that Zeynel would struggle to leave, despite his self-sacrificial nature, because of his overwhelming love to Ayse. That was an interesting psychological conundrum to me to explore. So it was to be, even if it meant a hundred more pages.

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The other outcome of following the "maybe Zeynel doesn't leave successfully the first time" narrative is the opportunity to follow Ayse's reaction to the reality of her husband's murder and his becoming a potentially dangerous revenant.

I really liked the idea of exploring the POV of the loved one who has to comprehend the return/transformation of their beloved in a human-but-inhuman form (The Summer Hikaru Died, which I haven't read but should, comes to mind as an example).

With Zeynel specifically, the entirety of his personhood persists, it's just that he's no longer of human blood or flesh - but a shadow capable of annihilation.

Is your husband of 25 years a shadow....or is that a shadow posing as your husband of 25 years?

Ayse has the same sort of affliction as Zeynel where she'd struggle to leave him behind… the difference is that she's hard-headed, and that will be both Zeynel's saving grace and point of conflict.

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Updated the cast portraits for the TWIDi gang after... 8 years??? Anyway here's a side-by-side too with the previous versions of the portraits from 2012, 2015 and 2018. Almost all of the cast had a glowup, other than Grimsley who remains iconically handsome.

Bronx: We don't see much of him, not yet in the story. He was a difficult design to pin down, until sometime before 2018 when the shapes started to make sense.

Ilias: Gets handsomer and more dashing as I mature HAHAHAAHA he's the perfect representation of my evolving taste. I darkened his hair colour during the pandemic times.

Cat: She hasn't really changed too much either. Her face is really simple like Alfred Grimsley's. There's a lot of her character arc I developed since 2018, and her big story will come soon after Zeynel and Grimsley's.

Zeynel: He's had such a big overhaul LOL I only figured out his face and his fashion sense while working on TCM. I wouldn't have uncovered his quality of academic elegance if I hadn't put his design through the brutal wringer of comics.

The Carpet Merchant of Konstantiniyya Volume 1 rerun Book Two Update 7 of ??? (READ the Latest Update, starting from this page)

After his transformation into a vampire and committing his accidental first kill, Zeynel returns home to the safety of Ayse's embrace. As the night grows he confronts the meaning of his new reality.

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AAAAAAAAAA!!!!! @ Zeynel and Ayse TT_TT Anyway the night-time scene gave me a lot of grief with the printed version (it was WAY too dark). I've fixed up the contrast for this edition - now I just need ONE MORE chance at redemption.

- The art style I’ve used to depict the djinn is in homage to Siyah Qalam – black ink drawings, which is part of the historical heritage of the nomadic people who will one day form the Ottoman Empire. These drawings are a synthesis of Chinese, Persian, Indian, Turkish and various other cultures in the region, and contain lurid depictions of (perhaps pre-Islamic) demons and mundane nomadic life.

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As usual author's commentary is on the website!

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🦜 My pet portrait commissions are open for the summer until August 30th! (More info on commissions)

I've been drawing other people's pets for 14 years (!), and you can look at my portfolio of over 1000 portraits here (2016 onwards). I always love doing these! I draw all kinds of pets, including exotics, avians, equines, farm animals, bugs... or even fantastical!

The World in Deeper Inspection | Chapter Two (Update 2 of ??) (Read the latest update)

Ever since I fleshed out Alfred’s character AND learned about this side of Georgian era England, I’ve been chomping at the bit to draw this scene!! So glad I can finally have it be a part of this webcomic!!

Alfred is part of the underground gay/queer (proto)subculture called the Molly House. Molly houses were meeting places for gay and gender-nonconforming people, basically a gay bar with a side of drag. It’s very “Paris Is Burning”… almost. Georgian Era gays had their own specific culture, performance and norms that I wouldn’t want to claim is equivalent our 20th/21st century queer culture, but it all feels familiar.

I've also been foreshadowing Alfred's partner/now-husband, Johann since TCM. He's supposed to be a goofy Bill Nye type, but I made him too handsome. Oh well. Leaning into it.

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The art direction this Chapter is my sketches with a watercolour wash on top, since the story is mostly being told through flashbacks and second-hand accounts by Alfred's daughter, Benedette. The drawings will progressively become tighter as we head towards the present.

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Breakage is caused by air bubbles and paint smudging! Ebru is "painted" on agar, then a piece of paper is placed on top of that to absorb and transfer. The most difficult part of making an ebru print is prying the paper off the agar - I couldn't really get the hang of it!

Luckily this really broken piece ended up being the perfect replacement for the original, which was entirely digitally-drawn.

The Carpet Merchant of Konstantiniyya Volume 1 rerun Book Two Update 6 of ??? (READ the Latest Update, starting from this page)

Zeynel is having a REALLY really bad day omg.

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This scene has one of more substantial revamps dialogue wise, mostly all in the section where Zeynel prays for Khalil. The surah (Al-Fatihah) was initially very abridged due to a perceived lack of space 10 year ago, but I am better at making comics now. I rejigged some of the panels and found enough space to finally show the entirety of the surah, as it should.

I also added in the last line ('To Allah we belong and to Him we shall return) which he didn't say in the first edition!) - he will say it again near the end of TCM.

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The marbled illustration at the end is an original piece by me! I made this in a workshop with a master ebru artist (Eslem at Anatolia Art Studio in Melbourne). The marbling broke apart and warped during transfer, which is not something we want in our ebru prints, but the breakage suited the vibe of what just happened with Zeynel.

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The World in Deeper Inspection | Chapter Two (Update 1 of ??) (Read the latest update)

Hullo hullo!! Here's the first batch of a new TWIDI story in years.

I'm really happy with how my colouring style has improved; TWIDI looks so much now like the niche independent European comic teenage-me initially envisioned!

These pages are callbacks to the old look of TWIDI: lineless speech bubbles, jewel-tone palette and some texture. And I finally get to use the Barghest design I did more than a decade ago!

The Carpet Merchant of Konstantiniyya Volume 1 rerun Book Two Update 5 of ??? (READ the Latest Update, starting from this page)

Shaking off a VERY NORMAL TOTALLY FINE night, Zeynel makes his way to a rest stop along his travels. This town's water apparently doesn't taste very nice. Worse, its food is bad, too, which gets Zeynel into trouble. I wonder what terrible supernatural condition has destroyed his taste buds...

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Chapter Two: The Ending Near the Beginning

TWIDI... is not dead!!

The Ending Near the Beginning is a story that was in the making for 10 years. In fact, the idea behind it is actually one of the first from when TWIDI was created in 2010 (16 years ago! Frightening!). I created two characters: Alcott Benedict Grimsley the Jersey Devil Detective and Alcott Benedict Grimsley the human, his original namesake. Over time the human character’s personality and backstory split into two characters, one of which is Alfred, who was first introduced in TCM Volume II. The other is… well, you will discover her soon.

I am very happy to finally have closure for one of the earliest threads in TWIDI, and to actually show you so many things I had kept secret: the origin of Alcott Grimsley!! More on my favourites Alfred and Zeynel!! Lore stuff on TWIDI that will set up mysteries for however long this webcomic lasts. And then, after this, the return of SHORT WHIMSICAL GOTHIC COMICS!! Ilias! Cat! Bronx! I miss them all!

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The update schedule for TENTB is kinda whatever. It’s been ages since I regularly maintained and actively worked on a comic… plus with my new potential chronic exhaustion, I don’t want to pressure myself into a tight schedule. Luckily the art direction for this Chapter is pretty low-key.

The Carpet Merchant of Konstantiniyya Volume 1 rerun Book Two Update 4 of ??? (READ the Latest Update, starting from this page)

Zeynel gets taken in by this suspicious traveller's "charms", who reveals himself to be a vampire/lemures/ghoul (all of these terms apply) and forces Zeynel towards a fatal end... or so it seemed.

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The Carpet Merchant of Konstantiniyya Volume 1 rerun Book Two Update 3 of ??? (READ the Latest Update, starting from this page)

The very-utterly-hopelessly-lost Zeynel encounters a helpless stranger in the middle of nowhere. Zeynel momentarily struggles between his innate desire to help and his wariness of danger, but he helps anyway. The stranger awakes, and they have a conversation about names, being lost and carpets.

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This section probably has the most revamped dialogue in the entire 10th Anniversary remastering, much of it in the "Mora talks about Balkan rugs" sequence (the last double spread in this post). The base of it is still there, but the framing is now more a patriotic ode of the Balkans (or more specifically in Mora’s case, Romans) in the face of their conquerers, the Ottomans – introducing the theme of colonialism (as told in the pattern-making via the weavers and the transportation of carpets as part of international trade) and the nightingale as yearning for home. These are themes that will become more salient in Volume Two, but which I didn't realise yet the first time I wrote that sequence.

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The Carpet Merchant of Konstantiniyya Volume 1 rerun Book Two Update 2 of ??? (READ the Latest Update, starting from this page)

Zeynel starts his business trip on a good note: sent off by his family, he whimsically wanders around Istanbul, catching up with friends, getting teased by the ice cream man, etc... He then finds out his path is blocked by some incidental construction. He makes a detour... and inevitably finds himself lost in the woods.

This was a really fun transition scene to draw: the point when things shifted from the familiar, Ottoman-manuscript/carpet-inspired style into the unfamiliar, claustrophobic European tapestry style.