With the last update being on 2023, one has to wonder the project’s status…

My Pride and Joy

For those that have been with me for a while, Menmar is the first comic book I officially published, at least online. It was originally inspired on One Thousand and One Nights’ tale “The Fisherman and the Genie”, and I did a larger research to change the aesthetics and mystical backgrounds to Persian instead of Arabic, including the blatant Zoroastrian elements, which are not only included but are essencial for Menmar to exist as it is.

Overview

Menmar mainly tells the story of Nadhine, a woman involved in both a rebellion and personal vendetta against the ruler of her country, and Raheem, a Janni(Genie) saved her life and is on a journey of his own. Due to the circumstances, Nadhine and Raheem are compelled into a partnership ruled by politics, mysteries and mysticism.

As supporting plots, there are the slices of life of Esther, Nadhine’s lifelong friend and somewhat of a sister, and her husband Yami, whose views and schedules might bring cause for conflicts later on. Also, the members of Jihad’s Moon, Nadhine’s rebellious crew of friends and fighters, also have the stage when it comes to theirs plots and motives regarding the ongoing rulings of Azoria, the Wonder Between Walls.

Hiatus

When I started working on Menmar, I was isolated home during the COVID pandemic, and very much focused on my career as an artist; however, I faced difficulties regarding my original schedule plans, including a partial loss to the original written archive, and due to the Gastronomy degree I began on 2022 along with the shifts I was working on restaurants, it became impossible to honour the original plan I had for that project.

Regarding the partial file losses, I managed to rebuild the written mother archive on a bullet point version, focusing on the main happenings of each chapter and their estimated lenghts. I can confidently say this will help me to develop the plots in a more organic, better flowing way, without losing the main points and the essence of the narrative.

Also, I realized I needed to finish smaller projects first before heading back to Menmar; those projects will help me better my technique and illustrate more impactful scenes on Menmar, bringing to life the vision that I always had for this story and universe.

Next Steps

While I cannot bring and exact date yet (as of the day I publish this article), I am confident I’ll be back publishing Menmar chapters on November; before that, I’ll be working on three different projects: Aylie Anthology (which is already running), La Miseràble & Behógar Bradana, which hold the smaller scopes among my announced projects, and will have shorter runs.

Saoshyant, another project I announced back in January, will still begin this year, but I will probably begin its running on December, after I am done drawing Menmar’s chapters.

In the meantime, I’ll continue publishing Menmar’s monthly artworks, which will help you get more familiar with the cast and crew! I thank you for your patience and support, and I hope you’ll like the next chapters of Menmar!