Project Update: Mythos Ascending

Since the start of this year I’ve been working on a manuscript for a new graphic novel series which I’m calling Mythos Ascending.

I’m drawing on many sources of inspiration for this work, though probably the most influential was a trip I took to Florence, Italy in the summer of 2022. I was struck by just how much beauty could be found in one place. That city alone has more artistry and culture than all of Canada combined. Returning to Toronto felt like being shipped off to Soviet-era Russia.

I was visiting Florence for more than just pleasure, however. I was on a school trip to study the Italian Renaissance. In one of my courses we read the first third of Dante’s divine comedy: Inferno. The structure of the story really appealed to me. It began with a descent into hell, followed by a recourse through purgatory, to finally end up in paradise. A brilliant story told in three acts. I knew I wanted to write something similar.

At this time I was surrounded by the most stunning displays of Christian iconography I’d ever seen. I was constantly reminded of Nietzsche’s famous saying: “God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him.” This gave me the idea of a story centered around a protagonist who murders the deified figure of his father, and spends the rest of the story atoning for it.

I came up with the character of Mythos, a weak and naive boy who is swept up by the ideology of Scleraph, a utopian idealist who seeks to tear down their world and rebuild it anew.

Following Dante’s model, the first volume is called The Descent, where Mythos devolves into a resentfully-motivated tyrant. The second volume is called The Recourse, where he acknowledges the evil of his actions and sets himself on the path of redemption. The final volume is called The Ascent, where he uses his newfound strength to eradicate the hell he’s created.

At the time of writing this entry, I have completed volume one and have begun work on volume two. I look forward to seeing where this story goes.