The idea to tell a story about the return of the Outer Gods came to me somewhere in 2012. First, I thought to turn it into a graphic novel. I wrote a script outline and believed I had enough material for maybe three 60-page instalments. When I stopped my other professional activities in 2016, I began to draw. I’ve always liked comics — I’ve got quite a collection of both European and American comic books — and I love to draw. What could go wrong?

I drew, inked, coloured, and lettered three pages, and then I got second thoughts. Looking at my script, I found much to improve. The ideas and general storyline were okay, but the story needed more depth and research. Drawing comics, moreover, is hard work, and I’m difficult to please. There are so many wonderful comic artists out there. Without a lifelong dedication — and even then … — I’d never be the next Bill Sienkiewicz or Bernie Wrightson. I liked my story, and I didn’t want to mess it up with drawings that weren’t up to par. I couldn’t bear the idea to spend many years of my life working on a comic that was only going to disappoint me. So I decided to dump the graphic novel idea and write a regular novel instead.

If you’re curious how the graphic novel would have looked like, here’s the first page.

My original idea was to start with the death of my main character’s parents in India. It immediately gave me a taste of how much visual research I needed to do to avoid making a complete fool of myself. What did the temple and the streets look like? What about the British soldiers’ uniforms? And their handguns? It’s easy to write something like, ‘The streets were filled with soldiers’ corpses.’ Drawing it is a totally different ballgame. I have so much respect for comics artists. They do the most wonderful things facing impossible deadlines.