ORIGINAL 1988 version.
First pages ever sketched.

These first three images were the first ever to be created, a long time ago...back in late 1987, early 1988. I had just read The Hobbit back then, and i wanted to try to create a fantasy story with characters other than humans. So this was my attempt in creating some non-human looking characters with a humorous twist. My idea back then was to create the Fantasy Portuguese equivalent of the Asterix adventures (by Gosciny & Uderzo). A character you may well know if you´re into European graphic novels. I always loved the humor and style of those albuns, and i wanted to try to transport that style of humor into my own fantasy world. A world very much inspired by The Hobbit (Tolkien), by The Wizard of EarthSea (Ursula Le Guin) and specialy by The Neverending Story novel (Michael Ende). And so i started to draw this story, just as a test, not only to my limited art skills, but also to see if i could create a unique world enviroment and original looking non-human characters to go along with it.

This being a test, i decided to learn how to color this comics stuff too. So i bought the cheapest pencils i could find and afford at the time and i tried to color the second page, with the end result you see displayed below.

By this time, i was starting to have an idea for this story, but i still needed a main character, and so thus was born PRINCE ZIPH here inside this next page. What you see are the first ever images of this character. My idea was to create a rebel not-so-teen guy wich was basicaly everything that a Prince shouldn´t be. I always liked anti-heros and i wanted to have one in my story but one with humor and personality and off course not human at all.

And i thought a great idea was to create a character (and a race) based on spiders. Most people hate spiders so, what better look for an anti-hero ? I thought it would be a good challenge to have a character like that and have people relate to him despite his spider-looking characteristics.

Initialy these “spider” characters were suposed to have eight legs, but soon i found out that would be chaos to draw, useless for any plot and time consuming. So Prince Ziph ended up with only four legs. Later on i had the idea of teaming up him with the wizard you see in the first page and so the characters of Ziph and the Wiz were born.
This first version was never completed but i made about 25 pages more, wich will be displayed in this website in the future.

1992 VERSION.
First complete story produced entirely in black&white.

This next image, is the first one i made for the remake of the other version. I wanted to enter a comics competition and so i decided at the time, that it would be a good idea to go back to something i already had an idea for instead of trying to imagine something new.
This version was all done in black & white also, had 50 pages and it was the first time i did a complete story with these characters. I draw and imagined the whole thing in less than five weeks and so many pages had a rushed amateur feeling to them but I endend up winning a special prize at the competition. The page limit was suposed to be 5 and i had sent 50. I guess i surprised them and they couldn´t pretend not to notice me.

Despite the amateurish style, this story ended up published in a couple of magazines, but i didn´t wanted much atention over this, because my goal was always to improve my drawing skills to one day create the final version i always had inside my mind.

But in 1993 i started my career as a professional graphic designer, and so comics went on stand-by for about 13 years, with the small exeception of the test i did in 1996 using this same story.

1996 FIRST COLOR VERSION

I decided to create this version, just as another test. If i ever wanted to do this story as i imagined it, i should be learning to use color to achieve the results i had inside my imagination. At the time i was experimenting with color pencils and so i decided to try and create a full color version, with drawings based on the last black & white version still.
It was by this time that i noticed the colors i choosed for my Prince Ziph character were exactely the colors from the Portuguese flag. Nice coincidence, but totaly non planned, altough it works great because i´m Portuguese, despite not having a single nationalistic or patriotic bone in me.

I also had the idea of trying to divide the whole 50 pages story into several publishable episodes and this was an atempt of seeing how this would work.

Meanwhile a new comics competition appeared in Portugal. I sent this version to apply, but the competition closed for unexpected reasons and the organizers stole my originals (it´s a long story).
It was the first and the last time i ever sent originals anywhere. Specialy to Portuguese organized things like this.

2006-07 BRAND NEW
DEFINITIVE VERSION.

After 1996 I had my graphic design career to think of and so untill last year i´ve worked mainly on that.
On that, professionaly, but on illustration in part-time. Anytime i had a chance to create fantasy works i grabbed it. The Internet allowed me to diversify my contacts and so i´ve been discretely building my portfolio away from the Portuguese scene.

Through the years, people have been telling me that many of my illustrations seem to tell a story and that they would love to see what is it. I´m glad that was recognized because it´s true. My fantasy images are usualy based in a concept for stories i imagine while creating the pictures, and wich i archive mentaly for future use. Most of them have been set on my old Thorondor world, the same one i created for my old Prince Ziph comics and i always had the idea of publishing an illustration book with all my stuff and build the whole presentation aroud an imaginary map of that world. This will happen soon and i expect it to have it published in the future as soon as i have time to finish it. You can see examples of my illustrations at my www.luisperes.net website.

Meanwhile, people kept asking me for comics, and so last year i decided that it was time to create the final version of - THE ADVENTURES OF PRINCE ZIPH - i always wanted to.
And so this is it. The old test made in 1988, is now a 200+ page full color saga.
All created in watercolor, inks and pencils and available HERE for you to buy.

The comics are available in ENGLISH and PORTUGUESE.
French version coming soon.

The image you see here below, is the first page.

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