Five-Legged Iguana

ALAMAT: ORIGINS

[Addendum 3] (2 of 3)

In prepping ALAMAT: ORIGINS, Budjette Tan conducted a trio of Q&A's with me covering AVATAR, HORUS, and DHAMPYR.

Some of the Q&A content made it into the story Intros in ORIGINS.

Most, did not.

So I'll be posting the Q&A's here, uncut, so you can all see what was left on the cutting room floor.

Second up: HORUS.

1 Same [first] question – what’s your elevator pitch to get people to read HORUS?

 

You’re a gifted college athlete, and you wake up one morning with a tattoo on your arm, a tattoo that allows you to change into a freaking SUPERHERO!

Crazy-awesome insanity ensues!

 

2 What inspired you to have twins as your main characters? And what kind of tension did you have in mind by having only one of them get the powers?

 

I’ve long been fascinated by the Beloved Executioner motif; the idea of betrayal coming from a loved one, like a brother, or more pointedly, a twin. It’s an idea I revisited in BATHALA, where I took it to some dark conclusions.

My end point for the Daly twins in HORUS is certainly not as dark as what we see unfold in BATHALA, but it would have hopefully been a torturous emotional wringer for both brothers to undergo before emerging on the other side.

Some of the bones of contention between the brothers begin to rear their ugly heads in the published HORUS stories, one seed in particular foregrounded in the story reprinted [in ALAMAT: ORIGINS], while the static of growing up unable to escape the shadow of a more popular sibling (a twin! So why aren’t we exactly alike?!) plays constantly through the narrative background.

 

3 Which version of Superman inspired you in your writing of HORUS?

 

Definitely Superman: The Animated Series, from the second half of the ‘90’s. (I’m also really enjoying My Adventures with Superman, BTW.)

The fact that I gave the main character the last name Daly (after STAS Superman voice actor Tim Daly) is a dead giveaway.

 

For those of you who were with Alamat from the early days, you may note that HORUS is really TATTOOED, but filtered through an Egyptian myth/STAS lens.

I loved the foundational idea of TATTOOED so much that I thought it would be interesting to take that core concept and apply it to a more all-ages title, and thus, we have HORUS.

 

4 If HORUS could have a cross-over with any comic book character, who would it be and what would they do?

 

Given the STAS influence, definitely Superman, who has become, over the decades, the comic book/spandex archetype of the Solar Hero (among many other things, of course).

They’d settle into a mentor/mentee set-up (one of the many things I frequently return to in my comic writing) and battle some darkness/shadow-themed villain, probably Set… 

 

And there you go.

Since the opportunity to re-letter HORUS presented itself, I took that shot to effectively remaster the story, polishing up the text (or, in some cases, writing new material), to further underscore plot points or themes.

So even if you'd already read this issue in its original incarnation in PANTHEON #1, the story as presented in ALAMAT: ORIGINS should hopefully be a more fulfilling read.

BTW, on page 339 of ORIGINS, the cover Tony used for HORUS is actually the back cover of AVATAR #3, art by Kai Legaspi. (Since we didn't have an actual HORUS #1 cover.)

Plus, on page 340, the creator credits should read David Hontiveros and Carl Vergara.

And, having mentioned AVATAR (also co-created by Carl!), the Q&A for that should hopefully go live sometime in the coming week.

If you have any questions about HORUS (or DHAMPYR), please feel free to leave them in the Comments section and I'll see what I can do to answer them.

you can't drink just six,

Dave