...tells of the adventures of the beautiful daughter of the Sultan of Babylon, a story from Boccaccio’s Decameron. I am currently serializing the story on Activatecomix (updated every Friday). Now the 120-page book is available in print with many new images onStorenvy. This book began with Locating Boccaccio in 1013, an artists book exhibition celebrating Boccaccio’s Septcentenary in Manchester, UK with a series of paintings in gouache. Then, with the generous support of the Sequential Artists Workshop, I drew the whole story in pages using a brush pen and colored pencil.
The Sultan’s daughter is on her way to marry the King of Algarve when she is shipwrecked on Majorca. A duke rescues and seduces her. The duke’s younger brother falls for her, murders his brother, and starts a cycle of murder and rape that carries the Sultan’s daughter across the Mediterranean in the hands of various noblemen. Her odyssey ends when a family friend helps her return to her father in Alexandria and tricks the Sultan into believing she is still a virgin. She finally marries the king, which, in the medieval logic of the story, makes this a romantic comedy–the girl both enjoys free love AND the security of marriage–and a happy ending.
