Publisher's Synopsis
This is my first literary work as an adult. The paintings within were sold to a small time publisher as a stand alone art zine. I originally authored the work under the pen name, Leon Sandcastle.The Epic of Aphromann is a tale of a child, born to a god, and alien, who is sold into slavery and shipped to Egypt from Crete. He is bought by a general and trained personally. However, being a demi god, he has powers.He uses non destructive spiritual magic to defeat armies, and demons.This is the first two chapters of the work. I wish to return to the work sometime, and finish the last two chapters.I have rewritten the work, with the aid of paintings formed from visual memory of the words I once used to write the epic tale. Thus it is just as much a good story, as it is a personal journey for the author, to reclaim a vision and self respect for the things he creates.It was originally dedicated to my brother, and he, with all his superior autism and dysfunctional schizophrenia, declared that Aphromann was not him, and he had nothing to do with the tale I had told.After some thought, I have approached the publisher, which had exclusive printing rights sold to them, and I requested the right to do a print on demand publication of all the work I had to this date.It took a year to fully render all the paintings within. And it took another 3 months to reproduce the words the best I could.I did however, take a liberty with the work, which was not actually planned when I began drafting the original work. I painted a portrait of my mother, holding a can of Nile Ale. I loved growing up with 70s and 80s prints of Marvel and DC comics, and thought I would cheers to Stan Lee, one commercial, in the context of the ancient world, to which the setting exists in the chapter it's placed.I chose the hero's name Aphromann, as the Adima, the moral and physical representation of the ideal man (or is that adimas, I honestly forget). Aphro as in Aphrodite, of beauty, and Mann, from the Greek word meaning man.I actually drafted 3 or 4 small stories of the character before settling on a plot and character arc I felt would be meaningful to tell at length. While the Epic of Aphromann was only 45ish pages in draft form, the graphic adaptation in this print, is around 70ish pages.There were challenges facing me with decisions, on word placement, font type, and if I held true to the original unedited words I could recall. In the end, I gave it the best edit I could, picked an ancient stone font for commercial use (yes I bought the font), and painted a red page to which the lettering would reside.If only I can manage to return to the story, I feel it will tell something which many folk will love.
