i also want him to interact with weird and fantastic creatures throughout the storyline. ray harryhausen movies are some of the influences i had growing up, so i'd like to have something that harry might have animated in the day.

the buwaya (croc) seen here is from some ancient mythology that people living in the southern part of 'pinas has. i'm going to incorporate some of these into my story, but i want to tweak them a bit, with sort of a 21st century sensibility built into it.

Some of the stories about these creatures might have been scary to people centuries ago, but to a modern audience, they would just appear silly. what i would like to do is to preserve the core or essence of whatever i'm adapting and give it an internal logic as to how a creature such as this would behave and function in a world similar to our own.

they called this type of creature, Kurits. and according to legend, the kurit's hide is so tough, that no kalis can penetrate it. perhaps that's why datu talim is using a kampilan , instead of his usual weapon : )

Speaking of which, datu talim is well versed in all types of weaponry. i want to draw him with a variety of weapons, but his trademark would be his kalis. he will also be well versed in hand to hand combat. more excuse for me to draw some cool action scenes!

What attracted me about opening the story on the silk road is because the road winds through some of the harshest envirorment known to earth. the gobi desert, with it's ocean of sand and rock, have this outworldly quality to it. it's not just miles and miles of sand, but it also have some very cool rock and geological features i'd like to incorporate into the backdrop. from 100 degrees + of scorching wasteland, the silk road cut a swath across the great grassland of Xizhang to the frozen wilderness of the china/ russia border frontier, one has a lot to play with.

like, how would a boy from the island (i call pilipinas, Silangan in my story, which is pronounced: Cee-la- 'ngan) fare in these hostile envirorments? because of his intensive training, he is able to have almost total control over his physiology. he would be able to regulate the temperature of his body to such a degree that he would be literally smoking as he raises his core temperature when he hits the frozen thundra. all the while wearing his togs where ever he goes!

i also want to draw him on a horse and all sort of conveyances along his journey. the horse riding sequences would be specially enjoyable to me because i'm a big western fan. it's sort of my way of making a western eastern style ; )

i love the searchers. john ford's classic has those amazing vistas of the western landscape becomes a character in its self. one of john waynes best movies as well.

Another thing i want to have is a distinctive approach to action scenes. i've been researching the pilipino martial art of kali and indonesian silat, and having been a student has given me a great appreciation of these arts. i realise what a shame it would be not to reflect their beauty and effectiveness in this project, accurately. why both? some high ranking teachers are of the opinion that kali and silat are related arts. and having seen both, i tend to lean in that direction.



There are some things i can't depict out of galang and adat hormat. but i want to at least have the "flavour" seep through the work. i want datu Talim to use the kalis because of it's connnection to the art. you saw datu Talim doing sepok (front cross step) on the last post. his wearing the taruk, sarong/malong and sawal kiput also identifies him with kali and silat as they are analogous to a samurai wearing his kimono, obi ,tabi and katana.

this was fun. i have datu talim interacting with the world's fierces fighters in the story line. and why not? mandirigma (warriors) of the islands has proven the effectiveness of the arts for centuries.
this one has datu talim vs. a mongol general. hmmm... i wonder what's the story behind that?

stay tuned!!!

His world is where the fantastic and the mundane co- exists.


The story opens with datu Talim at the foot of the Kunlun Mountains, an area where the borders of china and russia meets. it would be around 12th century AD.
Or at least that's the time frame i want to use as a template. i don't want to be too constrained by sticking with the timeline verbatim, but straying far won't do either. peter jackson got it right with LOTR, where he used existing historical artifacts and tweaked them to suit the story. The right balance of design sense and authenticity really came together to form a coherent overall concept. That's what i aim to do.


The setting itself really did existed. there was a trade route called the silk road in china for thousands of years. from the warm pacific ocean , looking east, to the cold, desolate thundra of the Steepes, westward , the road ran through the heartland of china.

culture and goods exchange hands along these roads. and many a merchant became wealthy and powerful during it's heyday. but in every great endeavor, there are great risks. the harsh climate of the Gobi desert took it's toll among many hapless caravans as well as bandits who
roamed the vast landscape.

the sheer magnitude of the route itself prevented the emperor to provide all subjects the necessary force to protect the frontier. So it was at this juncture that many security agency sprung up and flourished. bodyguard/mercenary hired by merchants to escort their goods safetly from one out post to another, until reaching the market place of the west.

This is where we meet datu Talim.

...and the third. Perhaps something like this jacket can be incorporated in his wardrobe. i also have him wearing a double pony tail/braid thing. Seem like, according to researchers, they really cared about how one looked back then. the styles changed with the season, so i don't see why that aesthetic can't apply to datu Talim here.

Here's a 2nd version of datu Talim. i'm thinking datu Talim should have more that just one outfit. He could have an variant for the different envirorments he will be functioning in, but i want to have him wear something of a signature for him. Something that makes him stick out. And i think the Malong/sarong elements would be it. i also like the "color" value in this.
i got the idea of the"hat" from an old pix of a makabebe scout from the end of the 18th century. it was a before and after pix. He wore the "hat" before he joined the phillipine constabulary. the "hat" is a lot bigger than the one datu Talim is wearing. oh, well. he can always take it off.

Now, Maharlika Chronicles sort of sprung forth during my studies about pre european phillipines and pilipino martial arts. it just blew me away as to how incredibly brave and resourceful they where back then. i dug into many reference books and found out that my perception about Pinoy history was distorted by misinformation. so i continued to delve into this body of work and looked beyond the spanish advent and thats when Talim and his world started to take shape. in the next few posting i'll write about the reference books that influenced me as well as the process that i'm using in developing this project. in the mean time, enjoy more of datu Talim. These are preliminary sketches that has the quality i'm going for. All of the elements that datu Talim's clothes has are indigenous to the island before the spanish arrival (hence to be refered to as btsa). the malong (the "sash" across his body) and the sarong (the "kilt") are common to south east asia so there are a lot of over lap in terms of clothes, language, martial arts in the area, because of the proximity of the neighboring islands. there are no "borders" to speak of as well, so the whole area has ample opportunity and time to crosspolinate with each other wheter it's through trade, intermarriges or warfare. what makes the elements unique to each area would be how one wears the acoutrements, the patterns in the textile, and what is left out/added to.
however, that is not to say that each has no style of their own, these cultures were and still are dynamic and alive. those common threads in the cultures of the phillipines, indonesia and malaysia were evident, but they still retained their individual flair and aesthetics.

The sword datu Talim is carrying is called a Kalis. some call it keris, kris et. al. but for datu Talim, i'm calling it Kalis. this is also indigenous, uniquely pinoy. the malaysian/indonesian version of the blade is more like a dagger and is not really considered a sword proper.

So there he was. drawing away at what looks like man o war from valiant comics back in the day.
after a few minutes, i got the nerve to actually talk to him while he was working. i broke the ice by asking him about the pens he uses. we sort of talk shop for a few minutes, all the while, my brain was racing as how to show him my work without making like a fanboy.
finally, there was an opening. some guy interrupted (politely) our small talk. i took this opportunity to grab my LAST copy of jungle corps and steeled myself. after the dude walked away, i handed whilce the copy and said that i wanted to give this to him as a token of my esteem for his work. he was starting up again (drawing) when i handed it to him, so i didn't expect anything.
but check this out: he did a double take and he said that he was looking for something like this for a while now. imagine my surprise! after this, we talked at lenght about my work and how he had been looking for material that falls in line with what i was doing.

what a trip!

so after that, he asked me if i have my contact info in the book (i did). and a few weeks later i had a encouraging email from him about the project.

we met a few times and started to talk about my other projects. one of which is something that's been rattling 'round my noggin for a while now.
i told whilce about it it's called MAHARLIKA CHRONICLES. and here's the hero of the piece
his name is Datu TALIM.