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The Thirteenth Hour PodcastAuthor: Joshua Blum
The Thirteenth Hour books are 80s inspired illustrated fairy tale fantasy novels that pay homage to fantasy, sci fi, and teen movies from the 80s as well as the music of that era. This podcast explores aspects of 80s culture as well as a wide variety of influences behind the books. Companion site: http://13thhr.wordpress.com Language: en-us Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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The Thirteenth Hour Podcast #559: Thirteenth Hour Sequel Update 8 - Trying a Fast Shooting Archery Technique Inspired by Thorgal
Monday, 27 April, 2026
This week, I'm playing around with something I saw in a Franco-Belgian comic book from the late 70s/80s called Thorgal, written by Jean Van Hamme and illustrated by Grzegorz Rosiński, about the child of a race of people from elsewhere in the universe who crash land on Earth. The child (Thorgal) is raised by Vikings and grows up to be a very skilled archer. I just discovered this comic on a trip to visit my brother across the pond. We ended up taking the Chunnel from London to Paris, and there is this one section of the city where there are a whole bunch of comic book stores. We went into one that had mainly French comics. It was absolutely amazing in terms of art, though I only know a few words of French so could not really read anything. But I found a few volumes in English, and a Thorgal comic was one of them. I was attracted to the title of this volume (The Archers), and even though it was sealed (as is often the case with most comic book shops), decided I'd buy it on impulse.It was basically something I would have totally done as a kid - bought a book because the cover looked cool and opened it up to find I couldn't understand what I'd just bought since I'd purchased the 4th volume out of 9 or something and had missed all the backstory. But I will say, though that was technically the case, I have heard that these volumes are more stand alone-ish that typical American comics. I didn't have much trouble figuring out what was going on. I was also pleasantly surprised to find that Thorgal, his wife, and their son end up living on a remote island, just like Logan and Aurora do at the end of The Thirteenth Hour. My impression was that they did it for similar reasons, too - to be left alone in peace from the chaos of an ever intruding world. In the volume, there were a few scenes depicting characters shooting very quickly using a way of reloading arrows off the hand holding the bow, a technique I'd seen and tried before but never successfully. I tend to favor holding extra arrows in the hand drawing the string, but I thought I'd give this one another try. It looks like the illustrator knew a thing or two about this technique himself, and I love that he took the time to depict this little detail, probably knowing a lot of people would probably miss it. So in this episode, I play around with a few different techniques inspired by these panels. Though I'm drawing the bow with my thumb and not the pads of my fingers like the characters in the comic, I found that what is drawn does actually work, more or less. This is the hand position I found most successful, with the arrows under my middle finger:Anyhow, it's something I figured Logan and Aurora might find themselves using in the sequel, so I figured I owed it to myself to figure it out so I could write and draw about it. More coming soon!Pictures: https://13thhr.wordpress.com/2026/04/27/the-thirteenth-hour-podcast-559-thirteenth-hour-sequel-update-8-trying-a-fast-shooting-archery-technique-inspired-by-thorgal/∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞Once Upon a Dream, the second Thirteenth Hour soundtrack, is now out in digital form! It is out on most major streaming services such as Bandcamp, Spotify, and YouTube Music. (If you have no preference, I recommend Bandcamp since there is a bonus track there and you will eventually be able to find tapes, CDs, and special editions of the album there as well.)-Check out the pixelart music videos that are out so far from the album:-->Logan's Sunrise Workout: www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7SM1RgsLiM-->Forward: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9VgILr1TDc-->Nightsky Stargazing: www.youtube.com/watch?v=2S0p3jKRTBo-->Aurora's Rainy Day Mix: https://youtu.be/zwqPmypBysk∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞ Signup for the mailing list for a free special edition podcast, a demo copy of The Thirteenth Hour, and access to retro 80s soundtrack!Like what you see or hear? Consider supporting the show over at Thirteenth Hour Arts on Patreon or adding to my virtual tip jar over at Ko-fi.
