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Templar, Arizona: And A Stick To Beat The Devil With
Templar, Arizona is the story of a city that doesn't exist and the people who live there. It's slice-of-life culture fiction in a slightly alternate history, starring a guy who's trying to find himself while running away from himself.
128 pages, Paperback
Published April 14, 2009
1 person is currently reading
19 people want to read
About the author
C. Spike Trotman
35 books130 followersTrotman is also the creator of the webcomics Lucas and Odessa, Sparkneedle, and Blikada, as well as the somewhat less serious Playing With Dolls. She lives in Chicago with her husband.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 9, 2023
There was a period over the last few months where I put aside all the books I had on deck, and dove into rereading a whole buncha comics on my shelf. I do this quite a bit, actually, rereading favourite authors/artists, sometimes as a palate cleanser, but always in appreciation of an art form as valid as any other - but I won't get into the constant infantilization of the comic medium, because I wanna talk about Templar AZ.
Remember webcomics? Remember when everyone had a webcomic? More importantly, remember when they were free, and not hiding behind a substack paywall?
(I don't begrudge artists getting paid for their work, of course; I just miss the days when the internet was a more interesting place, and not everything was monetized to death.)
Anyway: Templar, Arizona was possibly one of the best ones out there. It was an alternate history where modern life was influenced by Roman and Egyptian culture as dominant forces, as opposed to Eurocentric/Anglo-Saxon colonization. At least, I think that was the gist. It came out weekly on Trotman's website, primarily a street-level view of this world, as seen by Ben Kowalski, a South Korean kid running from his adoptive parents because of...something, hopefully to be revealed eventually?
Trotman said she'd had the story and world brewing for Templar AZ since she'd been in grade school, and it shows; this world is vibrant and well-curated, and the story, while rambling, is actually quite fun, and I'm pretty sure I've met every one of her characters in real life (work retail/service jobs, you'll see).
The sad thing is, she never finished it. I've got four volumes sitting on my shelf, just begging for a resolution. Trotman detoured into writing lesbian erotica (which is fantastic, but not really my thing) and starting her own indie comics publishing house (Iron Circus Comics), so she's been productive and prolific and whatnot - but there's a selfish part of me that wants her to forget everything else and finish this series. Please. Please? Please.
9/10 would def eat here again, as long as the chef didn't walk out 3/4 of the way through dinner service.
Remember webcomics? Remember when everyone had a webcomic? More importantly, remember when they were free, and not hiding behind a substack paywall?
(I don't begrudge artists getting paid for their work, of course; I just miss the days when the internet was a more interesting place, and not everything was monetized to death.)
Anyway: Templar, Arizona was possibly one of the best ones out there. It was an alternate history where modern life was influenced by Roman and Egyptian culture as dominant forces, as opposed to Eurocentric/Anglo-Saxon colonization. At least, I think that was the gist. It came out weekly on Trotman's website, primarily a street-level view of this world, as seen by Ben Kowalski, a South Korean kid running from his adoptive parents because of...something, hopefully to be revealed eventually?
Trotman said she'd had the story and world brewing for Templar AZ since she'd been in grade school, and it shows; this world is vibrant and well-curated, and the story, while rambling, is actually quite fun, and I'm pretty sure I've met every one of her characters in real life (work retail/service jobs, you'll see).
The sad thing is, she never finished it. I've got four volumes sitting on my shelf, just begging for a resolution. Trotman detoured into writing lesbian erotica (which is fantastic, but not really my thing) and starting her own indie comics publishing house (Iron Circus Comics), so she's been productive and prolific and whatnot - but there's a selfish part of me that wants her to forget everything else and finish this series. Please. Please? Please.
9/10 would def eat here again, as long as the chef didn't walk out 3/4 of the way through dinner service.
December 18, 2014
Book 3 in the Templar AZ series, we get to meet Genes family in this one which explains a lot about who he is, once again this series is crazy addicting so I highly recommend it.
November 19, 2021
I love this series! Great story telling, very individual characters, interesting situations.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews