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This sets of Illustrations see the characters from The Pirate Balthasar in contemporary clothing:

- Cat construction worker and Callista architect (here)

- Westley as a doctor and Cassandra owner of a laundry (that serves the hospital):

- Foxy as a formula 1 pilot and Lio as his doctor

- Martin is in the Navy clearly and Pea organizes events (like fun raisers and stuff).

- Pifo and Quoque have a restaurant.

- Kane is an art teacher and Castalia a graffiti artist

Story (why not?)

In the contemporary version of the story, I want to keep the relationship between Kane and Castalia’s family, so they have known each other since childhood.

In short Kane and Callimaco are best friends and grow up together. They are both into arts and drawings, movies, video-games and cartoons and have a small workshop in Callimaco’s garage. That’s where they create their small projects expe-rimenting with cameras and using computers as the tecnology progresses... (no internet except for dial up so time is spent wisely creating and discovering ).

Callimaco is more of a technological guy, while Kane prefers traditional things and is more into sculpting and welding. Even-tually, because they are both very creative and “pioneers”, they get into CG, go to Art School, University and get hired into a big Animation company: Callimaco as animator and Kane as a sculptor (eventually he gets into modeling and zbrush).After a while, while Callimaco continues his career, Kane de-cides he needs a more relaxed lifestyle to find more time to express himself through his art because he has not found yet a balance and a definite center.He quits his job, gets into teaching, buys a very cool small cottage outside of campus and divides his days between tea-ching, sculpting in his studio and swimming at night.

Where is Castalia in all this? Well, she has been there with the boys all along, being always very close to Callimaco. She is also very artistic and talented, an enfant prodige, and helps the boys in their experiments. She is very much into pirates, everything she draws is about pirates, she writes stories

about them, even makes a comic (where she turns all of her friends and family memebers into pirates or so) where Kane is absolute hero... because she simply adores him.

In fact, ever since she can remember, she has idolized her brother’s friend and she jumps on him whenever she sees him with big sparkly eyes. So Kane grows up with an extra appendix called Castalia... soon to be nicknamed: the backpack!So imagine him, since young, walk around with Castalia attached to his leg, then his waist, then his back...It becomes so natural, at one point, that it feels weird when the girl is not around.

When Callimaco and Kane’s path are separated by diferent care-er choices, Castalia still follows Kane around more than she would her own brother. She has become a little pirate herself (both online and on the street - she is into graffiti)... even-tually Kane suggest to her to go to school and don’t waste her talent around, she should share it with the world!

She enrolls in his school but he forbids her from taking his class. They still get involved in a project for a school mu-ral... and all the designs she presents are verymuch like a tag and not personal enough... he wants a mural instead. So he tells her that she should pour her feelings and her storytel-ling abilities in her design which she finds a bit difficult to do because that would imply that Kane should be the main subject in her mural (which he also forbid).

Eventually the fact that they show up in each other’s art can-not be avoided, it’s always the case when artist team up and live their lives and art in tandem: you get feedback, help, a different point of view a free model and a fusion of two styles

that, together, create a third, awesome style!

Eventually Castalia would have sleepovers at Kane’s house, like they always did when they were kids, where they watch movies, play videogames or draw each other... (sometimes she tries to sneak in the bathroom to draw him under the sho-wer). Kane knows about Castalia’s feelings for him, as she voices them often, at times he jokes about them, other he te-ases her... and overall he admits he is not completely immune to the same feelings either, but he explains her that if their relationship changes and something goes wrong they will lose everything they have and he definitely does not want to loose that because it’s too precious. (now imagine him saying this to a crying kitty, with big kitty eyes, crouching on a chair, meowing like a baby and niagara falls style tears - while he explains tha this is exactly the kind of things he wants to avoid).

So see Kane is all about a quite living, a bit like an old man, enjoying his retirement and strongly believes that he needs to reach a state of peace in order to be able to create, be-cause art is not born from chaos... but this steady life not really helping his art either and he feels frustrated about it. So, at one point, neither of them is going anywhere with their projects and their art, because one of them is too frustrated and the other one is not frustrated at all...

That’s when Castalia decides to stay away from Kane to find a moment of peace instead and a little space of her own to focus on her mural... and Kane finally finds frustration.

STORY (why not?)

Pea is an event planner and Martin is in charge to organize a retirement dinner for his superior. A story meant to be, you would say, heck no!This is the classic story of a girl who thinks she knows what she wants, she does everything to get what she wants and then realizes she needed something else. (but it’s definitely not giving up her job for love).

Let’s just say that, in the XXI century, Pea swoons over ano-ther man. This man introduces her to Martin because the poor man has to plan a big event and does not know where to begin.Pea takes the matter into her hands but is not charmed by uni-form nor hunkiness, besides her mind is set over the other guy. At times she is cold but sharp and her ability in multitasking is quite impressive (not to mention her wonderful taste!).

As we know Martin is the kind of guy who expresses himself honestly and directly. At first he thanks her over and over again, stating how he could never ever have done it without her and that she is very good and so he expresses his gratitu-de maybe a bit too much.Pea finds this a bit annoying.

Eventually, since Martin knows the man Pea likes, he makes her notice that he is taken by somebody else... to which she replies that she will still conquer him, and why wouldn’t she, she has everything a man could possibly desire: isn’t she pretty, smart, elegant and witty?

Martin agrees that she does, the only thing lacking is a char-ming personality. This infuriates her and, set on fire, she deci-

des to go for it (unprepared).The first attempt to conquer the man fails miserably as she is told, bluntly, that she would be the perfect woman if only she were a little sweeter sometimes.She goes through many different stages: denial, anger, bargai-ning, depression, acceptance... and the last one finally leads her to ask for Martin help - since he first pointed out what her problem was.

Thus begins a traning using the basic romantic midi-chlorians in Pea’s blood that will turn her into a Jedi of love.... oh yea, I forgot to mention... she is a Star Wars fan.And this is where we discover that, in her private life, Pea is quite disfunctional and dreams of a Han Solo of her own. *_* (Who doesn’t?).

Martin has to deal with all of this and from here on... expect a classic romantic comedy à la French Kiss, happy ending included DURING the event. *_*

STORY (why not?)

Of course our doctor is still a doctor and he works in a hospi-tal. Imagine how busy his life is. Clearly he cannot do his own laundry and because Cassandra’s laundry shop is right across from the hospital (and the smart girl really knows where to position her business) he drops his laundry on the way to work and pick it up on his way back.

Because he is always in a rush and lost in his thoughts Cas-sandra thinks the doctor is quite rude so she does not serve him with her best smile (and frankly, most of the time, the poor girl is sweating, submerged by clothes to iron and steam) so he doesn’t care very much either.

Until one day, when she is grumpier than usual... she does not read a label properly and irons a shirt that is not supposed to be ironed, leaving a beautiful yellow, new halo/pattern on the doc’s favorite shirt.

That’s when the man comes to life the first time and shows signs of intelligence and anger. So that she says: oh, you’re actually a living, thinking being...He asks her to fix the problem and storms out. She says that she definitely can, but clearly cannot.

Clearly. There is no other option than buying him a new shirt but when she goes and sees the brand and goes to buy the item she realizes the shirt costs a looooot!She still buys it, in tears (for she is now broke) and goes to his office to throw the shirt, victoriously, in his face (while her heart weeps for she could have bought so much food with

that money) and he finds half asleep on his chair.Triumphant, she laughs in his face: ha ha ha, I told you I could fix it?He looks at the thing still sleepy and goes: this is not my shirt.

Apparently he customizes his cuffs. He also gets very upset because the shirt costs a lot of money and she didn’t have to buy a new one, since he never paid for the original one to begin with!So while they fight over who should pay for the new shirt another type of spark goes off and they literally jump each other.

The aftermath of the event is extremely embarrassing - althou-gh it did relieve him from his stress - there’s a very long, hea-vy silence, until he asks: can I buy you a cup of coffee?

The next day he goes and asks her over for lunch in the hospi-tal cafeteria. He does not show up though and Kes decides not to waste her lunch break anyway. The food is horrible but che-ap and she still manages to eat everything with great appetite thinking that she should have come to the cafeteria more often and eat plenty of food. On her way out she sees him run down the hallway after a stretcher he stops, making a screeching sound... runs back towards her, claims she is exactly the per-son he wanted to see, lands a kiss on her lips, grins and promi-ses he will make it up to her.

At this point the girl is puzzled as to where this is going.

Story (why not?)

In contemporary settings Callista is a very shy but talented architect working in a big firm and she has being given her first big project to build a super eco-friendly skyscraper.

She’s quite nerdy and a klutz and it’s not a good combination if you get teamed up with arrogant people because she looks distracted and lives in her own little world.

So she is sent by herself to supervise the construction site and Cat is the big boss there, very strict with safety at work and stuff, and Callista always forgets to wear proper clothes and the helmet.

The first time she sees him he is standing on a beam, holding a big hammer and there’s fabric behind him... but against the light, and with the strong wind, he looks like Thor.

So she drools over that for about 20 minutes even after he starts scolding her for not wearing a helmet.

Of course Callista’s sister would teaser her when they see the man, because he doesn’t look like Thor at all.

Anyways in the XXI century Cat would definitely be taller but Callista might not be more extroverted, at first...

Story (why not?)

In the contemporary version of the story, Foxy and Lio are ol-der (everybody is older, than in the original story, clearly).

Lio is a physiotherapist and she works as a sport physiothera-pist. Among her clients is a famous scuderia for Formula One and she takes care of its pilots.

Now Formula One is a sport that puts a lot of stress on the neck of the pilots, the helmet weights about 6kg and usually, during training the neck muscles are stimulated to be able to resist the high amount of G force the pilot has to go through during a grand prix... which usually amounts to a total of 26kg of weight on the neck.

Now the cockpit in a car is not too big and it’s another reason why, even though the F1 pilots are always well fit, they are not particularly bulky.

Now Lio... she is a big sport fan and it’s one of the reasons why she decided to enter the field of sport medicine and become a therapist: to massage the body of hunky looking sportsmen.

“Those sturdy, athletic bodies sweating shiny drops, glittering under the sun... huff huff” *_* - Deda hits Lio on the head!

As I was saying that particular trait of Lio is not gone because, let’s face it, girls just wanna have fun! Ha ha ha.

So then, one day, the F1 team sends in its brand new pilot and he

looks very sweet, very polite... very naughty.Now, our Lio she knows him very well and is a huuuge fan of his. She is all “Kyaah, I can’t believe I will get to massage Sa-lomon Twain! Huff huff.. I am going to rub him here and there! Huff huff”

Cough, yeah! But see, being a professional, she doesn’t want to give the wrong impression and wants to keep a low profile. She mana-ges to keep a composure and talks to him all relaxed and stuff almost on a daily basis... only to return at home, jumping on the couch, yelling at the sister: I can’t stand it!!! He’s too cuu-uuute!

So she begins to wait for his visits with greater anticipation every day... until one day she sees him show up with one of tho-se racing queens, plastic boobies and rubber lips and all... and she suddenly becomes very gloom.

“Nuoooh, what if he gets a girlfriend??? Okay, I am not the jealous type I’d go for him anyways! But when? When do I go for him? I talk talk and never do.... is he into those kinds of girls?” So she casually inquires.

As I said... our man, Sally, is very nice and polite but a bit nau-ghty (it’s the XXI century after all, who believes in innocence anymore?) and has her figured out quite well. Surely by the fact that she rubs him huffing and puffing - and she also dro-ols.

So he comes up with an imaginary sharp pain on the lower part of his back and is about to get all undressed when she turns all purple and stops him... “...or I’ll totally jump you.”

So he grins - yes, this Foxy grins - and proposes a pic-nic.

Go figure, sparks fly and stuff happens and you’d think... wo-hooo... but apparently it’s not very easy to date a famous per-son. That’s when the fun part begins..

Story (why not?)

Quite short for them as I want them to be as the established gay couple owning a cafe who provides food and suggestions/solutions while feeding the others.Sometimes the solutions comes through food.

So, for example, they provide the catering for Pea’s events. Amil packs his brother’s lunch (it’s singular, yes, in the XXI Josh does not appear, which makes me very sad but there’s a reason for it).Pifo and Amil meet in high school, they are both in the cooking club. They decide to go to cooking school together: one of them specializes in pastries and the other one in regular cooking (particularly fusion and healthy food).

They open a small business together, starting from catering and the business booms after Pea decides to hire them for a big event and their food is a complete success. Particularly Pifo’s cakes are considered to be too cute to be true but also edible (which is usually never the case because I have yet to eat a cake that’s pretty and also not disgustingly sweet). But Pifo’s cakes are light, healthy, lno liquor and no spongecake. No gla-zing either.He creates a heaven of fruits based mousses, mille-feuilles, profiteroles and saint honores!

Also Pifo is quite the volatile boy and goes through a lot of heartaches and rejections before he realizes that Amil was al-ways there for him (sounds familiar? yes! It’s karmic, I guess).

In the end, because this is a bit of a back story, when our XXI setting starts they own a small cafe called “Food for the

soul”... where people go when they are depressed or sad (or not) to find comfort in good food.Pifo made the place look very comfy, warm, welcoming... almost like your best friend’s living room: a nice sofas and armchairs, pretty cups and dishware, shelves full of books, no tv, nice classical music, the place smelling sweet.

There is no menu. He either brings a special of the day or, in case of broken hearts, just looks at the people’s face, talks to them a bit and brings food for them. It’s always the perfect food!Of course, after a while, he gets to know his clients very well. (and of course if you are on a special diet - vegetarian - or al-lergic to something you have to tell him).

So a few times we see either the girls or the boys going there to talk to him, eat sweet or savory, break in tears of relief and then leave feeling much better.This is what makes his life perfect.... imagine how hard it is to go on vacation with a business like that! (and that’s the con-flict, because throughout the story he’ll try to find a way to bring Amil on vacation somewhere to celebrate their special anniversary).

Pirate Cosplay or Pirate Fan Art is a set of illustrations that will see our pirates act in the clothes of heroes and heroines from famous stories.

The set came about as a game called “deda draw us a fan art of...” followed by a list of famous stories:

- Feetsie as Alice with a Cheshire Cat - the guys as the 4 musketeers- Lio and Foxy as red hot riding hood and the wolfie

More will follow:

- Cassandra as Pinocchio with the Cat and the Fox - Kane as hook and Castalia as peter pan- Pifo gaga and the guys... going to see the Wizard of Oz- Pea and Martin as Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy - Kane and Castalia as Phantom of the opera and Christine

For the useful yaps I would have to send you directly to the blog. (click on the word “blog” to visit)

Refer to the column to the right called “Useful Yaps”.It’s constantly updated with a new release, if there are any new curiosities to talk about.

At first I thought about putting some of the yaps here.The problem is that I link to other pages that might not be there in the future and I also upload photos that don’t belong to me and I have no right to use without linking to the rightful owner.

Plus there are way too many curiosities, right now and the column keep getting longer and longer by the week.

I hope you don’t mind my cutting this artbook short throwing a random link at you, but because I also produced a lot of new artwork I really want to get started on the next artbook before I get sick and tired of overtweaking this one!

So hopefully I will see you on the blog and thank you for reading the comic.

Maybe you enjoyed the artbook, maybe not! It’s my first attempt... I promise I will get better.

deda