Between the 2nd & 3rd parts of the Go West Young Warrior trilogy, there was a comedy ep, Mayan Madness, for the #Xena Virtual Season. The title is a play on March Madness, a slang term for the American college basketball playoffs (in March), & since it’s often said that the Mayans invented basketball, we get to see Xena & Gab shoot the hoops in ancient Maya. They must win a lopsided match  against them in a game of Pok Ta Pok in order to save the lives of the 2 young Mayan boys seen on the right. In reality, the game was probably more like racquetball, & was played by men, women & children, but it was also thought to be used in rituals of human  sacrifice, as seen here.

My portrayal is anachronistic, as they are wearing modern style jerseys with numbers, both Western Arabic & Mayan, indicated with bars & dots (for numbers, I just used the age of the actors). Here, #Xena is settling a dispute with the referee by putting the pinch on him. Despite its comic look, I did a ton of research, & I can’t emphasize enough the potential of depicting Mayan culture in comic book form. If I could do this scene over (& I’m tempted to), I would show more of the game itself, give some sense of its action, & use the actual rules. 

I can’t believe it didn’t occur to me to have Xena & Gab passing the ball with their hips, as originally played! This was my last published drawing for the XWPVS, but I did do concept sketches for the finale.