This drawing from Battle of Amphipolis (from the #Xena Virtual Season) shows teen Xena in her mother’s tavern trying to convince her fellow villagers to defend themselves against the warlord Cortese en route with his army. Her admiring brother, the noble Lyceus, looks on. It’s a sequel to Death Mask, but I thought it did well to incorporate what we learned in other eps, like Sins of the Past & Forgiven. It helps shed light on her dilemma: in Death Mask, Xena explains that her pursuit of Cortese led her down the path to warlordism. But here, we see that there’s more going on.

We see that the qualities that make her such a formidable opponent of Cortese also alienates her fellow villagers. Xena’s no role model. She’s a lot like Tara, from Forgiven, a wild girl who’s regarded with suspicion by the others. She thinks the villagers are cowards, but they think she’s reckless. 

The more she argues, the more she pushes them away. She’s right, but it costs her dearly. Her brother dies fighting at her side, & she’s blamed for that. This script picks up on some of the complexities of Xena’s character that Death Mask hints at. In Xena’s mind, Lyceus is forever young, innocent & trusting.

Toris is not: he’s angry, judgmental & bitter. He & Xena blame each other, but they’re more alike than they’d like to admit. Their relationship rings true to me. The question I have with Death Mask is what would’ve happened if Lyceus survived? I think there’s 3 possibilities. 

1st, he continues to follow Xena in her quest against Cortese until he gets killed. 2nd: he continues until he becomes like her, a warlord. 3rd: the most likely scenario, he parts ways with her at some point, & becomes repulsed by the person she’s become. In other words, he becomes like Toris.

There’s a 4th option: he convinces her to give up her obsession with Cortese, but this is unlikely.  Xena is just  too big for her village, & Cortese is also a pretext for her to leave it. To not answer that call is to deny herself. We see a similar scenario play out in Remember Nothing, where she’s given the option to do just that. Walking away from her dark side means walking away from her better side. In a way, her 2 brothers represent the light & the dark, & she struggles to accept balance in that as well, in Battle of Amphipolis.

The next ep I illustrated for the Xena virtual season was The Battle of Amphipolis. I very much liked this story, & it ended up influencing my current project, a Xena webcomic, Rock of Ages. Xena reunites with her brother Toris in season 7, both wrestling with guilt over the death of their mother, burned as a witch years ago.

There’s a lot of flashbacks to Xena’s teen years predating the warlord attack that would come to define her. I thought her psychological portrait connected the dots in her story, from the pilot to AFIN. This inspired me to take a similar approach with Eve.

My drawing skills aren’t as sharp in this ep, so I’ll only post a few. I had begun to spend more time researching, since my knowledge of the show at this time (21 years ago) was mostly seasons 4-6, since that’s when I began watching.

The 1st Xena dvd wasn’t released until 2002, after I’d left the vs, so I depended on vhs tapes of select eps, & relied a lot on Whoosh & the many screenshot libraries that existed back then. This vs ep was based on Death Mask, a season 1 ep, not popular with the fandom so difficult to find.

The drawing above is a teenage #Xena bickering with her mom, Cyrene. I really liked these scenes, & I think they very likely inspired my portrayal of Salmoneus’s difficulties with his daughter in my upcoming project.

I’ll wrap up the Laurel Tree ep from the #Xena Virtual Season I worked on 21 years ago with its closing image: a dad & his kids grateful to our heroes Xena & Gabrielle. I gave them a distinctive Little Nemo look here. Little Nemo was drawn by an animator, & pretty much any comics artist who worked in animation (like Walt Kelly, of Pogo) is a huge influence on me, as I also studied animation. One of the things I loved doing on the #Xena vs was visualizing the supporting characters: that’s where the artist can expand on the story.

This drawing from the #Xena Virtual Season ep, The Laurel Tree, shows iirc a soldier with a gorytos, an ancient Greek quiver. (actually Scythian). It was specified in the script, but I came across a pic of an ornate one found in Philip of Macedonia’s tomb.

Generally, when I illustrated a teleplay, it was given me by the editorial staff. I didn’t really interact with the author. This was how they did it on the show as well. I would try to discover the author’s intent, while expanding on it using my own research. 

I would also try to look for any patterns in the story that could influence my choices. It didn’t matter whether those patterns were intentional: if they were there, for any reason, I’d use them. In this case, I did hear from the author, afterwards, who told me I picked exactly 

the right design for the gorytos. So I was very pleased. She was very nice, & would later write another ep in season 8 I was looking forward to illustrating, but wasn’t able to, as I had other commitments by then. Btw: you know this character is evil by the off-kilter angle!

This is another drawing from the #Xena virtual Season ep, The Laurel Tree. Gab leaps onto Argo II’s back as Xena rides away. I like this one as well, as it gives you an idea of motion despite them just sitting on a horse, due to the progression in their poses.

More Virtual Season drawings from The Laurel Tree, this time #Xena wrestling with Alti. This has a rotoscoped Ralph Bakshi cartoon look. Tho Xena is an action show, it’s a challenge capturing that in comic book form. Emotion is key, & I tried to capture that at least.

Another Laurel Tree sketch for the #Xena Virtual Season. Gabrielle confronts Alti. I was pleased to have the chance to draw Alti. I think I designed her look, but am not sure. She definitely looks like a Little Nemo character here. Gab’s costume was designed by the staff, the AFIN tattoo is covered by tattoo-shaped armor.

This is one of my favorite drawings, also from the #Xena Warrior Princess  virtual season episode, The Laurel Tree. Xena has been injured & blinded (blindness is a common motif on the show), & Gabrielle is valiantly carrying her to safety. Gab is often the rescuee, so I loved the idea of turning that around.

This is the first drawing I contributed to a #Xena virtual season in late 2001 I believe. I joined it halfway into its “7th season”. The name of this ep was “The Laurel Tree,” a beautiful elegiac tale. This particular vs had a number of eps like that, which suits my mood. 

It was influenced by the classic film To Kill a Mockingbird. You’ll notice Gab’s outfit is different than the tv show. Keep in mind this is after A Friend in Need, so she still has her tattoo, & she’s more armored, due to having wielded the chakram.

I didn’t design the costume. The vs had an editorial team that designed new costumes, etc  for the main characters, as needed, then supplied the models to guest artists (like me). I think  I made her hair slightly longer to show passage of time from AFIN.