The Carpet Merchant Comic

It tells the story of zeynel an ordinary man surrounded by the extraordinary his life his death and the aftermath of his unwilling transformation into a vampire.

The carpet merchant comic.

About the comic a two volume eisner nominated graphic novel set in 17th century istanbul and 18th century england about a carpet merchant s reconcilitation with faith love and home in the aftermath of his death by a vampire. A magic realist historical epic with a modern satirical take on gothic fiction and the literary vampire genre. Based off a character from her on going webcomic the world in deeper inspection the comic sprung to life out of necessity when she realised one of her character s back stories needed to be brought to light. That malaysian was reimena yee a melbourne based illustrator writer and editor who initially started the carpet merchant of konstantiniyya surprisingly as a spin off comic.

The carpet merchant of konstantiniyya it s a vampire story but it s not about being a vampire. Say hello to the carpet merchant of konstantiniyya which is a backstory and character exploration of one of my supporting mains zeynel who you may have seen prior to this. During the last 3 years it s become the love of my life. It went a bit overboard beyond my expectations zey hasn t been as well fleshed out originally since he isn t that important to the plot despite his central role.

I ve been writing and illustrating the carpet merchant since 2016. Set in seventeenth century istanbul the carpet merchant of konstantiniyya vol i is a beautifully drawn meditation on love home faith and loss. In the first volume of the eisner nominated online graphic novel we follow turkish carpet merchant couple zeynel and ayse through the 25 years of their marriage and how the strength of their love pulls them through the tragedy of zeynel s death and return as a vampire. It s actually an inspiring love story.

It was recently nominated for an eisner award the most prestigious award in the comics medium.