Jan 27, 2025 4 min read blog

Bahamut

The OG Bahamut Colouring Book for Arif.

(part one)

This begins our story of The Bahamut.

Over the holidays I dragged my son, and pushed myself, to sort through our storage locker on the Sunshine Coast (curiously named for a place that's mostly overcast and raining - maybe it was a ruse like Greenland/Iceland?) Going through everything and downsizing, we discovered a few lost treasures among the detritus and many stored memories. My son picked up something which stopped us both in the moment and we paused to have a look... It was a series of crude sketches quickly fashioned into a colouring book.

We lived on the coast for many years and it's where he built the foundations of a Childhood in the Magical Kingdom. Around the time of his 10th birthday (a while ago now), we piled into the car and took the ferry across to the big city to watch a movie. It wasn't just any movie – it was the premiere of Wim Wenders' film Pina!

Pina-cover — A film for Pina Bausch by Wim Wenders

I've always been a fan of Dance Theatre and have been lucky in my time to work on the sets and motion graphics for some wonderful works, including for the Canada Mainstage at Expo '86. I've always been a huge fan of Pina Bausch's work and of Wim Wenders' films – so it was with anticipation that we made our way across the water. If you haven't seen this movie, please find it and give yourself the gift of viewing it - it's on Kanopy and it's on streaming platforms. It's a tour de force and it's larger than life – just wow.

We both loved the movie and one piece of music struck a particular chord for us – the combination of music, lyrics and movement became firmly lodged in our collective mind. The song was Bahamut by Hazmat Modine (7.32 min.) – it was big and brassy and completely captivating. When we got back to the coast that night, I hastily scratched out the comic as a memento. A placeholder for something to come back to, a bookmark for both our hearts, of a memorable outing.

Finding it in the storage was serendipitous and I felt it as a kind of calling. I had always intended to come back to it, and I asked Arif if I could borrow it. Since they say there's no time like the present, I wrote to Wade Schuman, lead of Hazmat Modine – who wrote back with this gracious note:

Hey what a lovely letter to get and thanks so much for reaching out! I would be honored if you wanted to do something with it… Art is for sharing. The story itself was inspired by Borges' Book of Imaginary Beings… you can go there to get another take on it!
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Let me know how the project goes and again thanks for the contact, give my very best to your son!

And so, over the holidays, while I've been sick in bed with the 'flu, I found Borges' Book of Imaginary Beings – it's quite the anthology (an illustrated book of monsters anyone?) – and I began scratching out a new version of The Bahamut Colouring Book for Arif. It's for all those inner kids who wonder about the stories we tell about the scale of all things and it's for those who still have their sense of magic intact. Here are the first few pages (view in the browser – or click to enlarge the images)