Yes, that Jordan Mechner*. I just started his “Templiers” two-parter GN, and in the collected-edition preface, he explains that he’s seen and read any number of historical fiction works, but he’d never come across anything outside of prose works that told the story of the spectacular, nefarious downfall of the Knights Templar, formerly the absolute badasses of mighty Catholic orders.

On top of that motivation, he also wanted to tell the story from the common member’s perspective, to me one of the most interesting, excellent keyholes to understanding historical matters.

(right-click as needed)

Très bien, c’est parti!

In which three of the ‘less-conditioned’ Templars snuck out for some fun, one of them heavily pining for his lost love. The very same gal who broke his heart, back-handedly motivating him to join the Templars in the first place.

Fighters gonna fight. But seriously, I LOVE that bottom-right panel, which in fact directly inspired me to make this post, hehe.

There’s gotta be a catch(!)
(and in fact there was… quite a dreadful one, indeed)

* Mechner of course was the 8-bit videogame genius who created such classics as Karateka and the amazing “Prince of Persia” series. In fact, in our LOUNGE’s gaming section, you’ll find a link that allows you to play the original PoP in browser, but with some “trainers” to help, if you’ve hit a wall.

NOTE: I’ll be ding-dong-danged, but I couldn’t figure out what the dang-ol’ issue was with clearing up the graphics artifacts in the above pages. I ran them through three different upscale services, and all proved fruitless. I wonder why…?