Karen L. Mead

It was a while ago, but I think that when I drew this, I was starting to catch on to the fact that I wanted to take this story in a more fantasy direction. It was originally a kind of low-magic, magical realism-Haruki-Murakami-like-world, but once I came up with the idea of a tiny bat that loves Sam and follows him around, I think I was starting to brush up against the limits of what magical realism allows for. The girl is Aeka posing with her bunny, who didn’t make it into the books. Maybe there will be time for you some day, Bunny.