You’ve probably noticed that everything looks different in The Last Sun Novel. Yes, I changed the artworks. The text novella on Tapas is meant to accompany the comic, but while the panels slowly march forward, I decided it was time to bring in a little piece of this project history.

The novella you’re reading is part of a much larger project called The Game of Jart. Gloria Mu, the author wanted it to be a full marriage of text and image. From the start it wasn’t just “a book with illustrations” but a deliberate journey between the two. Think: mythology, medieval romances, Mongolian epics, Heian aesthetics, Arabic tales, light novel energy, and modern fantasy all sitting around one table saying, “Yes, this is normal.”

So, before the comic existed, there was already a visual world — created by Aleks Klepnev, whose biography sounds like three people combined: he drew as a kid, raised three children, spent 35 years as a chief ophthalmologist (yes, really), then returned to art and immediately started making album covers, book covers, and eventually… Jart monsters. 

He produced twenty-six full artworks and a whole swarm of tiny drolleries — enough to earn him two solo exhibition in Moscow in 2023 and more in St Petersburg.

Because the comic is still catching up with the text, I asked Aleks for permission to show some of that original artwork here so Tapas readers can enjoy the “first incarnation” of Jart’s imagery. He said yes — which is why you’re now seeing these strange, beautiful, sometimes alarming creatures wandering through the chapters.

So enjoy this little art interlude while the comic advances. 

And thank you, once again, for reading, following, subscribing, and generally making this labyrinth of stories a real place.