[Update: November, 1996. The project is still a long-term goal, but I've been concentrating on the linguistic aspects for the moment.]
What is this project that's so hopeless that I wondered whether or not to even start it? It may be unique, for all I know. The ultimate goal: a fully illustrated, entirely alien story, with no human characters, written entirely in the alien languages. Crazy, isn't it? I decided to allow only two elements of human storytelling: the traditional format and symbolic conventions of graphic novels, and the Roman alphabet. Alienizing these elements would detract from the story, without gaining enough benefit to justify changing them.
Unfortunately, telling the story in this format will require a commentary as large as the story itself in order to understand it, including translations of all the alien dialogue. But the initial attempt looks so nice, even in rough form (to me, at least), that I actually think I might try a chapter or two and see how it comes out ... maybe by a year or so from now! Of course, it may get easier as it goes on. I've never done this kind of work before. Oddly enough, the languages are the easiest part. I've done so many that I created an entire new language for the dialogue in the first page. (Well, of course it isn't a full-featured language yet, but it's adequate for the needs of this scene. And complicated sentences don't look good in comics, anyway.)
The story is derived from one that I wrote in bits and pieces over a period of two years, from 1989 to 1991. However, the scene I chose to illustrate takes place before the beginning of the story. The Tariska-Nosathi tribe is a small band of Thrinnyng, small humanoid furry aliens, on a distant planet. The tribe has suffered numerous losses from attacks by Ttanissyn, a much larger but less intelligent species of aliens, and their survival is in doubt. They haven't encountered any other Thrinn tribes in over 40 years. (Some of this background material would be presented in the regular course of the story.) This scene illustrates their first encounter with another tribe. (Keep in mind that these are rather crude preliminary sketches.)
Let's take the story one line at a time for simplicity. Shireetha, a young hunter, and her half-cousin Jiral (they share one grandparent) are walking through the forest, talking about the future of the tribe. (Jiral is an accomplished explorer, but Shireetha won't let him travel alone because the only two other surviving males in the tribe are her father Shirak and her half-brother Thraksi. Jiral is her only potential mate.)
In the first panel, Shireetha says "I wonder if we may be alone in the world. I hope not, but..." (Thakinya: Laa, skethi nim kirritha zhirinit... Niskode, ish...) Jiral, in the middle, spots some motion behind a tree and turns towards it. Shireetha notices that he left the path, and in the second panel says his name ("Zhiraal" is a good phonetic approximation of how to pronounce Jiral). Then she notices Jiral with a strange, dark-furred thrinn, and wonders "Who is that?" (Thakinya: Taare kiat?).