​Aias (or Αίας) is a character inspired by (in the latinized form) Ajax the Greater or Ajax of Telamon, in Greek mythology, with whom I became fascinated years ago. He was one the Greek heroes who fought in the Trojan war along with Agamemnon, Achilles, Odysseus, and the lot, and who takes his own life after suffering dishonour and being driven to madness.

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The eponymous tragedy Ajax by Sophocles became the theme for my Masters in stage design at the UdK (University of Arts Berlin), along with reality and fiction in theatre using different levels of the narrative process [3], and a rough draft of the first chapter of my already meta-fictional comic - at the end of which a larger-than-life Aias suddenly appears to save my alter ego. In my narrative, not only he symbolises the connection to my roots but is the enabler to the fantastical journey, or “odyssey” we are to take together toward Greece.

However, despite being named after his mythical namesake, my Aias (p.10) is neither Homer’s or Sophocles’s Ajax of Telamon, but who (or what) he is, or where exactly he comes from, is something that I will save for future chapters...