It is easy to think of historical warrior figures that still manage to enflame imagination even today. Names abound: Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, Attila the Hun, Achilles, or even more recent ones like Vlad Tepes. But there are few peoples (as in the ordinary people, not just the heroes and leaders) than can actually be as fascinating as the Spartans. Their prowess in fighting, their unfaltering loyalty as well as their uncanny valor in battle, as outlined in the battle of Thermopylae, showed just how they were the stuff legends are made of.

My previous drawing, "Der Prahler naht", had started out as a mythical man-vs-beast picture, and the manticore was one of the first 'beast' ideas that came to my mind. I ended up with Siegfried and Fafnir, and it was much better than I had expected, but I thought I still had to do a manticore.

What to pit against the manticore? - I wondered. Then I remembered that Aristotle wrote about the manticore, so I knew that it was a beast known in Ancient Greece. I immediately thought that the best idea would be to pit a Spartiate against the foul beast.

So here it is, the valiant spear-wielding Spartan against the razor-fanged monster!

"O xein', angellein Lakedaimoniois hoti täde keimetha tois keinon rhämasi peithomenoi."