Tales of Unsurpassed Vanity (Ιστορίες Ατελείωτης Ματαιοδοξίας) #2
June 2001. Athens: Self-published. 24 pages.

In the late 1990s I migrated to Athens, Greece, and began self-publishing my personal comic book anthology, Tales of Unsurpassed Vanity (Gr: Ιστορίες Ατελείωτης Ματαιοδοξίας), which became one of Greece’s longest-running self-published independent comics. I had been preparing the stories for the first three issues since 1998 whilst undertaking my mandatory military service.

The anthology featured some continuing stories, like Jazz & Maria, about vampire club kids who get entangled in a massive science fantasy adventure, and Three Kings, in which Elvis, Bruce Lee and Jim Morrison team up to fight evil.
It also featured self-contained stories, mostly about the dark corners of Athens, as well as comedic strips starring my characters Louvre De Buff, a weed-smoking stray dog, and Punky Smurf, an anarchopunk smurf that hates his brainwashed smurf collective.

This issue featured a story called This Charming Man, about a young Morrissey fan whose life changes when they begin identifying as a man. It’s probably the first case of a trans gender character being featured in a Greek comic book — at least in a positive light.

Tales of Unsurpassed Vanity lasted ten issues, ending in 2004.