So, now that you're here, you probably ask yourself: "Who, or what, is Poharex?"
To answer this question, let me tell you first about myself.
My name is Dory Holtzman. I was born in 1990 and I live in Israel.
As a child, I always liked dinosaurs. Well, who didn't? There is something in those ancient beasts -their size, their fossils, the mystery of their extinction- that fascinates the human mind all over the world. But while for other kids it was just a fad, for me it was for life.
By the age of 12 I also became a fan of Lego. My favorite Lego toys, believe or not, were Bionicle toys. These strange, colourful plasic robots gave me a whole new world of construction posibillities, as they encouraged the builder to use their creativity and combine different sets to make new characters. As soon as I had two sets, I took them apart and built a T-Rex from the pieces. That's how the first concept of Poharex was born.
The storyline that came with the toys had an influence on me as well; it taught me about heroism, virtue and the importance of friendship and teamwork, as well as to use my imagination and to appreciate fantasy and the countless options this genre offers. As years went by, I kept buying more and more Bionicle sets, rebuilding the dinosaur to look more accurate and creating other dinosaur characters for him to interact with. I also drew comics which presented Poharex as a character in the Bionicle world and his interactions with the robots. These comics are no longer to be found anywhere on the internet since I don't want anyone to confuse them with the current Poharex comics.
A bit more recently, in the beginning of 2007, my interest in Bionicle -sets and story alike- had started to fade. That's when I've decided to take Poharex to the next level.
I couldn't and didn't want to use Bionicle as a basis anymore- the copyrights over it belong to the Lego company, not to me. I knew that I need to create something of my very own so that Poharex can grow and expand. So I took the basic values the Bionicle gave me- the ones of heroism and the love of fantasy- and combined them with everything I know about dinosaurs, prehistory, biology and other fields of knowledge, and with the inspiration that came to me from many other sources: Watership Down, Conan the Barbarian, Disney's Dinosaur, Tarzan, Batman and countless others. Very soon, the Poharex canon began to take shape: a prehistoric continent. An ancient hero with enigmatic past. A greedy villain. A prophecy. The result is what you see before your eyes at this very moment.
Why am I doing this? Recently I've noticed that too many forms of media present dinosaurs in a negative light: from kids' TV shows such as "Barney", which present dinosaurs as dumb, gullible and annoying characters (even not intentionally), to more teen-oriented films, novels and more like "Jurassic Park", "King Kong" and "Anonymous Rex" which present dinosaurs as cold, heartless monstrosities (and, in "Anonymous Rex"'s case, that can only redeem by abandoning their true nature and becoming more human-like). To even the odds, I am presenting my comics for everyone to see, and to show the world that a dinosaur doesn't have to be a monster, and the true potential of a dinosaur hero. Whether I've succeeded or not, time will tell. But until then, enjoy the comics!