Ok, technically I’m not breaking a book. But I am being rude to it.
Some time ago, I started getting an idea that it might be fun to take one of my contributor copies, of some of the books I’ve created art for, and add new ink art throughout. The idea came about because one of my most known books, Night Visions 12, did not end up with the interior art inside it. Ever since then, I’ve wanted to find a way to add it back in.
Now, in the case of Night Visions 12, I can only find my one copy. So I decided to try another book, one that I have more than one copy of.
When I was at VisionCon a couple of weekends ago, a great chance came along. I had some time to sit there in front of folks, and I wanted to give them some sort of show (a show without my being naked. Pervs.).
I decided that the best thing to try would be to bring out one of my copies of Brian Keene’s novella Scratch, which I did the cover for and quite a number of interior illustrations.
The plan, the full idea, was this. Take one of those books, and, carefully, ink in more art throughout the entire book. There are lots of white spots at the ends of chapters and such, plenty of area for me to ink in more of what is going on in the book.
Now, having been a book collector for many years, the voice in my head was screaming, “THIS IS BLASPHEMY! YOU ARE DESTROYING THAT BOOK!”. In fact, that’s what has kept me from doing it for awhile, the idea that I might screw it all up and ruin a perfectly good copy.
But, with the encouragement of several folks at the con (especially Con Co-Chair David Stanfield, who REALLY wanted me to swap him copies), I went for it.
I only had time to do the one page, but I think I’m on the right track. For me, and this is certainly debatable, the story boils down to the little girl and what happens to her. I know that’s probably not what Keene intended, but it’s what I see in the overall idea. As he says, your mileage may vary.
So here’s the first shot at it, the first title page, with a quote from the story itself on the facing page. As always, let me know what you think.
