My trip to New York dumped me in a hostile climate much colder than I am used to living in Los Angeles. Although there was nothing I could really do about my toes going numb every day, I was able to bundle up with my layers of clothing and did alright. I even bought some brown gloves on St. Marks place with skull on cross bone prints. But after I purchased them, I realized how lame they were and wished I had just bought plain brown gloves. Oh well.
Harper Collins invited me and my artist friend Christy Kane in from the cold to have a design meeting with the editor on Frankenstein, Jordan Brown, and the art director. As you can see in the image above, I have a very opinionated view on the way I want this book to look. The art director had taken all of my sketches and finished images and placed them into a dummy version of the book with a temporary typeface. For the most part, the book is looking amazing. But there were a few changes I wanted made if the book was going to meet my expectations. I made my demands with an iron fist. Arguments broke out and objects were thrown. We said some things we didn't mean (or at least wouldn't normally express the things we were thinking out loud). It got a bit ugly and a brawl almost broke out. At this point, Jordan was questioning what he was getting into and the art director was rethinking her position working at a publishing house that would work with a psychopath like me.
We didn't really make amends, but the editor and I got a picture which captures the disdain we were feeling towards each other at the end of our meeting. Like gentlemen we shook hands and parted ways, even though we really wanted to bash each others heads in. We knew that we would have to meet again in a couple days to continue our discussions on Frankenstein.
A couple of days later we met over a steak dinner (nothing fuels the scrapping beast like near raw meat). We discussed promotional ideas for the book. One of these, which I am quite fond of, is to create a mock trailer inspired by old Universal horror film trailers of the classic era.
After dinner, we went to a bar and had some whiskey. We got a bit sidetracked from talking about Frankenstein and ended up talking most of the night about music and the bands that we like. We had some more whiskey, talking about Magnolia Electric Co., Bon Iver, Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Iron and Wine and other great folk artists. More whiskey was consumed. We traded band suggestions for both of us to check out. I checked out his suggestions and they pretty much all sucked. And I gave him some horrible suggestions knowing that they would melt his face off. That's just the kind of relationship we have.
After a few more whiskeys, we got another picture. This time, it actually looks like we can tolerate each other. There is a lesson to be learned here; meetings always go better when there is whiskey involved.
Until next time,
Be Grim!
Gris Grimly
Here is your illustration of the week. This is another image that portrays the unique and stylized take I have chosen for the world. Here, Victor visits professor M Waldman and discusses science, chemistry and philosophy. Victor is given a tour of M Waldman's laboratory and his "various machines". I have taken this opportunity to visually narrate the technology used to create the monster. This idea came to me when I read the passages "He then took me into his laboratory, and explained to me the uses of his various machines" and "not to derange their mechanism". I thought about having these crazy machines that M Waldman created that operate on the reanimated muscle and organs of living creatures by a glowing green fluid. These bizarre contraptions become the springboard to Victor's imagination, using these same techniques to bring his own creation to life (by "deranging the mechanism" of course).
