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Sunday 24 February 2013

Face off

I can never look at this picture from Necklace of Skulls without seeing red.

That's not Russ's fault, I hasten to say. It's always an honour and a delight to have one of my books illustrated by him. I can still remember the thrill I got whenever a package of new pictures from him would drop through the letterbox. He is, as I have said before, the consummate visualizer of fantasy worlds, and the only reason he's not doing the illustrations for the new editions is that I didn't negotiate the contract.

In the case of Necklace, I'd just returned from honeymoon in the Yucatan. Russ handed in this picture. Everyone was happy except for the art director, who declared that the faces of the children at bottom left were "too oriental", the ridiculous implication being that this was potentially racist. Evidently she was unaware of the racial provenance of pre-Columbian peoples. At any rate, she had Russ repeatedly Tipp-Ex (oh yeah, none of your fancy digi-drawing in those days) and redo the faces. Finally he delivered what you see here. To begin with the kids had looked just like the Mayan children I'd seen on honeymoon, and very charming they were too. Now that they had more Anglo-Saxon features, the art director declared herself satisfied. She pulled the same trick on another child's face in the same book. I don't know why the art directors in British publishing so often mess up everyone else's work (I refer m'lud to numerous exhibits including the logos of Golden Dragon and Blood Sword) but they do. I usually have to wait for the French edition to see how the artwork should have been treated.

Anyway, short of setting up my own publishing house and hiring the art director myself (now there's an idea) I am resigned to such farragos. Here's a little bit from the early part of Necklace in case you don't want to buy it now and would rather wait for the iBooks edition:
The high priest winds a white cloth across your eyes and leads you through to the inner shrine. A deep chill abides here; the thick stone blocks of the Death God's temple walls are never warmed by the sun. The sweet tarry smell of incense hangs in the air. You feel a hand on your shoulder, guiding you to kneel.  
A long period of utter silence ensues. You did not hear the high priest withdraw from the chamber, but you gradually become sure that he has left you here alone. You dare not remove the blindfold; to gaze directly on the holy of holies would drive you instantly insane. 
A whispering slithers slowly out of the silence. At first you take it for a trick of your unsettled imagination, but by straining your ears you begin to make out words. 'The way to the west lies through the underworld,' the whispering tells you. 'Go to the city of Yashuna. North of the city lies a sacred well which is the entrance to the underworld. Take this path, which is dangerous but swift, and you will emerge at the western rim of the world. From there it is but a short journey back through the desert to your goal.' 
The whispers fade, drowned out by the thudding of your heart. Frozen with terror at the words of the god, you crouch motionless on the cold flagstones. The cloying scent of incense grows almost unbearable. 
Suddenly a hand touches your shoulder. After the initial jolt of alarm, you allow yourself to be led out onto the portico of the temple, where the blindfold is removed. You blink in the dazzling sunlight. You feel as weak as a baby and the smell of incense clings to your clothes. After the cool of the shrine, the heat of the afternoon sun makes you feel slightly sick. 
The podgy priest is looking up into your eyes. 'You heard the voice of the god,' he says simply.

21 comments:

  1. Hi Dave
    "the only reason he's not doing the illustrations for the new editions is that I didn't negotiate the contract."
    Does this mean that the new books will have a completely new art?. Sorry If I didn't understand (I'm still sleepy)

    PS: by the way, I just bought from amazon the book 5 and 6. I wanted to do a review, but I am actually writing a journal from my character. So much fun!!!

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    1. Have you seen Pace's Journal, Ikaros? It's a very droll account of adventures in the Fabled Lands. Not sure of the link, or even if it's online anywhere.

      As for the art in the new versions - there will be some. Not much, though.

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    2. Wow! I haven't read it. Although I search for it, i haven't found it yet. If someone comes up with the link, I would love to read it.

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    3. I really like Pace's Journal as well. I am inspired to write Journal about dark priestess, Chosen One of Nagil but alas, I am busy with other work. :(

      Nevertheless, the Journal can be found on Fabled Lands Yahoo Group but I uploaded my own copy and here is the link below:

      https://docs.google.com/file/d/0Bw-D3aeeCY9EeFRtOUQ2MUdPTkU/edit?usp=sharing

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    4. Thanks for the link, Joe. For anyone who hasn't read it, Pace's Journal is a real classic.

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    5. Thanks for the Link JSP!!

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  2. Oh, I find it myself:

    "Covers and interior art are outside my jurisdiction on these first six books. Osprey are handling all that because the epub3 coding is such a distraction for me and Jamie. On later books, I'll take charge of the covers too."

    Thanks for sharing the original ilustrations. Looks amazing!

    Ikaros

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    1. Yes... On reflection, Jamie and I should have been in control of art, writing and code. Whoever heard of an app or game where the producer didn't oversee the graphic design? That's how you end up with a Stonehenge 18 inches high :-)

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    2. Actually, that gives me an idea. Maybe Russ could run the original illustrations for the VR books on his site. (Russ, if you're reading this, how about it? I'll send you scans if you need them.)

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    3. That's a good idea!! I really loved the original art.
      Ikaros

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    4. As for those faces ... not my finest hour, and why it was done ... racist humbug.

      Dave, if you'll send it I'll publish on my blog. On the last I did add a couple of character sketches for 'Hearts of Ice'.

      Also nice to read the reason my work is not being used on the new publishing. Without a 'heads up', my mind, paranoid as it is, had all sorts of thoughts. Can I please ask, my friend, that next time you let me know asap... please. It helps with my sanity ;).

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    5. Trust me, Russ, if it was up to me you'd be doing the art on all our books. Having said that, you didn't miss much on this gig - just two or three fillers and a map on each title. I guess the recession really is turning into a full-scale depression!

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    6. I thought it was something of that nature Dave,but thank you. Also, as I wrote send me those pics [in a few days] and if you still want I'll post. Was the sketch of one of the Gargan twins used on my latest blog post right? That is, based on my original idea. Time destroys memory.

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    7. I had to razor-blade the individual pages out of the book in order to scan the text, Russ, not having a digital copy of things written back in them days :-) That was tedious, but it does mean I should be able to get quite nice scans of all the pics. I'll send them over in the next few days. And yes, that was the Gargan twins, fearsome brutes that they were!

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  3. Hey, I played this one recently and I published one solution : http://www.la-taverne-des-aventuriers.com/t4521-solution-destins-4-le-collier-malefique
    I even adapted it into a novel written in Sambahsa.

    Olivier

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  4. Thanks, Olivier. I'm confused about one thing, though. Your walkthrough lists an error in 317. In the English edition, 317 routes to 340 (if you have your brother's skull), to 363 (if you met Stooping Eagle in the desert) or to 384 (in which case you get a half-resurrected version of your brother). Which is the error?

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  5. Oops ! I think I misread one paragraph ! In fact, I did not write the walkthrough while playing but later, because one member of La Taverne asked me to, and using the Sambahsa novel adaptation which has no numbers at all. All my apologies and I have fixed this (I was so exhausted after all those ordeals...) : http://www.la-taverne-des-aventuriers.com/t4521-solution-destins-4-le-collier-malefique#184083
    "Ghalven Moni" is the novel in Sambahsa : http://sambahsa.pbworks.com/w/page/24383463/%22Vocabulary%20keys%22%20to%20some%20Sambahsa%20texts

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  6. The Blood Sword logo does look rather like something any of the target audience of gamebooks could have produced themselves, rather than the product of a professional art director. They never felt in keeping with the (as I perceived) older age range of the books. Though of course they will never eclipse the US editions of Golden Dragon for 'cringeworthiness'!

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  7. Well that goes a long way to explaining why the title lettering for Blood Sword and Virtual Reality look so, well 'naff' frankly. They're especially dated now too.

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  8. Naff is the word for those two series' logos, Derm. And the Golden Dragon lettering is even worse. But it doesn't matter 'cause now we've got a nice, compact, simple logo for the Infinite IF series, thanks to Osprey art director Stewart Larking!

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  9. Such brutal nitpicking of those Blood Sword books! I rather liked the logos. I liked those postage-stamp-sized combat maps too, which I know you're not a fan of, Dave. Just transfer them over to a draughts board any time a fight comes up. I especially liked how those five thick black book spines stood out in my bookcase, in amongst all those green-spined Fighting Fantasy titles.

    Well, if consensus is against me, I'll ascribe my tastes to the tireless fondness of adolescence.

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