Publishers' art directors used to have a fixed sense of whether an artist could do maps, drawings or paintings. They might allow that somebody could do two of those, but never all three. Jamie and I, having worked with Russ on many projects, know how incredibly versatile he actually is, but even so it took us until the last two FL books to get the publisher to let him do the world maps.
One nice little detail you can see here: the mechanical buttresses on the palace that enabled it to walk. That was Russ's idea, and one we happily incorporated into Harkunan mythos. And it must have been a decade before Mortal Engines, too. And did Edgar Rice Burroughs get there even earlier, or was that a Disney retcon?
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ReplyDeleteI've always been fascinated from your ability to make all of this "real", in a sort of sense, and when I say "your" I mean both you authors and Russ Nicholson and Kevin Jenkins. When you read the books paragraphs are normally very short, often only a couple of lines, but they're so charming that you never feel them cold and objective, as it happens quite often in other gamebook series and, unfortunately, even in some awful novels.
ReplyDeleteMoreover, every single piece of image brings you there, lets you have a quick glance on this wonderful world. I remember when I firstly saw the picture of Marlock City in FL 1: it's very simple, but... how can I say, it's "alive"... And this "rough layout" of the final FL 5 cover lets me feel the same. I'm quite convinced it's one of the core features of artists: they don't need much to make you understand what they feel, to bring you where they want.
I remember discussing elements of the cover design with Dave. I think we did that for all of them, then Dave would do a rough of the cover himself, and hand it over to Kevin who'd make it look amazing. However, Russ had a lot to do with the design of the Uttakin masks, their Seal, the city, their clothes - Uttakin aesthetics in general, so maybe that's why we got Russ to do a rough, so that Kevin would capture an authentic Uttakin look. Russ is just so good at that kind of concept stuff.
ReplyDeleteYep. If we ever make a movie, we should get Russ to do our concept art!
DeleteAsk Peter Jackson too ! He'll make a trilogy out of this single book ! :-)
DeleteIf book 7 becomes a reality (or other new gamebooks) would Russ be on board as illustrator?
ReplyDeleteHe'd certainly be my and Jamie's first choice. I'm not sure if we can afford him these days, though.
Deleteeh?
DeleteIt turns out we can afford you, Russ - thanks to Kickstarter! (My comment above was from 2012, when Jamie and I had no idea how we could ever fund the writing, art, typesetting and printing needed for FL book 7.)
DeleteZodanga as a "walking city" in the John Carter movie seems to have been an in-joke for Burroughs fans: it is placed, without explanation, in different planetary locations in the novels. The idea seems to have originated with architect Ron Herron in the 1960s: google Ron Herron walking city for more information.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting - thanks, Graham.
Deletenever claimed I was the first with the idea but think it goes further back to the 1800's, Jules Verne for example.
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