Time constraints necessitate keeping this one a bit brief this time around, so let’s keep rolling. We got close to nailing the look of many of the characters, but still have our “leads” to meet. Over the course of the book, the battle between good and evil is exemplified not just between the two antagonists, Jaffe and Fletcher, but between the “Romeo and Juliet”-like romance between their offspring, Jo-Beth McGuire and Howie Katz. The story of just how these two evolved madmen actually produced progeny can wait until issue 2 of the adaptation, but suffice it to say that they produce children who are, eighteen years later, drawn together by forces they don’t understand. So because these two (and Jo-Beth’s twin brother, Tommy, a strange third wheel here) make up the emotional center of the book, their appearances needed to capture not only just their look as set forth in Clive’s book, but also evoke pathos.

As per my usual approach, I started with a short character description, and let Gabe run with things: Howie Katz
Has shoulder-length black hair that curls up a bit at the neck. Pale skin, dark eyes and John Lennon glasses on. He wears corduroy pants, a shabby jacket and black high-tops. He dresses dark, and always looks like he has the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Which, looking back, is not a whole lot to go on, really. Luckily, Gabe and I seem to be nicely in synch on this (which is a way of being polite to myself when what I mean to say is that he does a lot with the little I give him):

Jo-Beth McGuire
18 years old, Jo-Beth is the “Juliet” to Howie’s “Romeo.” She’s blonde and tan and beautiful, like maybe a Charlize Theron type. Her father, as they come to find out, is the Jaff. She’s probably the most innocent character in the book, and manages to remain mostly pure despite everything that happens to her.

As with all of these characters except Raul, who just needed minor tweaking (see last time), the initial sketch was perfect:

Tommy McGuire
Also 18, Tommy is Jo-Beth’s twin brother; he’s described as beautiful like Jo-Beth, both of them looking like the sun blessed them, blonde hair and good looks. I see him like Brad Pitt in Legends of the Fall (but with short hair).

There are other characters—lots of them in this book—but their appearances aren’t as important. Still, a few others stand out and would probably benefit from nailing their look down now, before we really get rolling. There’s Buddy Vance, a former standup comic who dies in the book and his house becomes the place where the book’s big finale begins. He’s like any old comic, like Jackie Mason and Rodney Dangerfield, I said—a pot belly, hard living on his face:

Another character who becomes prominent halfway through is Tesla, a female who’s a bit of a free spirit. I see her as sort of tall, with short but curled black hair, kind of like Angelina Jolie meets Juliette Binoche. She’s a close friend to Grillo, a reporter who heads to this small Northern California town to explore the strange goings-on around the death of old comedian Buddy Vance. For reasons to be explained down the line (and explored later, like in Barker’s TGASS sequel, EVERVILLE), Tesla just might be the most important person in the book. And maybe my favorite sketch so far. You can really see the worldliness on her face, even here:

And here’s Grillo, looking every bit the harried reporter:

And with that, we have pretty much the entire supporting cast of the book. The entire human supporting cast, that is. There will be more to come, in the form of some nightmares and monsters that also play a pretty important part of the book.

Gabe and I have also changed our entire approach to this book as a whole, which I’ll detail in future columns.

When I mentioned the first issue before, I stated that we were planning it for February ’06. That changed by a month, for various reasons, but in part to ensure that we had enough time to do all the upfront preparation and coordination. This isn’t the type of book that’d benefit from just winging it issue by issue, so we’re outlining various things beyond just getting the characters’ appearances down and addressing each of those. So rather than rush, we moved the book to March officially. The solicitations and cover images have been sent off to Diamond Distributors, for their Previews catalogue. We did stick with the plan to develop two very similar covers for this first issue, each one showing a different land from the book. The first cover I showed displayed the time-lost land called The Loop. And the second cover, as you can see here (click the thumbnail to see a larger image of it, too), illustrates Quiddity, which is the land of "the dream sea," the area/ideal that one man, Jaffe, is trying to conquer, and Fletcher (and Kissoon, and Howie and Jo-Beth) are trying to save. Picturing Quiddity as described in the book… is a challenge, to say the least. It's a dark land of dark seas, with no stars but lights like the Northern Lights, filled with archpeligos but overall left very vague; it's one of the places that could possibly be best left to each reader's imagination, but that wouldn't be much fun for an illustrated adaptaion, would it? So you're getting the Chris-and-Gabe version of Quiddity; it just might appear differently to you on the three times you, too, will visit it (in the womb, the first time you lay next to the person you truly love, and when you die). Clive expressed his happiness with what we’ve done with the place, so that’s good enough for us.

Next Time on The (Hopefully) Great and (Not-So) Secret Show: The first issue's been solicited. Now, onto some final designs and the first script

/chris

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