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Tweak says, "Yes, I will marry you."

mattshepherd (mattshepherd) wrote in scans_daily,
@ 2009-05-29 07:37:00

Current mood:	accomplished
Entry tags:	genre: adaptation, genre: adventure, genre: indie, in-joke: shameless plug, theme: pirates, title: captain blood

Yarr! A wee bit o' piracy for Friday.
Not that kind of piracy, the other kind. The rum-soaked kind.

Long-time reader, first-time poster (but I've had my work posted at your predecessor scans_daily before -- pages from a zombie book called Dead Eyes Open, which holds the dubious honour of being the only scans_daily post that actually made people vomit at their desk)... and I thought I'd share some preview scans from an upcoming comic I've been working on -- Captain Blood from SLG. It's an adaptation of the novel by Rafael Sabatini; I'm doing the script adaptation and Mike Shoyket (recently of Tron) is on art.

The cover (minus logo and trade dress):

And the first eight pages after the cut:

I feel a bit weird popping up and self-promoting, but I'm told I have to -- the chances of an indie book, especially a classic novel adaptation, getting racked is about .05% in the first place, so if I don't tell people this thing exists, they won't ever know.

And the comic isn't even a patch on the original novel, which is free for the readin' at the Captain Blood entry at Project Gutenberg.

Since these are preview scans, the one thing I haven't managed to do is to actually get the tone of the comic in here -- it's being printed in sepia and white instead of black and white, for that old-tymey Pirate! look, but that's happening at the printer's, not at the initial art level.

If you want to read it in full, I encourage you to take the initiative to order it (Previews code APR090631). Indie books and literary adaptations generally fall under the on-spec order radar for most retailers, so if you don't ask you'll never get.

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barnesarama
2009-05-29 07:45 am UTC (link)

Jeffreys' name is still infamous in the West Country. I used to drink in a Tudor pub in Taunton next to the courthouse with a particularly high ceiling where he'd been accustomed to eating and drinking while the bodies of his victims swung from the rafters.

And when my parents were restoring a house in Bridgewater a few years ago we found a mural depicting the Monmouth rebellion in the attic, so this stuff is still part of the folk memory around here.

And ultimately the failure of the rebellion and the shipping of the rebels out to the West Indies as slaves is why Pirates had Bristolian accents.

Is this going to be a book collection? I'm definately interested, but don't want to be buying more pamphlets.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

Thanks!

mattshepherd
2009-05-29 09:30 am UTC (link)

That's amazing, Barnesarama. The more I worked on Blood, the more amazed I was at how factual the backstory was. Sabatini really knew his stuff.

As far as a trade is concerned, it honestly depends on how sales go. Frankly, I'm worried about whether the whole run will see print, after seeing James Turner's brilliant Warlord of Io go the online-only route due to sales being dismal.

If we can't sell enough to print the full run of the adaptation, I'm not sure SLG will make the leap of faith to print the collected version. Then again, library interest might make a trade more worthwhile than the pamphlets.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

	tavella 2009-05-29 11:19 am UTC (link)
	Oooh, Captain Blood. We watched the movie the other day -- it still totally holds up. (Reply to this)

	aaron_bourque 2009-05-29 03:18 pm UTC (link)
	This looks . . . really really cool. I wouldn't even mind a b&w printing, but ooh, sepia . . . ::drool::. (Reply to this)

	ashez2ashes 2009-05-29 06:51 pm UTC (link)
	Hmm, intriguing. If I venture to the comic store tomorrow I'll order it. (Reply to this)

	vicky_wayne 2009-05-29 10:41 pm UTC (link)
	Ooooh. I am making a note of this for a to-buy list. I also really hope for a trade, that would be made of win. (Reply to this)