Tuesday, December 17, 2013

thesis: "Roadside Picnic", a sci-fi graphic novel

I am finally back, bringing you the results of my work of the last three months. Believe it or not, but this is actually my thesis! The task, which I chose myself, was to transform my beloved sci-fi novel "Roadside Picnic" by Arkadi and Boris Strugatzky into a graphic novel (if you remember, I created "Red" and "Monkey" related fan art about three years ago). Since it really took quite a while to do the cover artwork (they are intended to be printed at a minimum size of DIN A2, most likely even bigger so you can almost walk into the pores and hide between these wrinkles) and because I drew all the sample pages with a ballpen (part of the concept), I don't have that much to show but I am very satisfied with the outcome. I will try to contact publishers about this and want to find out who's the current owner of the original rights. Maybe this is going somewhere.

Just so you know, I created three prototypes, one page page for each and a 140 pages "Making of" artbook. I plan to finish another cover artwork around feb 2014 and maybe another page, or even more pages for the oral exam and the exhibition afterwards. Hope you like 'em.

EDIT: Here's the Russian version (thanks for this goes to a friend of mine). Since I like the Cyrillic script a lot in these panels (and since it's a Russian book ;)), I replaced the German version (which is now linked underneath) with the Russian one. An English version will be added shortly.









here are some wip and detail shots for you:









20 comments:

PES Liga said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Philipp Quien said...

Zum dritten Mal - ich verstehe das System hier nicht:
Ganz herzlichen Glückwunsch!
Es sieht nach einer einfachen, logischen Weiterentwicklung deiner Fähigkeiten aus. Das ist wohl das Geheimnis - es einfach aussehen zu lassen!

LGs
Philipp

Anonymous said...

This is beautiful! I sincerely hope you are able to finish it and secure the rights to get it published. This masterpiece novel already has a superb film adaptation and a marvelous series of games. A graphic novel would be the perfect addition.

Best of luck to you, and I hope to see your art in publications available here in the USA.

Best,

H. Kistler

Hagtorp said...

Просто великолепные работы! Я просто восхищён!
Но есть одно маленькое замечание: Мартышка не была обезьянкой. :)
Это была обычная девочка, но покрытая золотистой шёрсткой. А на картине она изображена как обезьянка, что не соответствует повествованию.

Pato said...

Man, I just hope you have success pushing that project, it's fucking awesome. Greetings from Brazil.

Александра said...

Это совершенно прекрасно! У вас замечательный стиль, и я очень рада, что вы выбрали эту книгу для своей работы. Желаю вам творческих успехов и вдохновения. Надеюсь, ваше произведение будет продаваться у нас.
Привет из России)

Anonymous said...

Awesome work! After looking at the first page I wanted to see more. Excellent job. Your rendition of Red reminds me of someone, who would do a great job if this was made into a movie.

Unknown said...

This is simply amazing. Better than I ever imagined. I hope someday you can illustrate the whole Roadside Picnic story. I really do. Best of luck with your career.

rombl4 said...

That is awesom! Keep going!

Александр Панченко said...

We are creating a community for people who write fanfics by Strugatsky. This Non-Profit Projects. Can we use your illustrations? We will include your name and give a link to your blog, or anywhere you wish.

===
Мы создаем сообщество для людей которые пишут фанфики по Стругацким. Это некомерческий проэкт. Можем ли мы использовать ваши илюстрации? Мы обязательно укажем ваше имя и дадим ссылку на ваш блог, или куда пожелаете.

Unknown said...

This is the best work on this work from those that I saw !!!!! Incredible !!!!

Unknown said...

Hey, this is absolutley incredible. Any chance you can draw your depiction of the "Meat Grinder"? I'd love to see what you'd come up with. The gorier the better.

MSC said...

Это именно Рэдрик Шухарт!

Unknown said...

Просто великолепно! Просто шикарно передана атмосфера. Мартышка - она все же была человеком, а тут она как обезьяна изображена. Это вот не очень. В остальном просто превосходно!

TwinCat said...

Большое спасибо. Эта книга очень важна для меня. Вы визуализировали ее намного лучше, чем Тарковский и его кинооператоры. Я даже не ожидал такого проникновения в душу книги.

Что касается дочери Шухарта, то ее имя Марта. Родители просто звали её "Мартышка" вместо "Марточка", очень похожие слова.

Sebastian said...

Hi this is the best visualization that I have ever seen of the novel. What can we do for you to continue ? Should we start a kickstarter/ crowdfunding project ?

notts-tuina said...

Thia looks excellent. I have been trying to find this for a while (after I saw a cover shot) I only just realised that it is a project in development.

Dies sieht ja echt ausgezeichnet aus. Ich suche seit langem dieses Comic (ich habe eine Kopie dse Covers bemerkt). Ich habe gerade erst gemerkt, dass es sich um ein Projekt in der Entwicklung handelt.

notts-tuina said...

Ich habe erst gerade bemerkt :-D

Anonymous said...

I'm up for it.

Anonymous said...

Man i whish i could buy iy