Saturday, March 27, 2010

John Carter of Mars

John Carter Of Mars

Note: all images are available in larger size vies if you click on them.

Hello Pulp Friends,

I wanted to share the step by step for the above fake cover I did for John Carter of Mars - it seems I am specializing in pseudobiblia (or impossible books ;)) lately.

When I heard about the weekly TWART topic being John Carter, I had this idea to mock those old paperback covers: they look great plus I didn't have to fill the whole page with artwork (yeah, hard to cut too much time out of the weekly schedule when you are under deadlines ;)).
I wanted to show John and possibly Dejah facing some kind of beast. Initially I thought of some pterodactyl, then one of those 6 legged tiger, and finally I settled for some sort of alligator/reptyle.

John Carter Of Mars

Once the linework was done, I hand drawn in all the graphic elements and type (logo, titles, etc).

John Carter Of Mars
And then brought the file in Corel Painter and add some colors (trying to keep a muted palette).

John Carter Of Mars
Finally took the cover, sat it on a shelf for 50 years in the attic, and you get the result shown on top of this post ;)

Hope you guys enjoyed it :)

Cheers,
Francesco


Artwork © 2010 Francesco Francavilla

9 comments:

Chuck Wells said...

Oh brother, you are really making it difficult for me to select a subject for that commission I want.

This faux-Carter cover is simply to die for, not only for the excellence in execution, but John Carter is almost my favorite Burroughs character.

Keep it up, pal!

Unknown said...

Excellent, another fun cover!

ERB's Mars had a lizard-like critter featured, except it had six legs, three on each side - yours is missing a pair!

Also, clothes? Red Martians always wore jewlery and not much else, according to ERB's stories! Mind you, that might be "edited" for public consumption, which excuses your cover!

Greg said...

That was very interesting, I do love to see the process from artists, it adds another layer to my enjoyment. Wonderful work too, the world needs more "impossible books", I think.

Juan Bocos said...

Awesome pic!!. I can't wait for your next Pseudo Cover.

Brian said...

I'd buy that book for the cover alone.

Orrin said...

Awesome cover! The whole thing is great, but I think my favorite part may be the "Pulp Sunday" logo.

Jake said...

Very, very cool cover idea. I like the reptile...very old-school.

BobbyNash said...

Love that cover, man. Excellent.

Francesco Francavilla said...

Thank you so much, Chuck, Brian, Greg, Juanan, Brian, Orrin, Jake, and Bobby, you are all too sweet and I appreciate it :)
I know characters were supposed to be half if not all naked, but I wanted to keep this PG everyone ;)
Also the alligator thing has 6 legs, 2 are off screen ;)

Thanks guys, I will definitely do more pseudo covers :)

Cheers,
Francesco