Pendragon Graphic Novel Blog

Creating Bobby is a risky proposition since everybody has a different idea of what he should look like. Speed asked me for some examples of famous people that I thought had the same general “look” of Bobby. One of my suggestions was Leonardo DiCaprio…a handsome guy but not totally “movie star” perfect. With me it’s all about the eyes. With Bobby, you’ve got to know that there’s a lot going on back there. I think you see a lot of Leo in Speed’s sketches. Especially with the wide-set eyes. The other challenge for her was to create a character who, with each new book, must age. In this sketch you can see how Speed imagined how he would get older.

It’s amazing how a few simple pen stokes can change a look so dramatically.

– D.J.

(Click the image for a larger version).

It’s an amazing thing to see Bobby and the Travelers come to life in another medium.  At first I was a little nervous about it, since everybody has their own image of the characters in their heads.  I didn’t want to spoil anyone’s personal vision.  Including my own!  But the graphic novel form is so specific I realized that this is more about going along with an overall style, as opposed to making the characters look exactly as they might in real life.  When I saw Carla Speed McNeil’s sketches, I was convinced.  This is a great way to depict the characters, action and story contained in the novels.  She has captured the essence and spirit of the story, and that’s what it’s all about,

Carla’s storytelling through images and words is masterful.   We’re seeing the Pendragon story in a whole new way.  It was fun working with her to relate my vision of some specific things like the flume and the quig bears.  Many things are pretty close to what I envisioned.  With others, Carla let her imagination take over.  That was fun too, seeing how somebody else interpreted my words.  I think the result is terrific.

This will introduce the Pendragon saga to a whole new audience…the fans of graphic novels.  Check out some of these early sketches.  It’s a little taste of what the first book is going to be.  I hope you like them as much as I do!

–D.J.

____________________________________________________

Below is a page of sketches of Loor from artist Carla Speed McNeil, with her comments following.

I watched MILLION DOLLAR BABY three times drawing her. Lucia Rijker, the real-life boxer who plays the villain, is so amazing to look at: she’s light on her feet and so beautifully built. Loor’s face doesn’t look like Lucia’s, and Loor is more compactly built than Lucia, but I’ve tried to capture her athleticism in Loor and Osa. Lucia’s body language is also very informative. She is a beautiful woman and she makes musclebound look good. Last, she has an amazing cloud of hair when she takes it out of braids. That image will certainly come in handy for the scene in which Bobby finds her in that quiet moment down by the river.

–Speed