Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad and Matt Kish

The long wait is over. My editor at Tin House Books, Tony Perez, was kind enough to rush me an advance copy of my new book, the illustrated Heart of Darkness. Diane Chonette and Jakob Vala took my illustrations and designed an utterly gorgeous book. As with my Moby-Dick in Pictures, this is truly a beautiful object and it just feels good in the hand. After nearly weeping with joy, jumping up and down a few times, high-fiving my wife, and then celebrating with a nice dinner, we took some photos of the book to give you an idea of how it looks. Special thanks to my wife for holding the book for me while I took these.

The front cover. I love how this is just an illustration on boards, with no dust jacket. It feels so much more direct this way. Perfect, given the nature of the novel.

One of the many brilliant design choices made by Diane and Jakob is the way that the front cover illustration wraps so perfectly around the spine and the back cover.

A view of the spine. Tin House has chosen a nice, thick, creamy paper stock that really soaks up the ink and makes the colors in the illustrations deep and rich. Some of that can be seen here, in the thickness of the book itself.

I was honored to have a say in some of the book design process and thrilled when Tony and Diane agreed that hand-drawn endpapers could be included. It's the little touches like this that make the book such a wonderful object. Interestingly, I had these endpapers in mind from the very beginning - a wall of vegetation, with a small image of Marlow in the lower corner.

The book closes with a reversed image of the endpapers. The placement of Marlow was deliberate on my part, signifying in a visual way that the tale begins and ends with him.

A close-up of the endpapers. And Marlow.

The title page. Almost terrifying to see my name next to Conrad's there. Good God.

Again, a brilliant touch from Diane and Jakob. I was asked to write a brief introduction to the book, and this introduction of mine is separated from Conrad's tale by this beautiful detail of the endpapers, enlarged and filtered. The reader is truly penetrating the wall of the jungle and entering the heart of darkness.

Some samples of the interior spreads. I am extremely pleased with the reproduction of my art. Everything is suffused with bright and acidic greens and yellow, and the images seem to almost radiate the heat and the sickness and the savagery of the African jungle. Additionally, in some of these images, you can see that the binding of this book is sewn rather than glued. Another nice touch.

The image which Diane used as the basis for her elegantly and amazingly designed cover.

I don't believe I've posted the piece below yet, so this may be the first time it's been seen online.

One final bit of fantastic detail is that the book includes what is essentially an index, listing the page number of each illustration, the quote from Conrad's text that functions as each title, and the media. Completely unnecessary, but again, so perfect in keeping with my vision of the book and the concept of this as a truly visual narrative. 

The release date still stands as November 12, although that seems to be approaching with terrifying quickness now. I am really pleased with how this turned out. For so many months, this book existed as nothing but a stack of illustrations in my studio and a concept in my head. Diane, Jakob, and my editor Tony were so receptive to my thoughts, and so full of brilliant ideas of their own. This book is everything I hoped it could be. I am proud.

"Heart of Darkness" cover

Coming in October 2013 from my fine publisher Tin House Books, a new edition of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness with 100 full color illustrations by me. Above is the final cover, and I couldn't be more pleased. It captures everything I was trying to convey with my illustrations, and is just a brilliant piece of work. Many many thanks to Diane Chonette at Tin House for putting this together, and to Tin House in general for making this dream a reality.

Feel free to re-post this or share it in any way you would like.

My task is complete. Again.

Last night, I finished the illustration for page 100 of Heart of Darkness, as you can see in the above photo. The ink is still wet! So strange that almost exactly two years ago, I had just completed my first book and wrote a similar post to commemorate that. Completing the Moby-Dick illustrations was a much more emotional experience than this, but no less important to me. I think that is because Moby-Dick is such a different book, with so many moments of humor to balance the hatred and the horror. Heart of Darkness, while equally intense, truly was for me a long road through hell. Being done with this has not quite sunk in yet. I don't know why. Maybe because I had to sometimes keep it at arm's length lest it poison me too much. Maybe because I was more cognizant of the absolute need for balance this time, and made sure that I gave myself time to step away from the horror and enjoy life. Maybe because...I don't know. I am at a loss. It's going to take me some time to step back and see the shape of this thing from farther away. I'm very proud of the work, and I think that when the book is out this fall it will be a truly unique vision of an important book. I'm honored to have the chance to share this with the world, and I think what I've done here is worthy. But I don't yet know what it means. To me, or to anyone else. How this one has changed me will take some time to show, I think.

But there it is, above. The final illustration for Heart of Darkness. Another book completed and soon off to the printer. I'm tired now. Very tired.

As before, thanks are due. This time though, I feel like I worked more in solitude. I suppose I am being a bit dramatic here, but until this reading, I don't think I ever grasped just how chilling and horrific Heart of Darkness is, and just what kind of monster Kurtz is. I feel like I worked in solitude to spare others from the horror of what I was immersed in. That to somehow bring others into that, even simply for support, would be to let that horror spread. I don't know, it's weird. And probably slightly martyring too.

Still, there are many people who helped in big and small ways and they deserve much more than a simple thank you. First, and always, to my wife, who quite literally kept me sane and held tightly on to the lifeline that ultimately led me back out of the dark places. I'd have been a suicide long ago without her. She makes everything in my life better all the time. My good friend Charley D., who introduced me to Conrad way back in high school. Without him, I may never had made the acquaintance of Kurtz. Author Justin Taylor for providing the soundtrack to at least the first part of the work. RF for her perspective, her willingness to "listen" to my venting and ranting emails, and for her unwavering friendship from thousands of miles away. Toni Bal and Sandy Longhorn, who visited the blog often, commented frequently, and seemed to have a good idea just what I was getting at with this. Lizzy G. from France, who always seems to show up at the right time with kind words. My friends at the gym, Chris, Jill and AJ, Dana, JD, Stephanie and Jeff, Tom, Wes, Kaylyn and Lindsay. I don't think I forgot any of you, but it was always good to hang out with you and forget about the work for a while. My editor at Tin House, Tony Perez, and designer Diane Chonette who has the unenviable task of taking all the art I dropped on top of her and hammering it into a book. Before I was ever involved in publishing I used to think that all that thanking the editor stuff was just a professional courtesy but now I see how essential the guidance of good editors and designers is. They are definitely equal partners in the process. Finally my agent Seth. There wouldn't be a book without him.

Okay, no rest for the wicked. I've got posts lined up all week, plus two more illustration projects to wrap up which I'll be sharing here, and, hopefully, a new and totally original graphic novel of my own to start work on this year. Busy. Very busy.

HEART OF DARKNESS, page 040

Title: "'Each station should be like a beacon on the road towards better things, a centre for trade of course, but also for humanizing, improving, instructing.'"

6.75 inches by 11 inches
ink on watercolor paper
October 27, 2012

HEART OF DARKNESS, page 039

Title: "'Ivory,' jerked the nephew; 'lots of it -- prime sort -- lots -- most annoying, from him.'"

6.75 inches by 11 inches
ink and marker on watercolor paper
October 27, 2012

HEART OF DARKNESS, page 038

Title: "One evening as I was lying flat on the deck of my steamboat, I heard voices approaching -- and there were the nephew and the uncle strolling along the bank. I laid my head on my arm again, and had nearly lost myself in a doze, when somebody said in my ear, as it were: 'I am as harmless as a little child, but I don't like to be dictated to. Am I the manager -- or am I not? I was ordered to send him there. It's incredible.'...I became aware that the two were standing on the shore alongside the forepart of the steamboat, just below my head. I did not move; it did not occur to me to move: I was sleepy."

6.75 inches by 11 inches
ink on watercolor paper
October 21, 2012

HEART OF DARKNESS, page 037

Title: "Instead of rivets there came an invasion, an infliction, a visitation. It came in sections during the next three weeks, each section headed by a donkey carrying a white man in new clothes and tan shoes, bowing from that elevation right and left to the impressed pilgrims."

6.75 inches by 11 inches
ink and marker on watercolor paper
October 21, 2012

HEART OF DARKNESS, page 036

Title: "This was the foreman -- a boiler-maker by trade -- a good worker. He was a lank, bony, yellow-faced man, with big intense eyes. His aspect was worried, and his head was as bald as the palm of my hand; but his hair in falling seemed to have stuck to his chin, and had prospered in the new locality, for his beard hung down to his waist."

6.75 inches by 11 inches
ink and marker on watercolor paper
October 18, 2012

HEART OF DARKNESS, page 035

Title: "There was an old hippo that had the bad habit of getting out on the bank and roaming at night over the station grounds. The pilgrims used to turn out in a body and empty every rifle they could lay hands on at him. Some even had sat up o' nights for him. All this energy was wasted, though. 'That animal has a charmed life...'"

6.75 inches by 11 inches
ink and marker on watercolor paper
November 17, 2012

HEART OF DARKNESS, page 034

Title: "What I really wanted was rivets, by heaven! Rivets. To get on with the work -- to stop the hole. Rivets I wanted. There were cases of them down at the coast -- cases -- piled up -- burst -- split! You kicked a loose rivet at every second step in that station-yard on the hillside. Rivets had rolled into the grove of death. You could fill your pockets with rivets for the trouble of stooping down -- and there wasn't one rivet to be found where it was wanted."

6.75 inches by 11 inches
ink and marker on watercolor paper
October 14, 2012

HEART OF DARKNESS, page 033

Title: "We live, as we dream -- alone..."

6.75 inches by 11 inches
ink on watercolor paper
October 13, 2012

HEART OF DARKNESS, page 032

Title: "I had my shoulders against the wreck of my steamer, hauled up on the slope like a carcass of some big river animal. The smell of mud, of primeval mud, by Jove! was in my nostrils, the high stillness of primeval forest was before my eyes; there were shiny patches on the black creek. The moon had spread over everything a thin layer of silver -- over the rank grass, over the mud, upon the wall of matted vegetation standing higher than the wall of a temple, over the great river I could see through a sombre gap glittering, glittering, as it flowed broadly by without a murmur."

6.75 inches by 11 inches
ink and marker on watercolor paper
October 13, 2012

HEART OF DARKNESS, page 031

(This is the piece that I worked on during yet another blackout. I wrote a bit about that and posted a few images, including this piece in progress, in this post.)

Title: "Beyond the fence the forest stood up spectrally in the moonlight, and through that dim stir, through the faint sounds of that lamentable courtyard, the silence of the land went home to one's very heart -- its mystery, its greatness, the amazing reality of its concealed life."

6.75 inches by 11 inches
ink and marker on watercolor paper
October 13, 2012

HEART OF DARKNESS, page 030

Title: "Then I noticed a small sketch in oils, on a panel, representing a woman, draped and blindfolded, carrying a lighted torch. The background was sombre -- almost black. The movement of the woman was stately, and the effect of the torchlight on the face was sinister."

6.75 inches by 11 inches
ink on watercolor paper
October 9, 2012

HEART OF DARKNESS, page 029

Title: "The business intrusted to this fellow was the making of bricks -- so I had been informed; but there wasn't a fragment of a brick anywhere in the station, and he had been there more than a year -- waiting."

6.75 inches by 11 inches
ink on watercolor paper
October 3, 2012

HEART OF DARKNESS, page 028

Title: "The flame had leaped high, driven everybody back, lighted up everything -- and collapsed."

6.75 inches by 11 inches
acrylic paint and ink on watercolor paper
September 30, 2012

HEART OF DARKNESS, page 027

Title: "They wandered here and there with their absurd long staves in their hands, like a lot of faithless pilgrims bewitched inside a rotten fence."

6.75 inches by 11 inches
ink and marker on watercolor paper
September 30, 2012

HEART OF DARKNESS, page 026

Title: "Then he began again, assuring me Mr. Kurtz was the best agent he had, an exceptional man, of the greatest importance to the Company..."

6.75 inches by 11 inches
ink and marker on watercolor paper
September 30, 2012

HEART OF DARKNESS, page 025

Title: "He was commonplace in complexion, in features, in manners, and in voice. He was of middle size and of ordinary build. His eyes, of the usual blue, were perhaps remarkably cold, and he certainly could make his glance fall on one as trenchant and heavy as an axe. But even at these times the rest of his person seemed to disclaim the intention. Otherwise there was only an indefinable, faint expression of his lips, something stealthy -- a smile -- not a smile -- I remember it, but I can't explain. It was unconscious, this smile was, though just after he had said something it got intensified for an instant. It came at the end of his speeches like a seal applied on the words to make the meaning of the commonest phrase appear absolutely inscrutable."

6.75 inches by 11 inches
ink on watercolor paper
September 30, 2012

HEART OF DARKNESS, page 024

Title: "One of them, a stout, excitable chap with black moustaches, informed me with great volubility and many digressions, as soon as I told him who I was, that my steamer was at the bottom of the river."

6.75 inches by 11 inches
ink and marker on watercolor paper
September 29, 2012