"The Alligators of Abraham" cover, complete

Thanks to good friends Diane Chonette of Tin House Books, Andy Bennett, Tom Williams, and especially Carlette Jewell, each of whom helped me out a great deal with the digital side of things, the hand-drawn and hand-assembled full cover for Robert Kloss' book The Alligators of Abraham is complete. I'm really quite proud of it, and it turned out exactly as I had imagined.

More on "The Alligators of Abraham" by Robert Kloss

One of the first creative opportunities to come my way once my book Moby-Dick in Pictures had been released was the chance to create the cover for Robert Kloss' phenomenal Civil War novel The Alligators of Abraham. I wasn't sure what to expect when asked to do this, so I agreed before even reading the work. After reading it though, I was certain I had made the right decision and that in a sense my path lay directly through this novel. To be blunt, the book blew my head apart. It is honestly one of the most visceral, powerful, visionary, lacerating, gut-wrenching fever dreams I have ever experienced. Some stories claim to offer hope, or joy, or a glimpse into the lives of others. Not this one. The Alligators of Abraham offers blood and smoke and slime and war and hate and violence and lust and greed and murder, but more so than any of those, it offers the reader Knowledge. It is that important. Creating the cover was an honor, and I was so gripped by what I had read that I offered to create three interior illustrations to lead off each of the three sections. Here is my cover, along with the three interior pieces.

And all of this work is finally bearing fruit. First you can, and should, pre-order the book from Mud Luscious Press at that link. Second, the savage "scorched earth literature" magazine Sundog Lit has started posting a series of texts and other works inspired by The Alligators of Abraham right here. First up is a reading of a portion of the text with an accompanying video by Sean Kilpatrick. I will have a few additional pieces of art, this time reactions to and explorations of the text, in early November on that same page. I will post a link here when they go up.

Finally, there is an excellent book trailer video using incredible images from the Civil War set to a suitably grim song. It's on that page but I am including it here because it does a perfect job setting the scene for the novel.

THE ALLIGATORS OF ABRAHAM: Book III

Illustration for Book III of Robert Kloss' upcoming novel The Alligators of Abraham.

title: And they had alligator for stone, and slime for mortar.

6 inches by 9 inches
ink on Bristol board
December 28, 2011

THE ALLIGATORS OF ABRAHAM: Book II

Illustration for Book II of Robert Kloss' upcoming novel The Alligators of Abraham.

title: And the alligators went up all over the land, and they rested in the coasts: very grievous were they; before them there were no such alligators as they, neither after them shall be such.

6 inches by 9 inches
ink on Bristol board
December 28, 2011

THE ALLIGATORS OF ABRAHAM: Book I

Robert Kloss' upcoming novel The Alligators of Abraham is divided internally into three books. The publisher was able to find room for me to include three black and white illustrations as title pieces for each book. Each of the illustrations reflects to some degree my perceptions of and reactions to the themes and allegories in the novel. This is the first of those three...

title: Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.

6 inches by 9 inches
ink on Bristol board
December 27, 2011

THE ALLIGATORS OF ABRAHAM: final cover

The editor at Mud Luscious Press and author Robert Kloss both liked first cover rough the best, so that was our weapon of choice. I re-drew it with more polish and here is that process, from black and white to color to final cover. All, of course, done completely by hand, with no computer trickery.

First, the black and white. This is ink on illustration board...

Next, color added. Mostly Winsor & Newton inks laid down with a brush, but some Pentel marker added for highlights...

I was quite nervouse about hand-lettering the title since I had come so far on the finished piece. I knew I only had one chance to get it right so there was a lot of pressure. Fortunately, it turned out exactly how I wanted it to look. This is the finished cover, as it will be printed...

THE ALLIGATORS OF ABRAHAM: cover rough #3

My third and final cover rough for Robert Kloss' upcoming novel The Alligators of Abraham. This image might look slightly familiar to you but I have made no secret of the fact that I frequently draw inspiration from my own art...

THE ALLIGATORS OF ABRAHAM: cover rough #2

My second cover rough for Robert Kloss' upcoming novel The Alligators of Abraham.

THE ALLIGATORS OF ABRAHAM: cover rough #1

Last fall, I was invited to create a cover and three interior illustrations for Robert Kloss' remarkable upcoming novel The Alligators of Abraham which will be available later this year from Mud Luscious Press. I was absolutely floored by the book, a bizarre and surreal vision of the American Civil War. With alligators. It is an astounding work and a true honor to be a part of.

I sent three cover roughs and then polished one of them for a finished cover, plus three black and white interior pieces. One of the most exciting aspects of this was that I was encouraged to use a hand-lettered font for the title and cover info, not a computer generated font. It's a pleasure to be able to share these. Here is the first cover rough...