Sunday, February 13, 2011

Dragon Girl-Part One

She's not a Bolles. Sorry. This tidbit of subterfuge has been in the works for quite a while. The vision of how Enoch might have interpreted the über-it-girl" of the millennium, Lisbeth Salander has been thrashing back and forth in my head and wouldn't leave me alone.  So I dusted off my paint kit, picked through a passel of pulps for inspiration, took a deep breath and put brush to canvas. 

And so here's the finished product, a pale imitation for certain. Ok, I'll give myself a little credit, she's a step or two above the standard Quintana knockoff of Bolles, and the "distressing" was spot-on if I say so myself (having spent so much time-and money-on stacks of ratty pulps has given me a certain experience in this regard).  Some of you picked up on it immediately and I bet others recognized the original inspiration for this cover, which was published in 1938 (there really was a Swedish detective writer named Stig Johansson from back in the 1940s). If the bug stays with me, there will be others to come based on three different Bolles covers for inspiration.  Can you guess which?  

Coming soon: a fabulous and contemporary photographic take on the Bolles girl.

3 comments:

GARY UNDERWOOD said...

I think you have captured the essence of the character, Jack, although a little bit on the harsh side. It was a great movie trilogy!!!!

darwination said...

Very nice, Jack! I always enjoy this sort of retro-creation, and you've done a fine job making it look like an authentic pulp.

Jim Rugg did a number of covers for his faux-70s blaxploitation comic, Afrodisiac, with various stressing (cup rings, creases, stains, etc) that I really like:

http://jimrugg.livejournal.com/7558.html

They ended up being included in the hardcover edition published in 2010 which is a hoot.

I'm going to have to give something in this line a try sometime, great job. You had me scratching my head for a bit :)

Jack R said...

Thanks it was a lot of fun to do, especially aging the cover. The link you sent me was a hoot. I especially liked the very effective use of the cool Youtube promo.