My Bunnyfernus mod is now up and running!
(It's also available throught the deadlock mod manager)
Once again thank you to my friend @earl-goupil for their cute design!
I really like Wraith's character design, mostly because I clocked that she was wearing a zoot suit and represents black dandyism.
Side note: she also has a tommy gun meaning WWI happened.
Black dandyism is an interesting subject in history because it was used as a silent but loud rebellion against racial hierarchies, autonomy and resistance. It’s a bold choice of neatly tailored clothes with wide pants and jackets; it stands out. It first got popular in the 1930s with harlem dance halls and moved into working-class and poor neighborhoods. It was for the new money man, which Wraith is called. Essentially, her character is using this fashion to make a statement, to take up space in a society that may not approve of her.
BUT looking at her suit even more, she is embodying a 1940s hipster or hepcat. These are the first hipsters before the white hipster was made. They had slang: "jive," created in harlem which was a jumping point for AAVE and allowed the first dictionary by an african american (Cab Calloway) to be published. They listened to jazz/bebop. (That is its own post.) You can really see the inspiration of smooth, laid-back black characters when put in this time period. It’s taking from this movement.
Since I'm on the topic, there is a second subculture that also wore these suits, taking inspiration from dandyism. This one is called "pachuco," a mexican-american movement that created a lot of the Caló slang and took us into the Chicano movement. Interestingly, this group caused the Zoot Suit Riots (1943), where these youth were labeled as unpatriotic and attacked because of the tension of WWII. They were also specifically attacked because by wearing these suits, it was taken as them not assimilating but rather defying them.
This may not be new information to some but I do appreciate these details.
Investigating Abram's tome just by looking at its binding
This post is exactly what it says on the tin. As a book nerd i've looked at Abram's tome for way too much time and I decided to make a post about it. I'm not a bookbinding expert but I feel like I know enough to make a so-in-depth-its-absurd breakdown. I'll go over what feels right, what feels wrong and end on my own interpretation of the Tome to highlight my own theory on it.
(putting the whole thing under a cut because it's going to be long)
As many fictional scary magic books, lots of elements from the Tome feel medieval. The main part being the metal corners + the clasps. The corners are meant to protect the book as it's a place that get easily damaged. However, they also had another purpose that is linked to the clasp.
Ius Civile, 1561
If you look closely, you can see little "buttons" on the corners. At that time, books were stored lying down instead of up as we do today. Those raised elements allowed the book to be a bit above the table and be protected. The clasp helped to keep the book shut and the pages from sliding around (especially when they were made of velum, veal skin, and not paper). The Tome have only 2 metal corners on each side, making it uneven and probably sliding around everywhere like a skateboard. Most of the books I saw also had 2 clasps to keep the pressure even on the pages (i suppose) but the Tome has only 1. Tbf it looks expensive af to make so I don't blame the binder for that.
Also look how sharp these metal teeths are. You know they're scratching that leather to hell.
Another medieval thing from the Tome is the embossing on the cover.
Libellus de conscribendis epistolis, 1547 (?)
At some point we got tired of decorating books by embossing and gilding each one individually. So we created engraved plates that you just needed to "stamp" on the leather to create the decor. It allowed for big illustration like the one above to be printed (unlike traditional decors which were made by combining lots of tiny gilding stamps into a whole composition). So while the artstyle does not seem to fit, the design on the Tome's cover could have been made and look pretty similar ! It might also implies there are other magic books related to the Tome. Why would you engrave a whole plate just to use it once ? The point is to use it multiple times. So maybe there are other Tomes or esoteric books from the same collection.... interesting
This is sadly where the "things that look plausible" end. I'm sorry
The first wild thing to me is the spine. Why are the straps here ? Idk. Binding spines are either flat or have raised bands. We learned how to make flat spines sometime during the 19th century.
Source 1 and 2
Before that, we had raised bands ("nerfs" in french as you can see on the first pic). They were due to how the pages were sewn. To keep everything tight and strong, they were sewn on cow sinews, then replaced by cords. You can see it in the second pic : brownish cord wrapped with the white binding thread. And the bands are big ! So you could see them even when the book was finished.
There is a 99% chance that the Tome was sewn like that (especially since it's huge and thus needs to be sturdy) and should have raised bands. But it doesn't. It has a flat spine and leather straps on top ?? Which hold nothing ??
Which leads to my next point : the random stitchings. A binding is made out of a piece of carboard (or wood for medieval bindings) covered with leather. How do you sew through dense af cardboard/wood ?? (If it is made of wood, it does make Abrams carrying it around like it weights nothing really funny and a nice touch for the character). You can nail stuff in it if you're really desesperate but please don't sew wood. I don't have an explanation for that or the straps. What are they doing here.
It did make me question another thing about the Tome. How does the cover work ? It looks like multiple layers on top of each other which I tried to convey with a sketch.
Thank you to my friend Alice for the screenshot of the model btw ! Also i don't have time to get into that but wtf is that gap between the spine and the pages. They're supposed to go all the way in there
So you have Light Brown Leather on the spine, Blue Leather on the covers + the straps and Dark Brown Leather with the embossing on it. That's a whole lot of leathers, especially considering each of them is paper/cardboard/wood covered in leather. We usually do the whole book in 1 leather piece as you can see on the previous examples. Unless......
I cannot find the original pic for the first one so i assume it's by whoever made this presentation. Second one is from this blog
...you're doing a Plats Rapportés binding. It is a technique developped by Sün Evrard, a very talented bookbinder who came up with a bunch of really cool things. And, as with many contemporary bookbinders, does not have a proper website or proper pictures of her works. So enjoy these pretty Plats Rapportés made by other people. The technique behind it is a bit complex, but basically the spine and covers are made separately and then the hinge is made by pure magic or some shit.
The most important part is that it's a contemporary binding technique. It could not have been used for the Tome at all as it would even be anachronic to Deadlock's time period. Sün Evrard published a book on this technique in 1984 so it's safe to assume it was the earliest a binding like that could be made.
I guess you could cheat and achieve a similar look by doing a Bradel, a 19th century technique where you make the covers + spine together before gluing the text bloc (aka the pages sewn together) inside. So maybe that's that ? It does seems convoluted tho...
So what did we learn ? The Tome has medieval elements but it is not a medieval binding. It is more recent that that. I would guess late 19th century as it was the golden age for bookbinding and when most of the technological developpement allowed flat spines and many funky color leathers.
Which leads me to my theory : What if the content of the Tome was as important as its binding ? When the book resurfaces during the 19th century, it is repaired and rebinded while keeping as much as the original materials as possible. It would explain the weird layering, with the old Dark Brown Leather being on top of newer Blue and Light Brown Leather. They kept the original covers, corners and clasps and just stuck them on a newer, more protective binding.
Why would the binding be important ? Now, the most obvious scary magic binding theory is "it is bound in human skin". But to be fair, it's lame, it was mostly a thing for silly 19th century guys and maybe also during the French Revolution. Not fun. However, it could have been made using monster's hide, sinews and bones (which could be grinded into powder to make glue). Or even better, what if it was made out of a Patron's body ? Using its vessel to make the book and trapping its power within the Tome at the same time.
Following this whole essay, I made a design for the Tome that keeps the same design elements while making it make more sense from a binding perspective + tells the story of my theory.
So you get the original elements such as the dark leather and the metal elements added to a more modern binding (blue leather). The symbols on the spine could be made with the gilding stamps I talked about earlier, and also implies that esoteric bookbinders exist which is cool.
Only design element i didn't mention is the metal thing with the ring. On the original, it is on the spine and this is where the Tome is attached to Abrams' handcuff. I'm pretty sure he added it himself so that's why i drew it mismatched. The spine is one of the most fragile part of the book so I moved it to the cover, which is much more sturdy. Also I saw this binding which had a ring like that and I thought it was very cute.
Would you believe me if I said I made this post as short as I could and could still talk about other elements of the Tome ? Including the inside which I haven't had time to cover at all in here ? I love writing about niche subjects.
Anyway I hope it was a fun read and that other people get onboard my patron-bound book theory
And if anyone from Valve sees this : this is not a criticism of the design, as I understand no video game studios has a bookbinding expert reviewing every books you model. This is just for fun. Also can you update sinclair's model plz i love them thank you
Currently working on an Infernus bunny mod!
My friends were sad about the lack of cute Infernus skins and then I realized I had free will and modeling skills
Based on this cute design by my darling moot @earl-goupil (under the cut)
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