X-Tropy by @deadcanons. X-Files, 147k, folio binding, fully illustrated. I do mean fully. All 51 chapters of this feature, uh, elaborate illustrations. And in some chapters I drew more than one. I liked X-Tropy a normal amount. Please go read X-Tropy. It's a wonder and a delight and it has a equally wonderful soundtrack too.
One copy for me, and one copy for the author (of course). I used shot cotton (red/blue) for the cover fabric to give a mostly-plain design a bit of visual interest, but to keep it from being too overwhelming. I'm a really big fan of shot cotton and it works so nicely here. I realized after the fact that I'd essentially recreated a 3-piece Bradel binding (maybe???) without actually knowing that was what I was doing. I've never made a cover like this before so it was truly a total accident, but I'm going to have to do it again. I love the way it feels. I made a slipcase too, to keep the book safe in transit... but it really isn't the feature here, I was focusing more on the interior for the majority of this project. For. Uh. Obvious reasons.
You can see the whole typeset with all of the illustrations here. You can see the poster I did with all of the various characters and details over here on my main blog! Go check them out. I spent a few months on this.
Additional design work/extras under the cut, here.
Character lineup (in color!) - most of these were very rough sketches I did just so I'd have a reference point to check back as I illustrated my way through it all. Not all of these ended up being entirely accurate - I kept messing around with Jasmine's hair in basically every illustration I did of her, and Ji-Hoon's hand injury is on the wrong hand in this reference (whoops! I remembered when I was actually illustrating, though, don't worry).
I have a document somewhere where I collected every single character description I could find in the entire fic, just for consistency. It was a long document. The things I do in the frantic quest for versimilitude.
The ID badges - I like throwing silly little extras in when I send things to my friends. The FBI badges are based on some of the props used in the show actual - the opposite sides are some more X-Tropy-relevant references. (I realized while uploading these images that there's an error on the autopsy report: the cause of death is meant to read 'foreign body airway obstruction' but the text got removed at some point. ah well, i can't get everything right)
Chapter 29 (Orpheus II) features a visit to a real-world art installation (Larassa Kabel's Visitation) - I ended up 3d-modelling it to make sure I could properly nail the perspective and shadowplay of the scene. (My take on the visuals is maybe a bit more twisty and branch-heavy than the original ever was, but being in a museum at night plays strange tricks on your brain.) It's the only actual perspective model I ended up doing for the illustrations, but I did end up referencing a lot of real-world locations mentioned in the notes and taking inspiration from photos of the places as well as street-view results. More than anything, this project turned out to be a roadtrip.
Aaaaand the first sketch I ever did for this story - a year ago, on a scrap piece of paper while bored at work, the day after reading the Crisis Apparition chapter. I had a very vivid mental image of the composition and didn't want to lose it. I think it's kind of wonderful just how little that composition changed, even when I'd totally forgotten about the doodle.
...really good project to work on. I needed something to sink my teeth into and it was perfect. Now that it's with the author I can stop having a package shipping-induced constant anxiety attack.
