Every now and again a job comes in that pushes me into a new place and throws me into a mode of obsession. In this case, it took over my last month and made me turn everything else down and get broke over it. But man was it a blast.
I believe this book will be a huge seller, as it is flat out ingenious. For the UK publisher Cape/Random House, "God's Behaving Badly" by Marie Phillips.
The premise is that the ancient Greek Gods are still alive and living in modern day London. Their powers have been diminished with the arrival of Jesus, so they spend their immortal days bored and reckless in a dilapidated shared house.
Ms. Phillips wraps the tragic Greek hero story into it, making an amazing and hilarious romp with the personalities of the Gods. I could go on and on about how skillfully she subverts and magnifies the mythology of each of their characters. It's a great antidote to the religious times we live in.
Anyway, the cover was especially challenging, as they were hoping for a landscape that not only showed modern London's skyline, but also a number of the Gods in action. This, plus type, as a long horizontal wrap-around.
Above is the cover comp w/type.
Here's the end papers illo.
One of the great things on this job too was the fact they wanted full color illustrated end papers. We went with the Underworld, which in Ms. Phillips book is accessed through the London tube!
It was really good to work with the art director Suzanne Dean, who really had a parallel vision for this book. We had a bit of a tiff over the color on the cover do to time constraints and marketing (etc), but in the end I think it all works well together.
Apollo, watching some of the war that he's created on the evening news.
The interior is illustrated with a few icons of some of the Gods, which I did as simple silos. The fun of course is to contrast the old with the new.
Here's Eros. He's born again! He acts as a sort of logo in the book and on the spine.
Anyway, buy this book you'll love it!
