Book Cover Illustrations

Our graphic novel Werewolves of New Idria is now available from any number of comic book stores as well as from Amazon.com

It has 152 pages with 80 double-page illustrations in a “widescreen” format.

Here’s the story blurb for our comic book:

“A new breed of werewolf! Holy warriors, led by a 900-year-old knight who fought beside El Cid, now in a deadly struggle against a motorcycle gang headed by Satan’s kin, hell bent on revenge!

“The Aceves family is like no other. With patriarch, Roberto Aceves, forever a Spanish knight after being bitten by a werewolf, he and his clan have secretly fought man’s wars for 900 years. Today, near the abandoned mining town of New Idria, they must battle against a demon and his biker gang who want nothing more than to destroy the entire clan.”

If you like werewolves, you’ll find this graphic novel a rare treat.

"Biker Gal" originally created for the cover -- didn't make it into the final version of our graphic novel. (Illustration by Duncan Long)

When I stared creating the illustrations for the graphic novel The Werewolves of New Idria, we knew the final page count and approximately how many illustrations I’d need to create for John Chadwell’s story.

That said, there’s always a little “wheel spinning” with an art project like this, so a few pieces were created that doesn’t make it into this graphic novel. Some simply didn’t measure up in one way or another… Possibly the publisher or writer don’t like them, or the artwork doesn’t further the action. A few were left out due to space considerations.

In the case of The Werewolves of New Idria there was an extra bit of complexity in that we were using a “wide screen format” for the book, so instead of four or so frames per page there was just one giant picture spanning two pages. And where smaller frames allow for an occasional dog to be thrown into the mix, the widescreen does not. Either it’s your best artwork or it should be left out.

And, yes, that puts some extra pressure on the illustrator.

But in the end (I think and hope) the result was a collection of better-than-average illustrations for the title.

That said, I thought I’d share a few of the illustrations that for one reason or another failed to make the cut. So here are the “lost illustrations” that never went to print in the final version of our graphic novel.

This illustration was dropped like some of the others on this post because we had too many hand-off-the-edge illustrations already in the graphic novel.

This collection of werewolves was "broken apart" with the wolves appearing in other illustrations within the graphic novel. elsewhere in the graphic novel.

And there you have them: The lost illustrations from The Werewolves of New Idria.

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Artist Duncan Long was the illustrator for The Werewolves of New Idria (written by John Chadwell). The graphic novel is available from Moonstone Books and contains 80 of Long’s illustrations. You can see more of the artwork from this graphic novel as well as concept drawings and other illustrations at the artist’s The Werewolves of New Idria Gallery.

I’ve posted these illustrations before, but thought they might bear repeating now that our graphic novel Werewolves of New Idria is in print (and available from Moonstone Books).

Generally a cover project doesn’t go through so many renditions – but sometimes it does. And often these can be enlightening and perhaps serve as a cautionary note for those working on book covers of any sort. This graphic novel proved a challenge and generated many different versions for the cover illustration. While I’ll only show the eight major concepts here, in fact there were quite a few more with various changes within each cover idea,

Here’s the FINAL version that appears as the actual cover for Werewolves of New Idria:

And here’s the first concept illustration for the cover:

It was too static and there was some disagreement as to whether the werewolf should be wearing combat boots (I know their mothers do, but that’s a tired joke, right). The wolf’s head was too “warm and fuzzy” as well — a problem I would have throughout the drawing of werewolves for the inner illustrations of this graphic novel. Part of the problem is that real wolves have a natural grin, so it’s hard to make them look like real wolves while still having an ominous disposition. Little wonder then that most movie and graphic novel werewolves tend toward a monstrous look rather than portray a realistic wolf.

My next version:

And this was also a bit dull (and I left the combat boots on as well); while anything is better with a pretty gal, this one still didn’t quite work for a cover.

Next:

This was a sad attempt and I never even submitted this idea to the author or publisher. It is included here to show how desperately wrong an artist can go with concept artwork

Next:

This was closer to what was needed. However the wolf was almost smiling again and also has that “guy in a mask” look, so we went on to:

Which is basically from the reach-out-and-grab-you school of illustration. For me this failed so another try:

This time the eyes and sword looked pretty decent, so they were eventually part of the cover layout. I would have loved to go with this illustration for the cover, but it didn’t get a majority vote from those in the loop.

The next attempt lost some ground:

So:

For a time the illustration above was the “final” cover with a few variations in color including green, red, and a combo with a gradient of red to blue. This one would have worked and perhaps is a toss up with the final cover that was generated from the poster. This picture did get modified to a B&W illustration, however, and eventually made its way to the title page.

It was decided a bit more “fire” was needed — reds and yellow — for the cover. So next came this concept:

And that’s the one that stuck.

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Duncan Long is a book illustrator who has created cover artwork for HarperCollins, Pocket Books, Solomon Press, ILEX, PS Publishing, ISFiC Press, and many self-publishing authors. You can see more illustrations from Werewolves of New Idria at Duncan Long’s Werewolves of New Idria Gallery
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I was recently asked if I had hidden a self-portrait anywhere in Moonstone Books’ upcoming The Werewolves of New Idria.

The answer (as you can see above) is yes. I did smuggle a picture of myself into the graphic novel (the picture above is low-resolution; the print version should have about 4 times as much hideous detail).

While folks who know me well will recognize my noggin as the basis for these two head shots, I must stress that it is not precise in every detail as a self portrait.

But it is pretty accurate with the teeth.

Spoiler Alert: Obviously the police will have little trouble with the ID of my corpse if they go with my dental records.

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Duncan Long is the graphic novel illustrator for Moonstone Books’ The Werewolves of New Idria. Duncan has also illustrated book covers for PS Publishing, Pocket Books, HarperCollins, and many self-published authors. See more of Duncan’s book cover artwork and graphic novel illustrations at: Duncan’s Book Cover Illustrations and Graphic Novel Artwork
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John Chadwell got an interesting interview and write up about our upcoming graphic novel The Werewolves of New Idria in the Hollister Freelance newspaper.

The twist here is that the paper is close to New Idria where the final climatic scene is set. Hopefully the locals don’t get too spooked by the story :o)

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Duncan Long is the graphic novel illustrator for The Werewolves of New Idria. He has also illustrated book covers for PS Publishing, Pocket Books, HarperCollins, and many self-published authors. See more of Duncan’s book cover artwork and graphic novel illustrations at: Duncan’s Book Cover Illustrations and Graphic Novel Artwork
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John Chadwell (who wrote Werewolves of New Idria — which I illustrated in its graphic novel variation) reports that our new graphic novel is gaining some serious traction.

John was interviewed by the Hollister Free Lance today about the graphic novel. He notes that The Bull Pen (a local game and comic book store) as well as the publisher Moonstone Books) are already taking orders.

That said, orders for the graphic novel can be placed through Moonstone Books. Werewolves of New Idria is due out August 11.

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Duncan Long illustrated the graphic novel Werewolves of New Idria. He has also created illustrations for HarperCollins, ILEX, PS Publishing, ISFiC Press, Pocket Books, Fort Ross, and many self-publishing authors. See more of his graphic novel illustrations at his Graphic Novel Illustrations: Werewolves of New Idria
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Another updated picture to help peddle the movie script for Werewolves of New Idria by John Chadwell and Ron Shusett (writer/creator of the Alien franchise and Total Recall). This was one of the early concept paintings created as a banner for the online site of the original novel. The picture has been revived to accompany the script (such pictures help potential buyers, clients, and actors, the concept art and illustrations visualize what a scene from the movie might look like). My modifications of the original concept art consisted of adding some glowing eyes to the central character, reworking a few of the details, and adjusting the contrast of the picture.

For those who might be curious, the buildings are based on those down the “main drag” of Manhattan, KS.

The first chapter of the novel can be read online at the Werewolves of New Idria web site.

Pictures for the upcoming graphic novel from Moonstone Books as well as concept illustrations for the novel and script can be viewed at my Werewolves of New Idria gallery.

And the graphic novel can also be pre-ordered from Moonstone Books’ website.

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When not creating concept artwork of werewolves and things that go bump in a movie script night, Duncan Long creates magazine and book illustrations for HarperCollins, Asimov Science Fiction Magazine, Pocket Books, ISFiC Press, ILEX, and many other publishers and self-publishing authors. Long also creates concept art for movie scripts and movie productions as well as graphic novels. See more of his illustrations at: http://DuncanLong.com/art.html
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The movie script for Werewolves of New Idria by John Chadwell and Ron Shusett (writer/creator of the Alien franchise and Total Recall) continues to be in the running. As the script is submitted to potential buyers, clients, and actors, the concept art and illustrations created for the graphic novel version of the story continue to be of help in visualizing the movie project.

The above illustration is of a recently updated picture originally created as a cover for the graphic novel (but later rejected). It was updated with an eye toward augmenting the script with a new submission.

The first chapter of the novel can be read online at the Werewolves of New Idria web site.

And pictures for the upcoming graphic novel from Moonstone Books as well as concept illustrations for the novel and script can be viewed at my Werewolves of New Idria gallery.

The graphic novel can also be pre-ordered from Moonstone Books’ website.

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When not dreaming about werewolves and things that go bump in a movie script night, Duncan Long creates magazine and book illustrations for HarperCollins, Asimov Science Fiction Magazine, Pocket Books, ISFiC Press, ILEX, and many other publishers and self-publishing authors. Long also creates concept art for movie scripts and movie productions as well as graphic novels. See more of his illustrations at: http://DuncanLong.com/art.html
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Got word that the graphic novel I illustrated Werewolves of New Idria is now available for pre-order from Moonstone Books.

Please note that the scheduled shipping date for this graphic novel is August 11, 2011.

You can also get a “sneak peak” at some of the pictures in the graphic novel (as well as the concept artwork I created for John Chadwell and Ron Shusett’s screenplay of the story — Shusett being the writer/creator of Alien franchise, writer of Total Recall, etc.). You can see these here at my Werewolves of New Idria gallery.

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Duncan Long is a freelance magazine and book illustrator for HarperCollins, PS Publishing, Pocket Books, Solomon Press, Fort Ross, ISFiC Press, and many other publishers and self-publishing authors. He also created the concept art and graphic novel illustrations for Werewolves of New Idria. See his book illustrations at: http://DuncanLong.com/art.html
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I’ve now finished over 80 B&W illustrations for the upcoming graphic novel Werewolves of New Idria to be released by Moonstone Books next year. Also in the mix are several cover proposals, a poster (that may become the cover), and the concept artwork leading up to the graphic novel (which was written by John Chadwell).

Getting my part of the project finished is a relief, of course. But I’m also feeling a tad “out of it” since I’ve been doing the book artwork off and on for nearly a year, and it seems strange not to be plotting out the next picture in the story.

So now I’m itching to start another graphic novel – perhaps of a science fiction story I’ve had kicking around in my head for several years now. And there are already hints of a sequel to Werewolves of New Idria. One way or another I’m hoping I’ll soon be working frantically to get another graphic novel illustrated. (And loving the work once again.)

In the meantime, you can see some preview pictures from the upcoming graphic novel as well as some of the covers and concept art at my Werewolves of New Idria gallery.

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When not suffering from WDWS (werewolf drawing withdrawal syndrome), Duncan Long is a freelance magazine and book illustrator for HarperCollins, PS Publishing, Pocket Books, Solomon Press, Fort Ross, and many other publishers and self-publishing authors. See his book illustrations at: http://DuncanLong.com/art.html
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