A few months back I had the good fortune to get a call from Jo Walker at Harper Collins in London to do the cover illustration for the new paperback reissue of Naked Lunch: The Restored Text by William Burroughs. The thumbnails below are a few of the quick visual notes taken while reading the book, which were then re-worked into more coherent sketches, drawing mainly on Burrough's hyper-detailed neurological accounts of heroin, as well as his more visceral themes of primordial fluids and nightmarish, inky lagoons. Much of the inspiration for the finished drawing approach was also inspired by the bold, monochromatic silkscreened book and album covers contemporary to the period Naked Lunch was first published.
The book will be available in the UK from
Harper Collins next month.
7 comments:
This has the creepiest sauntering feeling. Really dig how my arm feels all sensitive in the same spot you put that bug.
creepy as hell, love it!
"Well," I said, tapping my arm, "duty calls. As one judge said to another:
'Be just and if you can't be just, be arbitrary."~Burroughs
Great idea with the fly, subtle but effective. Makes my arm tingle.
that's a great cover treatment. Read this ages ago. I'd re-buy it with that cover though.
Great art.
Just got this edition. It's a beautiful cover.
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