Naked Lunch

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.

The Surrendered

I had an illustration in yesterday's Boston Globe for a feature on Chang-Rae Lee's new novel "The Surrendered." While it ran in black and white on the link above, here is the a color version as well. The novel follows several characters through the aftermath of the Korean war, including an eleven year old orphan. Not having had a chance to read the book, I was drawn to the broader psychological impacts of war and how the effects of its brutality on the characters could be conveyed.

Thanks very much to Jane Martin at the Globe for the opportunity.