Posts Tagged jumana al hashal

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Randolph Carter Dream Dolls!

by on October 24, 2011 at 9:28 am

After weeks of behind-the-scenes work, I’m able to announce a fabulous new Lovecraftian (Kadathian?) toy… Randolph Carter (Dream-Form) Dolls!

These huggable soft dream dolls are based on Randolph Carter’s form within the Dreamlands as seen in my comic adaptation of Dream-Quest. Hand-crocheted and designed by French-Lebanese artist Katia Farage, each doll comes with a nightgown and sleeping cap sewn by my wife, Jumana Al Hashal.


There are only five handmade dolls, available to backers of the new “Cosmic Entity of the Freedom of Dreamless Sleep” level on Kickstarter. Put them on your pillow to guard your dreams! Take them to tea parties! Enjoy some Lord Dunsany together! Photoshop them into pictures illustrating scenes from “Dream-Quest”! The possibilities are endless!



Yes, this is a real thing! Thanks to my friend Katia and my wife Jay for their help and long hours of crocheting!

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Dream-Quest Kickstarter: Complete!

by on November 10, 2011 at 2:22 pm

Thanks to the support of so many people, the Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath graphic novel Kickstarter project is finally over, and we made 198% of our funding goal! WooOOt! Thank you all so much! I couldn’t have done it without everyone who helped, and without listening while I draw to HP Lovecraft Literary Podcast and News from Pnakotus, steadily leeching their bandwidth like the life force of the inhabitants of the Shunned House. I’m incredibly happy that this is happening, and really grateful to everyone who contributed, tweeted, hooted and hollered about the project. I’ll write more later about Kadath and about other things that influenced me, but for today: thank you! You’re awesome!

Due to the way this ComicPress blog works, the newer updates have been hidden awhile by the last page of “Celephais” (you have to scroll down), but here is the latest draft of the cover of the book. The coloring is by my partner, the lovely Jumana Al Hashal. I’ll post later about the early drafts, and you can also see it on flickr. Right now I’m sending files to the printer, and in the remaining days before the absolute absolute final deadline I’m still working on lots of little fixes — not only in “Dream-Quest” but also on “Celephais” and “Strange High House in the Mist”. After all that’s done and is at the printer, I’m going to work on the color Dreamlands map and the sketches for the super-cosmic-level backers, and then I’m going to work on an adaptation of “The Doom That Came to Sarnath” for one Very Special Backer, building another window into the Dream/Myth/Pre-DreamQuest vision of Lovecraft’s universe. I’ve always liked “Sarnath,” but rereading Kenneth Hite’s “Tour De Lovecraft,” in which he raves about it, makes me even more eager to get drawing. Wait, did I say *get* drawing? I’ve been drawing continually for the past month! AWESOME!

And now back to work! Thanks everyone!

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Dream-Quest Cover Sketches

by on February 28, 2012 at 10:14 am

I’ve been planning to do a Dream-Quest graphic novel for some time, and I did a few different cover treatments before coming up with the final version.

The original cover for issue #1 of the comic series, which I drew waaaay back in 1997, wasn’t great, but it was one of the better covers of the original five-issue series because I was smart enough to use a limited color palette. Color was still not my thing, though. I tried to duplicate the same “sunset sky” (although doesn’t it look more like dawn?) limited color palette, with better lineart, for the first version of the cover:

But, as time passed I decided I didn’t like this design anymore. It was too simple, the Photoshoppy colors needed work, and the massive, cover-dominating logo looked bad. In 2011, when the Kickstarter got going, I decided I wanted to do a wrap-around cover instead!

Aside from the sunset city, there were two other images that screamed “Dream-Quest” to me: the actual castle of Kadath (but that’s kind of a spoiler) and the scene when the black galley goes off the edge of the world. The black galley scene was used as the cover of Edward Martin III’s Dream-Quest movie, after all. I considered an epic shot of galleys plunging off the edge of the world into space, crewed by — cats? Randolph Carter? Evil merchants? Ghouls? Possibly Basil Elton, Kuranes and the other dream-story protagonists?

A sailing ship with all its sails and ropes would have been a great image for the front cover, and would have really given off a feeling of adventure. But in the end I decided that a bunch of ships crewed with different Lovecraft characters would suggest that the graphic novel was some kind of Lovecraft mash-up instead of an anthology, and I went with the sunset city, for a more whimsical, children’s-booky look. (With the addition of a nightgaunt steed to replace the Little-Nemo-in-Slumberland walking bed of the original comics front cover.) My first draft had a fiery, apocalyptic Photoshopped look — “through sunset’s gate He swept me, past the lapping lakes of flame, And red-gold thrones of gods without a name” — but eventually, I decided on more natural, subdued colors. The actual final color covers were done entirely by Jay, who spent hours and hours on the Cintiq working with her brush pen. All the intricate, loving detail on all the grassy cobbles and red roofs are all hers. Although I love black and white, I hope to do more color work of my own someday soon…

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My New D&D Project: Dungeon Babies!

by on June 1, 2022 at 11:44 am
Chapter:

It’s been far too long since I’ve updated this webpage, but (excuses excuses) I’ve been kinda busy. For one thing, in the middle of 2020, my spouse and I had a baby! So I’ve been juggling various other projects and work assignments (mostly gaming illustrations but also a little movie & TV design work, and also developing Dreamland RPG) with taking care of our wonderful, now 2-year-old daughter.

During the pandemic and afterwards, I’ve thought a lot about parenting and what this means for all my various interests including roleplaying games. And on that note despite everything else, Jumana and I found time to do some playtesting of a new D&D project: Dungeon Babies! Yes, Dungeon Babies! By far the biggest thing I have ever released on DMsGuild or written for Dungeons & Dragons, this is the D&D5e supplement you never knew you wanted… rules for playing hapless, preverbal newborn babies gifted with the powers of veteran adventurers.

Sure, there’s lots of RPGs aimed at children; I’ve worked on some myself. But what about a RPG where you PLAY children?? Ripped from the misty realm of the Vyraj, Dungeon Babies must do a more extreme version of what every baby does, venturing into a world of confusion and danger. Carried from dungeon to dungeon by The Stork, these brave babies must use all their teamwork, Baby Charm and special baby powers (and of course violence) to survive.

Yes, this is a real thing! 76 pages of baby classes, feats, spells and more, including actual play reports, DMing and playing tips, baby character sheets and over 20 pieces of artwork! Please check it out and get a copy on DMsGuild today! Unleash your inner child!

Thanks always for reading, I’ll post here when I have more news about my next big project! (And hopefully I’ll get to do some tinkering and cleaning-up of the whole site in the meantime.)

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