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| © Animedia Company |
Well, not me exactly, but a drawing that I created for an old Illustration Friday topic was chosen as the cover illustration for a book by Russian author Anton Nechaev.
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| My drawing! |
The book is called Сибирский редактор, or Sibersky redaktor (Siberian Editor). It contains illustrations by poet and artist Arkady Perenov and is published digitally by Animedia Company. Unfortunately I can't read Russian and Google Translate is incredibly choppy with Cyrillic and other non-Latin scripts, so Helen Kichigina (the editor-in-chief over at Animedia) was kind enough to give me a brief outline of the story. To paraphrase her email:
"The novel is all about Russian life, the Russian literary backstage and the relationship between Russian writers narrated in a satirical manner. It's also about the daily work of an editor/literary scout from a provincial town in Siberia who has to read a lot of bad literature and communicate with bad writers who consider themselves incredibly talented."
But how does this relate to my detective?
"The novel is mostly autobiographical. The author said that in those days he really looked like the guy in your illustration and he was just like a detective, trying to find at least one decent work in a sea of bad novels. So, in general, he was a 'private eye' but in literary circles."
They were initially going to use my illustration for a novel by a different author about a private detective, but the author decided to go in a different artistic direction. Fortunately Anton Nechaev liked my drawing and could relate to it on a personal level, which I think is neat. He didn't just think detective drawing = detective story.
I'm now ready for the instant fame and fortune this recognition shall bring... hah! :P
See the novel on Animedia's website!
Many thanks to Helen and the folks over at Animedia Company for obtaining my permission to use my illustration, as well as providing me with a copy of the ebook, and to Anton Nechaev for choosing my illustration to grace the cover of his novel.
