Every 100 posts on JSVB, I feel obligated to show something good to make up for any lazy work I may have been posting.
Back in October of 2015, I kind of went on a rampage designing the front cover for a fake pulp novel out of the 1970's. I posted the final product, which has me holding what appears to be a real copy of the book. Of course, it's all Photoshopped, but I did need real artwork for that cover, and it took me a couple of weeks to grind it out. Inspired by pulp novels, I put together a draft of the layout, and then filled in the details in Photoshop and Corel Painter. I went overboard, and my design is probably too rich for true pulp. Likely those covers were painted in a day.
I thought it would be a good idea to show the final art in detail without the Photoshop artefacts covering half of it over. You should see the art in book form by checking out JSVB Post #1168, by clicking here.
Naturally, the master file for this artwork is poster-sized, so should you order one (yes, it's for sale, e-mail me!) you can see details like Jake's space shuttle mission patch, the mysterious FIST logo, and his JFK Space Center Committee Number (69... why not?)
In a case of art imitating art, my friend Earl wrote the perfect rear cover blurb for Interstate 10. One of these days, I will Photoshop that into the back of the book.
And in a case of art imitating art imitating art, I've set upon the course of writing the actual book. Considering we went through all this effort to make a convincing cover, the writing seems very straight-forward. All I have to do is come up with a story about a cowboy stunt man race car driver who fights a karate army, woos a ninja princess, outwits the ape with the golden AK-47, and hooks up with the girl. It has to be in the style of Steven King but mentored by Philip K. Dick.
Really, it writes itself. All I have to do is sit here and press the keyboard letters in the correct order.
If I do make progress on this, I think I'll open a new blog to post my results. My wife says that's what Andy Weir did for The Martian. So, where he went, I go. The journey's the thing.
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