Carmilla

Several months ago I was contacted by an online "e-book publisher" who was taking works of classic literature (all public domain titles), hiring artists to illustrate them, and then publishing them as "e-books" for reading on the iPad.

I looked over their list of available titles and pretty much all the really great, stand-out public domain horror stories by E.A. Poe, H.P. Lovecraft, Bram Stoker, M.R. James, A.Bierce, and A. Blackwood... were either already taken by other artists, or were lesser stories that I just wasn't crazy about.

But the one classic, public domain horror story in this e-book publisher's catalog that WAS still up-for-grabs, and which caught my interest - was "Carmilla" by J. Sheridan Le Fanu.

I've always liked that one. It was published in 1872, and it's STILL probably the best story ever written about female vampires, if you ask me.

So I chose that story, and accepted the assignment - with the understanding that I was free to work very slowly, with no definite deadline. I kinda had to do that, because these days, my day-job in TV animation just gobbles up all my time. I literally have no extra free time to work on "side projects" anymore, except on weekends...

I planned to do about 40 illustrations for the whole story. This image was intended to be the front cover.

Then, I don't know what happened. A few months went by. My day job became increasingly busy. A new freelance comic book illustration assignment came along that interested me much more than "Carmilla", and DID require an unavoidable deadline, and thus had to be given all my attention during what little free-time I had. *

...So my intended, illustrated version of "Carmilla" got put on the shelf. And I told myself, "I'll get back to that eventually..."

Then very recently, I got a form-letter-style, mass email from the e-book publisher, saying they were folding the company, going out of business, or something... who knows why. All outstanding agreements are cancelled. Full ownership of all artwork returns to each individual artist, etc...

And to be honest, considering everything else on my plate, I was not really disappointed, but breathed a sigh of relief!!

Since this project is now set aside (possibly cancelled altogether) I thought I would go ahead and post the cover illustration. Because I like how it turned out, and it's been a long time since I posted anything on Deviant Art.

Who knows if I will ever get back to illustrating "Carmilla"... I've got other assignments taking priority over it right now. I guess my workload is on overload these days.


* UPDATE: The "much more interesting" assignment mentioned above, that interrupted my "Carmilla" project was a comic book adaptation of "The Hound" by HP Lovecraft, for European publisher, SelfMade Hero. You can see an image and get the details on THAT story here: bryanbaugh.deviantart.com/art/…



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