Rock the Boat

I finally received my paper copy of Rock the Boat, the graphic novel I spend most of 2011 illustrating for Banter Publishing as their first publication. With a radical approach Banter takes great works of literature and updates them into modern day narratives on a graphic novel format. This way they seek to connect young readers to classic literature.

For Rock the Boat, scriptwriter Tim Lay took Jerome K. Jerome's Victorian hit Three Men in a Boat and set it in present day England where an amateur rock band sets off on a journey up the river Thames from London to Reading festival with the intention of becoming the next instant viral sensation.

My work was to take Tim's satirical vision of England's social fabric and turn it into images while at the same time staying true to the original novel's descriptive spirit. In the end this meant spending nine months stoaryboarding, pencilling, inking and colouring the 92 pages that make the graphic novel.

To top it off illustrator Paul Shinn worked on the lettering and make it actually readable.

Will let you know as soon as Rock the Boat is published, hopefully soon this year.