CGSociety :: Special Feature
22 September 2009, by Paul Hellard
Ballistic Publishing is excited to announce the Pre-Order of a large-format fantasy graphic novel based on the Utherworlds universe created by Philip Straub. The ambitious project spanning six years of production tells the tale of Lucas Sellers and his journey into The Realms where the forces of hope are pitted against ultimate evil. Utherworlds combines a fully-fledged novel with written and spoken languages, maps, and stunning paintings with hidden messages that provide layers of detail not seen in other graphic novels.
In creating the Utherworld book with Ballistic Publishing, Phil Straub aimed to create something bigger with his work than just single one-off images or a cumulative body of work. He was looking to find something that connected the work and the concepts behind them.
Straub spent 15 years in the business creating very well thought-out worlds for other folks and now he "really wanted to try my hand in it to see if I could actually do it on my own."
He'd also dabbled in writing when he was younger, won some awards for stories and then just moved away from that side of himself. This project was an opportunity for him to get back to the joy of writing and to work on developing writing skills in general. "My goal, at the time, was to develop my skills to the point I was proficient enough to further develop other stories and brands I already have in the works," says Straub.
"Of course, thinking back to elementary school, C.S. Lewis and J.R.R.Tolkien had profound impacts on my life," he says, "I read all the time, whatever I could get my hands on ? but, the books always had some fantasy or sci-fi element to them. These earlier experiences paved the way for my lifelong goal to write and illustrate my own novel."
"I wanted to create a book that was different: unique in the marketplace," Straub continues, "There are tons and tons of art books out there and even more graphi c novels. But, no-one had ever really combined that concept with what is essentially an art IP bible from a game or film. So, I saw a niche there that wasn't being filled and we tried to fill it."
"Finally, the book fulfills part of a greater life mission that has only begun to come into true focus for me," Straub explains. "I want to contribute something bigger than myself, something good to the world that will hopefully have a long-lasting positive impression on folks. That is what this book is: a message of hope. If I can spark a few people to think differently about their day-to-day lives and how they interact with the world that is something wonderful to me."
Phil Straub has always been one to take on big projects to challenge himself. "I've been like this since I was a little kid," he explains. "I built a rock wall in my parents' back yard. In some cases the rocks were an acre or more away from the fence and I had to haul them up hills in my dad's wheel barrow." Phil Straub clearly think in very long term goals. "Most things in my creative life are done very deliberately and fulfill a much larger vision for how I want to contribute to the world," he says.
"I've never written a whole book of this magnitude, let alone illustrate it," explains Straub. "I had lots of help from Mark Snoswell and the character Lucas Sellers, so I can't take all the credit there."
The book production was daunting, overwhelming, exhausting and challenging for the entire team. "At the same time," Straub adds, "it was; liberating, fulfilling, exciting, and the best experience of my life. It's a tough thing to describe really. It takes an incredible leap of faith to embark on something that takes six years of your life to complete and requires immense amount of sacrifice.
While most people were out having fun on the weekends, I was home working away, one painting at a time. My friends even started to get pissed at me for not hanging out, and in some ways they were right but, at the same time, completing this was just something I had to do. It felt bigger than me in some way."
Straub notes that for a while it seemed like the story, the languages, and the art was just flowing out of him as if he was being influenced by Lucas, the lead character. "It was as if he was in my head," he says.
He lists the many stories he read as a kid, many now translated into film. All the great paintings by heroes across many genres of fantasy art, sci-fi illustrations, surreal fine art, the symbolist movement, the Orientalists, The Hudson River school and the list goes on. "The work in Utherworlds is really an amalgam of all my creative, personal and professional experiences as a human being."
"The Ballistic guys and I are avid book collectors," Straub says, "and we don't know of anything that's comparable." The book combines a full novel of approximately 50,000 words, with two unique written languages, a spoken language, nine maps detailing out the world, large format imagery as well. Remember, the spreads are 30 inches wide!
"It's like combining a novel, adding an art element, and then adding an art bible the size of something you might see in a movie into one package," Straub says. "I knew Ballistic was the only publisher that would produce the work to my extremely high standards and take the time to be sure every page was as impeccably reproduced as it could be. They worked their butts off right along with me."
