{"id":2049,"date":"2016-07-05T15:21:31","date_gmt":"2016-07-05T15:21:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnpicacio.com\/onthefront\/?p=2049"},"modified":"2016-07-05T15:22:47","modified_gmt":"2016-07-05T15:22:47","slug":"the-last-adventure-of-constance-verity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/johnpicacio.com\/onthefront\/2016\/07\/05\/the-last-adventure-of-constance-verity\/","title":{"rendered":"THE LAST ADVENTURE OF CONSTANCE VERITY"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p> $\"VERITYsq2picacio\"$ A. Lee Martinez\u2019s The Last Adventure of Constance Verity<\/em><\/a> debuts today in hardcover from Saga Press<\/a>, and I illustrated the cover art for this one. Here you see the final cover art, an enlarged detail of the final graphite\u00a0drawing, and the finished cover with typography. The final drawing is 22\u2033 x 28\u2033and\u00a0I had fun drawing Constance big.\n

Who is she?<\/em> As the author says, \u201cshe\u2019s Nancy Drew, John Carter, and a little bit of Doc Savage all rolled into one. She\u2019s fought aliens, vampires, and dinosaurs. She\u2019s been to the edge of the universe, the center of the Earth, and the beginning of time.\u201d She\u2019s done it all, folks. So what does someone this super want more than anything else? Read the book and find out. \ud83d\ude42<\/em>\u00a0A funny tale full of absurd humor and snark awaits you. Seriously, if\u00a0you like your fantasy snarky \u2014 and so many of you do \u2014 THIS BOOK IS YOUR JAM.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s another good reason to pick this one up this week, and to illustrate that, I want to talk about the depiction of race on book covers. We\u2019ve seen so many fails, face palms, and missed opportunities (understatement) when it comes to the depiction of non-white characters on book covers. When\u00a0Saga Press\u2019 editorial guru Joe Monti sent me the\u00a0manuscript, I discovered there was very little description of Constance\u2019s physical features. It was clear that this was done on purpose, and thus, I had to question how much I wanted to reveal her features on the cover, as I designed the character. I decided early in the process that I wanted to propose we not hide Constance, and that we not default her toward being\u00a0an exclusively\u00a0Caucasian character. I wanted her to be multi-ethnic. I wanted to see some Mexican@. I wanted to see some Asian. I wanted to see if I could create a character that could include more of us\u00a0rather than only some of us.<\/p>\n

For those that don\u2019t work in publishing, I know this sounds like a perfectly innocent idea, but trust me, that this kind of visual proposal makes many sales\/marketing\/editorial\/art departments VERY NERVOUS. There\u2019s a self-fulfilling prophecy in publishing amongst many (but thankfully, not all)<\/em> that says, \u201cCOVERS FEATURING NON-WHITE\u00a0CHARACTERS DO NOT SELL.\u201d<\/p>\n

Let me say for the record \u2014 I would love for all of us \u2014 you, me, and the person next to you \u2014 to finally kick that ridiculous mentality from here to oblivion, never to return. We have a long way to go. We can<\/em> do this though. Want to be a part of the winning?<\/p>\n

Buy\u00a0this\u00a0book during its release week.<\/a> Tell friends to do so. Spread the word. Shock\u00a0the publishers and the bookstores, and send this book to a second printing\u00a0in record time.\u00a0Publishers love success, and other publishers love to copy that success. This mission is doable\u00a0and IT SENDS A MESSAGE THAT NON-WHITE CHARACTERS ON COVERS DO<\/strong> SELL BOOKS.<\/p>\n

And if you don\u2019t care about race issues on covers? No worries \u2014 Lee\u2019s\u00a0book stands on its own with an action-packed story that will leave you wanting more Constance in your life.<\/p>\n

Final\u00a0note \u2014 this was a TEAM effort to allow me to draw Constance this way. I asked to do so, but you can thank Saga Press\u2019 editorial chief Joe Monti, art director Michael McCartney, and the author himself for saying, \u201cSure. Why not?\u201d Without all of them saying those three little words, Constance would be someone else, instead of being a little more of us.<\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"