My Apologies: A Series (Part 1: Gregory Maguire)

I was talking to a friend about books that we worked on and would rather forget about. Artwork we were so ashamed to have published that we wished that Amazon.com didn't keep themselves so well updated. This got me to look through my old archive of work, which got me to think about how much I've evolved and improved over the years. To the casual viewer my work may seem the same to most of you, but to me, a person who has been married to my craft for many years, you see every little subtle change.

Regrettably, I must say, that the old work is horrendous and I'm ashamed to show it, but like Alcohol Anonymous, we have to let it all out, tell ourselves it's OK and that we can move on.

OK, so I'm not familiar with the 12 step program but you get the picture.

These were the very first pieces I ever got published in book publishing (aside from Guild of Geniuses) It was for a book series written by Gregory Maguire (author of "Wicked") called the Hamlet Chronicles. (a total of seven books in the series) Harpercollins wanted me to repackage the series as well as illustrate the last three new books. This was when I was painting in acrylics and would ship the original artwork out to the clients. As you can see towards the tail end of the series I switched to digital because I quickly learned that revisions can be a pain...

THREE ROTTEN EGGS

SEVEN SPIDERS SPINNING

FOUR STUPID CUPIDS

A COUPLE OF APRIL FOOLS

 

FIVE ALIEN ELVES

SIX HAUNTED HAIRDOS

ONE FINAL FIRECRACKER

These are just a few of many skeletons in my closet.

Ugh, I can't even look at SEVEN SPIDERS SPINNING..... Atrocious.

So, Mr. Maguire, if you're reading this, I'm sorry I sucked in the early part of my career and that the stories you worked so hard to get published had to endure the Suckitude™ of my naive abilities of that time. If Harpercollins were to ever give me a second shot at repackaging these I would think I would do you proud, but we'll just call it what it was... A relationship where one of us (me) just wasn't mature enough to follow through with to the end.

Comments

[Nina]

The stupid cupids are my faves. I think I get what you are saying here, because the more we draw the more we grow. Your work is unbelievably good, Dan. Try to think on the old stuff as vintage, because it is so not crap. My two cents for ya...