Posted in: Comics | Tagged: graphic novels, Night Music, oscar wilde, p craig russell
P. Craig Russell brings back his Night Music graphic novels after almost fifty years, with Oscar Wilde’s The Fisherman And His Soul
Article Summary
- P. Craig Russell revives Night Music nearly 50 years after launching the Eclipse Comics series in 1979.
- The return begins with Oscar Wilde adaptation The Fisherman and His Soul, a 44-page centerpiece in a new hardcover.
- P. Craig Russell calls the new Night Music a bucket-list project, adding new short stories and unseen commissioned art.
- The Kickstarter edition features colors by Lovern Kindzierski and hand-lettering by Galen Showman on the original art.
Forty-seven years ago, in 1979, P. Craig Russell started a series for Eclipse Comics called Night Music. A series of graphic novels, it ran through eleven volumes and ended in 1990. It served as a vehicle that allowed him to write and draw whatever interested him, including the likes of The Magic Flute, Salome, The Jungle Book, science fiction, fantasy, and whatever he was into.
Already known at Marvel for Killraven and later for Elric, P. Craig Russell used Eclipse’s better printing and creator ownership to publish more experimental work. Eclipse went bankrupt, and P. Craig Russell became better known for his Sandman comic books. But it also named the documentary made about him in 2008, Night Music: The Art of P. Craig Russell, about his career and technique, including work on Neil Gaiman‘s The Dream Hunters.
But now Night Music is back, and at the age of 75, P. Craig Russell will be initially using it to adapt The Fisherman and His Soul, the final (and longest) story in the Oscar Wilde fairy tale cycle that he began in 1992. And then, who knows? Night Music will now be a new series of hardcover graphic albums with all-new stories and coming to Kickstarter courtesy of P. Craig Russell’s original art agent/publishing partner, Wayne Alan Harold. P. Craig Russell says;
“After nearly half a century, I’m rounding out my career in “bucket list” mode. I’m returning to Night Music and tackling projects that I’ve been waiting years to do. At 44 pages Fisherman (and his mermaid) will be the centerpiece of the book, but with 72 pages to work with, I’ll also be including several shorter all-new pieces and a gallery of commissioned illustrations that have never seen print… until now. It’s all “in the can” and we’ll be previewing excerpts from the stories over the next few weeks. I hope you enjoy the stories as much as I’ve enjoyed bringing them to life”
Craig’s longtime colourist, Lovern Kindzierski, is currently colouring all 44 interior pages of The Fisherman and His Soul portion of the anthology, while Galen Showman is providing actual hand-lettering right on the original art boards.
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