Cover images

As part of our package for THE KILLING MOON, we've devised a clever little 10-page comic book that is a prelude to the film's story. It's a section of the story that will never be filmed, but it sheds light on the overall mythology of our film's universe. I wrote and illustrated the book, and it was a true labour of love.

I grew up with comic books, and for so long I was ashamed to admit that I read them because of the tag of them being immature. But as i've grown older I've come across many filmmakers who share the same passion for comics as I had. Almost every major studio exec has, at some point in their life, indulged in comic books. So we have an entire generation of filmmakers who have, to some extent, seen the comic book as a pure storytelling format.

It makes sense because comics do indeed marry the written word to visual images, although probably not as visual as cinema. But more than a 30-page business plan, a 10-page comic book can probably elicit more information about the tone, texture, and quality of a film than plain text. Which is why we decided to go the comic book route. Plus it fulfills a dream of mine to make a comic book- that's one more thing to check off my "to do in life" list.

Anyway, back to the comic itself. We've been going back and forth about the cover image on the comic. Previously I had painted a cover that highlighted the mythology of the story, and its connections to Kali, the destroyer goddess of the Hindu pantheon. It was an image that was more tribal in nature, akin to an Indian cave painting. While it was artistic, we felt it really didn't "sell" the film in a filmic sense. This is where we had to take our artistic hats off and put our business hats on. We referenced today's comics and video game covers and tried to ascertain what sells today.

T&A. It's unfortunate- almost every image featured women so disproportionate you would think you were looking into a fun-house mirror. I am not opposed to using sex as a draw to a product, because the oldest rule in the book is that sex sells. But we both felt that there had to be some standards of decency. Our lead character in the film, a young woman by the name of Anjali, was a beautiful character both in character and appearance. It would be of highest disrespect to her as a character and woman to simply reduce her to a sexual object for the sake of selling a film. Some might argue that she's just a fictional creation, a figment of our imaginations. But she is real to those who watch her, and we have to be mindful of that. But then we're back to square one- how do we make our product "sexy" without reducing to disrespect?

One of the base wants of people, man or woman, is to feel attractive, both sexually and intellectually. When we someone across the room that draws our fancy it is, at least by our standards, because they exude a confidence in their constitution and bodies. They are at ease in their own skin, and we just can't help to want to touch that skin because of it. Let's face it- confident skin electrifies, reserved skin is cold. Sex is about confidence and comfort- so how can i capture that on canvas, and later on, on film?

I tried several versions of the cover art that started as purely erotic and introduced levels of confidence into the character. I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a weird experience. I remembered those days that every young boy goes through in their lives- the day you drew your first naked woman. it was exciting and forbidden at the same time, but always more the former. I finally arrived at a painting that I felt exuded both sexual and intellectual confidence, that which embodied the character of Anjali the best. I'm quite happy with it, eventhough it is not as revealing of skin as my previous paintings. I love the fact that this looks like a woman whom you want to get close to but turn around you know that if you touch her or disrespect her you'll get your ass kicked.

That's what Anjali is all about.