I've been a huge fan of Elsa Charetier's ever since I read Infinite Loop a few years ago, and have been excited to check out whatever project she's working on. She had a successful Kickstarter campaign for an art book last year, and yesterday launched a campaign for a new art book.
And to say people are excited about her work is an understatement - the project was fully funded in 6 minutes! Charretier herself said "I’m the first surprised by the interest, I’ll be honest." But I'm not, because Charretier has an incredibly appealing art style that feels both classic and modern, and is accessible and conveys human emotion incredibly successfully. Her style works equally well in conveying classic beauty as it does in conveying the dark underbelly of human existence.
And her artbook will afford a terrific opportunity to get an inside peek into her creative process, along with a lot more:
Our wildly successful Kickstarter campaign confirmed that you guys crave a closer relationship to artists you love, and long to get a peek behind the scenes. This year's artbook is just that: an even more throughout insight into my artistic process, many high-quality renditions of pieces never seen before, and new chapters.
We're adamant about quality. Printed in Italy, this high-end 8.27 -in x 11.7-in hardcover is printed on 150 gsm heavyweight paper and will be designed by myself.
In fact, everything, beginning with this campaign, down to the customer service will be handled by my partner (writer Pierrick Colinet) and me. We’re a well-oiled machine, and most importantly, we love preparing carefully put-together packages before shipping them out around the world. From our small studio in the south of France to you guys.
This new artbook will feature grey washes illustrations, large multiple-characters pieces, drawing tips, a Day in the Life section, and a lot more. We'll also feature an immersive chapter into the development of my upcoming concept story for James Tynion IV & Martin Simmonds’ new series, Department of Truth.
Speaking of guests, we'll also welcome Amy Reeder (Amethyst), Declan Shalvey (Moon Knight), Chip Zdarsky (Daredevil), and Tom King (Batman)! More on their involvement as we unlock stretch goals!
One of the other possible items in the campaign that I'm personally most excited about is the November: Commentary Edition. November is a fantastic series of graphic crime novels from Charretier, writer Matt Fraction, and an amazing creative team (my brief review of the fantastic first volume here), and this edition will contain commentary on certain pages from Charretier and Fraction.
This should be a fantastic project, so be sure to check it out.