In the Mouth of Madness: Sutter Kane Book Covers

[LeMarchand]

"Do you read Sutter Kane?"​

I posted an interrest thread in the JY and realised that not everybody check the JY. So i thought i post in the main forum as well to show a project that i have worked on last year.

"In the Mouth of Madness" is one of my favorite movies. I just love all aspects of it. I always wanted to have a full set of the books and years ago a run of the covers was done. They were nice, but the graphics were pixelated and the text were bitmap so up close it didn't look too good.

A friend of mine (don't know if he wants to be identified, but feel free to chime in ) has in his possession a full set of original books from the movie and was nice enough to sent me high res scans of the covers and all the details needed to work on a replica set of the books.

It was a lot of work. First thing i did was restore all the graphics oon the covers. I had to smoothen the moiree effect, remove the scratches and sometimes repaint bits that were worn off and restore color. I then tried to identify as many of the fonts as possible as i wanted all text to be in Vector. The fonts i couldn't identify were completely redone and carefully traced in illustrator.

The Hardcover: "In the Mouth of Madness" is a cover that was put around 465 page regular book, the paperbacks all have one and the same page of text that is repeated on both sides of the pages and is on all pages, so i redid that in "Word".

Basicly everything you see in the covers except for the paintings on the cover is done in vector to keep it all as sharp as possible. I think in total i have spent about 150 hours if not more and drank 73 liters of coffee to finish the job.

I am very happy with how they came out and i can't wait to make them into a set of screen accurate books.

check 'em out:

 

[bigbaddaddyvader]

Great stuff.Love that film-one of Carpenter's most under-rated films.
Fantastic work there.

 

[starfighter66]

those are damned nice looking, great work.

 

[NoTsOsErIoUs]

Oh mate thats so cool!
if you rip them up and paste 'em together in a certain way do they make the map of Hobbs End?

 

[LeMarchand]

yes, in the movie they tore the lined sections out of the covers to make the map to Hobb's End

 

[Apollo]

Extremely cool from a way under appreciated classic!

 

[burningman]

love this movie..Awesome work mate!

 

[LeMarchand]

here's another comparison shot between how the original scan for "Hobb's End" and what my restored version looks like.

 

[LeMarchand]

I am currently looking for the best way to get these printed.

The pocketbooks can be printed on an inkjet (my Canon S800 gave good results), result looks good.

The hardcoversleeve is proving to be more of a challenge. I took my file to a local copyshop who printed it on an A2 glossy piece of paper (plotter). The result was dissapointing when you know the picture is high res and the rest vector. The graphics lookl grainy and the colors also look very dull.

Offset will probably be too expensive, i don't know anyone with an A2 printer, so my search continues.

 

[Brigandia36]

HI,

I usually work with professional printers and they can print in every size on any weight.
And they are my friends !
You can send me a file and I will make a copy on any kind of paper you want.
Olliver gave me as a gift these covers a long time ago ...

 

[fopflugel]

nice!

 

[Digital Mayhem]

hey Marc,

quite impressive retouching work you did on the covers! i am glad i could help you with these sorry that it took me forever to scan them in for you.

so that is the 2nd project that we were doing together looking forward to the next one.

olli

 

[Ghadrack]

I'll check out the interest thread for details, they look great. I too love this movie, I could not tell you how many Sundays I have had Sam Neil goes berserk day and watched in the Mouth of Madness then Event Horizon back to back.

 

[batgremlin]

Wow, great project...! Good work!

 

[LeMarchand]

After looking at a lot of options it seems i finally found the perfect way to get these done.

I was at a printer's recently and was shown several samples of what they can do, which really impressed me.

The paperback covers will be laserprinted on cardstock and foillaminated. I was show a softcover book they made this way and it looked awesome.

the sleeve for the hardcover book will be printed on a poster plotter. When i had this one printed on a plotter in a different shop, i was very dissapointed with the quality (fuzzy, shallow colors). The plotter they have at this shop apparently is a much better one. The poster he showed me that was printed in it, was really good. It can probably also be foil laminated. I will be going over the details in 2 weeks and hopefully have a test set printed.

 

[LeMarchand]

Just back from the printer, this project is officially a go.

The paperback covers and the A4 sheet with the sections of the map will be printed on 250gr cardstock and gloss foil laminated.

the hardcoversleeve will be plotted on A2 format poster paper and matt foil laminated.

So, all the covers will be high quality and scratch/mositure/fingerprint proof. I also finished the printed page that was in the paperbacks, which are really accurate to the original.

I will be picking up the testprints next monday and post some pics of the final results.

check the Junkyard thread to sign up, hurry as this first run will only consist of 5 sets of covers, a second run can be done if 5 more sign up.

Junkyard sign up thread

 

[LeMarchand]

Picked up the prints today and i am very, very pleased with the result.

The prints look very crisp and clean. Nice thin laminating on the paperback covers and the hardcover sleeves are so much better than the previous print i had printed on a (probably old) plotter. These are also very sharp and clean. The matt laminate is thicker than the foil, but results in a nice solid sleeve that will last for a loooooooooong time.

I'll post some pics later.

 

[Dread84]

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! One of my Favorite Horror Movies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Job well done with making the books!!!!!!!!!!!! :love

 

[TheMechanic]

I've been looking for the Sutter Cane props off and on for years and never found anything, I come here and bam! There they are.
Incredible stuff. I'd love to get my hands on a set.

 

[Ghadrack]

My copies arrived today, I have to say you did a spectacular job on these. After the wait, and then overseas shipping I was expecting to get something that looked like it had been used to line a bird cage on an ocean voyage across the Atlantic, package arrived this morning in great condition and the covers look awesome.