About - Back 2 OmniPark (Part 2)

Illustrator for Back 2 OmniPark.

During one of my first trips to the real OmniPark I purchased a hardcover book sold in The Realm of Time bookshop. The book appeared ancient but the materials and quality were like new. It smelled off, like a pile of wet leaves. I remember the cover was attractive, an image of a colossal multi-eyed Lovecrafian style monster hovering over a rocky mountain peak. The book was further illustrated in its interior. I've forgotten the title, which was a rather long single word, but when I brought it home I realized it was a book about religion. Or perhaps more accurately, about strategically pulling together the threads of ideas one could use to create and shape a new mythology. An odd thing to find in an theme park. But typical for OmniPark. Mainly I remember the pictures.

Co-editor Ben Thomas informed me we had five months until the publication of Back 2 OmniPark. At the time I thought, "That's wonderful! Plenty of time to layout the book." I started digging online, investigating the differences between book files and magazine files, trying to identify the areas where I might need to better educate myself (flowable ePubs in particular were going to be new territory.) From the beginning I was upfront with the editors concerning my limitations and weaknesses.

Map of OmniPark at the front of the anthology.

Part of designing the book included constructing what the editors categorized as "Artifacts" (realistic images or photographs of objects related to the park.) This mainly included merchandise and documents. We brainstormed somewhere around 30 ideas with about 10 of them making it into the book. Some great artifacts went unused. If there had been more time we'd have included more. Ben has an extensive collection of documents (most copies of originals) relating to the real OmniPark, which he says he's collected mainly from chat rooms, discussion boards, and small town Texas libraries. Many of these are obvious fakes. Or if not fake, too absurd to be believed by the average reader without corroborative evidence. For my part, I tried to chose artifacts which represented the flavor and subtle humor of the park. 

I suspect during this time the editors discovered that I was also an illustrator. I was asked if, in addition to the layout, I would be willing to do illustrations for the 15 stories in the anthology. 

...and I immediately declined. 

The average illustration takes me 3 weeks to complete. There was no way I could produce 15 illustrations in the 5-month window, even if that were my sole focus during the time. And even attempting to do so would have destroyed my hands thanks to arthritis. I recommended they contact another artist, but they asked me again, pointing out that they would rather work with just one person than try to coordinate multiple contributors and slow things down. They said any little bit of artwork would be enough, so long as it was something original for each story. I thought about it, weighed the opportunity to illustrate a book and then agreed to provide the art under the condition that the illustrations be in a much less detailed style than what I normally produce. We chatted about it a bit and eventually picked a simplified, cut-out style of artwork similar to the early poster art and advertisements for EPCOT and Tomorrowland --Solid shapes, few details, with little-to-no-shading. 

I was asked to present a couple of sketches for the first stories. My sketches are pitiful (for evidence just look through earlier posts in this blog) and often underrepresent the finished products. Since these editors didn't know me, instead I presented two nearly finished illustrations. They seemed to like them and I was told I didn't need to show anymore sketches. They trusted me. 

Illustration page from the published hardcover edition of Back to OmniPark.

For two months I produced two illustrations a week, sometimes spending as much as 20 hours over the weekend shut in the office. Most weekdays I would come home from my day job to work on the illos. But I did so with excitement. I knew there was something special about OmniPark. Creative choices needed to be made quickly to keep to the publication deadline. My main rule while illustrating was to find a moment in the story that was evocative and true to the story's details and, above all else, avoided spoiling the ending (which is often more difficult than it sounds.) I would upload two illos to a shared Google drive where the editors could see them and immediately move on to the next two. I liked imagining Ben and Alicia checking that folder periodically and finding the new images that had been added. 

When all 15 illustrations were submitted it felt like quite an accomplishment. But there was little time to relax. I had to change modes and begin work creating the real world Artifacts for the book. 

[More about Back 2 OmniPark in Part 3]

Back 2 OmniPark is available for purchase on Amazon and where books are commonly sold.