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Illustrate the adventures of A.C. Hessfog Private Investigator with a graphic novel using a film noir style.
His cases are filled with intrigues and mystery, and he particularly favoured an uncanny and mystical clientele.
His methods are unorthodox.
Regarding the main character, Hessfog PI was born at the end of the 60's in the South of Europe, it's not until the end of the 80's that Hessfog moved to North Africa, then Casablanca to finally relocate in North America.
He previously had, at 18 years old of age, open his own private investigator agency that he ran up to this very day.
His cases brought him to various part of the world.
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| AC Hessfog . Private Investigator |
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| Graphic Novel Front Cover |
In that story, our private investigator is hired by a Mrs. Wong, a wealthy Chinese lady, to find the missing skeleton of her great grand father.
The investigation will reveal a sordid scenario involving a bone collector, a pair of thugs, a mysterious Chinese lady, a Russian girlfriend, and most importantly, this volume introduces the reader to the main characters and the real hero, the dark city of Victoria...
More information regarding the graphic novel, the private investigator and the illustrator can be found here:
The Case of the Chinese Cemetery
The project, then, started to grow unexpected branches!
While the graphic novel still is the main project within the project, a series of alternate stories involving the same PI started to appear.
It became evident quite rapidly that this would be an opportunity to narrate different aspects of Hessfog's life. It would then be possible to create an entire detailed universe without having to always use the graphic novel medium, which, even though is an extremely efficient and wonderful medium, requires also an insane amount of work.
To give a somehow precise idea, the 1st Volume required about 75 illustrations.
That is a fairy amount of work.
Hessfog and I started to work on some other stories, that would use mixed medium, and would be meant to, again, allow us to create a complex universe where the main character evolves, within an acceptable amount of work.
The 1st Multiverse Project was named The Night of the Sasquatch . Adventures in Sooke BC
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| The Night of the Sasquatch . Main Poster |
The package includes a poster, various illustrations, portraits and scenes, and a little booklet narrating the story.
In that case, Hessfog gets hired by Joanna Steinfield, free lance journalist at the Times Columnist, the local newspaper, to investigate about a possible hoax regarding the sighting of a Sasquatch in the Sooke Hills, the region surrounding Victoria.
The package also includes a full coloured map of the Sooke area:
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| The Night of the Sasquatch . Map of the Sooke Area |
The 2nd Multiverse Project was about The Villains...
My personal favourites...
This was meant, and still is, to define few characters very precisely, again, without having to put an insane amount of efforts.
Few illustrations with few little stories should suffice and do the job!
It might seems like a cheap way to deal with that situation, but it's not.
To be able to accomplished such things, it requires some very smart thinking, and some even smarter use of skills.
It is, all in all, an exercise I enjoy a great deal!
The 1st and, so far, only drawing on that project is The Prestige, Hessfog's arch enemy...
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| Out of all the evils that Hessfog will encounter during his life, The Prestige will always win the gold palm. Attractive, brilliant and without a soul, She is driven by total power and complete submission of the human race. This, was a picture of herself she sent to the FBI, as the ultimate dare, after the case of the South African diamonds genocide, in which she was deeply involved. The blood was not hers, but belonged to the FBI agent that were chasing her... |
And, I finally get to the point of that post, the 3rd Multiverse Project, the one I have been working on recently, The Youth...
Here, again and again, the idea is to create a story with a minimal amount of elements.
The difference is that, it's like using a time machine, it's a jump in the past, time and space are different, the details are different, it has a taste of melancholy, Saudade as the Brazilian say...
It's a lots of fun.
So, let me talk for a short while about Murder at the Warehouse J4, my latest illustration:
Year: 1987
Location: Marseille . France
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| Marseille . France |
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| Marseille . France |
The Story: 1987 . Hessfog is already a PI, in the south of France, at the age of 20.
From the St Marie Light House in Marseille, Hessfog observes the crime area, in a mysterious and disturbing case that will bring him all the way to Istanbul, facing drug trafficking and human sacrifice...
The Illustration:
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| Murder at the Warehouse J4 |
In the illustration, we can see a younger Hessfog, not wearing his usual suit and tie, but more of an estival style, smoking and looking at the Warehouse J4, where the body of a turkish individual was found mutilated.
Hessfog was then hired by the family of the individual to investigate as an alternative to the police work.
The illustration also show Fort St Jean (St John Fort), La Bonne Mère . Notre-Dame de la Garde (literally Our Lady of the Guard), Le Pharo, and of course, the dock warehouse name J4 as shown below:
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| City Trademark Monuments |
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| Fort St Jean |
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| Basilica Notre Dame de la Garde |
Notre Dame de la Garde (Marseille) - Résolution 4K from DroneCast on Vimeo.
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| Le Palais du Pharo |
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| Docks Warehouse J4 |
But something happened since 1987...
Nowadays, this is how Warehouse J4 looks like:
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| Mucem . Marseille |
It's been turned in to The Mucem In Marseille, a Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisations (MuCEM).
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| MuCEM |
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| MuCEM |
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| MuCEM |
This, clearly, add to my story in a very positive way.
What was is not anymore...
A vestige from the past...
I wanted to go a tad further, and get a better geographical position of the St Marie Light House, the spot where Hessfog is standing, smoking his smoke...
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| St Marie Light House |
Here are some images that I am assuming are about 2 to 3 years old, prior to the MuCEM being completed, and that locate pretty well the global area of the murder:
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| Global Murder Area Bird View |
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| The St Marie Light House Bird View |
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| The Light House and the Dock J4/MuCEM |
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| The Light House , the Dock J4/MuCEM and the Pharo |
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| The Light House and the Dock J4/MuCEM |
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| The Light House and the Dock J4/MuCEM closer view |
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| The Light House St Marie |
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| Marseille Bird View |
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| Marseille Bird View |
And now what?
Well, as I was telling my good friend Mike yesterday, the comic itself is like making a 2.5 hours movie. It takes time, it's very darning, it requires commitment, but it also is extremely exciting and the most wonderful experience.
However, this shouldn't stop me to make some short films in the meantime, under the form of single illustration, like Murder at the Warehouse J4.
So, I am thinking of doing a series of 3 or 4 portraits that I need to do for The Night of the Sasquatch anyway, and, this sounds like a lots of fun!
Who's gone be the first one?
The Shaman, The Slug, Joanna Steinfield or The Bakwas?
To be continued...
Voila, that's all for now Peeps.
Have yourself a great day!
Sincerely
Serge Foglio
8th of June 2014
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