At last ... drum rolls, trumpets do their trumpet thing ... I have an image to show that's been ten years in the making. This is the first actual, genuine 3D image of Mel Keegan's classic, cult heroes, Jarrat and Stone, which is close enough to what we've been seeing and trying to nail down in artwork, since about 2000.If you're a devotee of this acid-burn of an SF "trip" you'll know that we've been through at least three generations of faces since the books started to come out in DreamCraft. And you'll know that Jade has the pleasure and privilege of being Mel Keegan's cover artist ... the downside to which is that I get the responsibility of taking the descriptions of characters the SF cult of NARC has been in love with since 1994, and rendering their faces and forms into a design that brings out what's been in the author's brain for almost two decades.
And it ain't easy. The characters you see above are the closest we've come yet to nailing it, and even these are not 100%, but they're close enough to be damned convincing, and it's time to show these guys off. The characters are EXACTLY as described in the books. Tall, dark and stunning is Stoney -- Captain Jerry Stone. Mean, moody and magnificent is Captain Kevin Jarrat, and you put these two guys together and you get "Jarrat and Stone."
Now, be warned: these are cutting-edge SF novels where every single boundary to every last envelope is being pushed, and I don't just mean science and technology. Human relationships have also been explored to the max -- which means the mass market would hand out a bit of a warning about "gay content." Jarrat and Stone are together, and you known damn' well what together means. So consider yourselves warned. Having dispensed with all that, there's a whole universe you're missing, if you don't know what the hell Jade's banging on about now. If you're "of age" and looking for a hell of a thrill, click this. On the other hand, if you just like looking a beautiful guys, stay on this blog and browse!
Anyway, I've been reading the NARC books again, and I admit without any arm-twisting, my head is in the NARC universe right now ... aboard the carrier NARC-Athena, out there on the frontier colonies a few centuries from now, fighting the Angel War. I just wish Mel Keegan would do a sixth book!.
Jade, 28 November
