Dark designs

Joseph Conrad's seminal novel Heart of Darkness as Graphic-Novel in colour!   Here's 3 fullpage illustrations and cover art  -

Cover concept.

My reading of Conrad’s narrative was visualising his story as more of a Ripping Yarn Adventure Tale inkeeping with the his serialised reports for popular magazines of the 1890s who's readers then were hungry for news about unexplored regions of the world, especially from deep within the mysterious dark interior of continental Africa.


1, Here Marlow - Steamboat Captain, learns about the rogue company-man Kurtz is, when he's told about his return up-river immediately after dropping off yet another record breaking load of Ivory -

'I seemed to see Kurtz for the first time.'

2, Here Marlow's knackered paddle steamer is attacked by those godless Savages as it navigates the treacherous snags in the Congo's fast flowing river currents -

'Arrows, by Jove! We were being shot at!'

3, Eventually the steamer arrives at the company's Inner-Station where Marlow encounters the sick Kurtz crawling through long grass while the Savages get increasingly more restless - 

'I came upon him, and, if he had not heard me coming, I would have fallen over him too.'

Cropped detail - 

See extra sketches at my Behance !