Black Dragon Press x Mondo #02: The Wind in the Willows

Black Dragon Press x Mondo #02

Hand numbered screen print.

Details

"I fought with this one a lot, more maybe than anything else I’ve made. But I’m happy I persisted, this ornery bastard has ended up being pretty special to me.

My impression of these characters and this story going into this turned out to be very different from what I came away with after reading the novel. I was broadly familiar with The Wind In The Willows from various adaptations and had certainly seen enough Willows art to have a pretty strong idea of what this thing was about: idyllic English scenery, cute animals in tweed, the toad being a bit loopy...

But Toad’s not just a bit loopy, he’s truly sick. He’s charming and funny, sure, but in that very sad way perhaps only a person in the depths of addiction can be. His great source of joy and purpose is also a fatal menace to himself and those around him, and it wreaks havoc on his life.

"I wanted to get at some of that in the drawing, how the book goes in these two directions simultaneously. The characters were to stay tweedy and cuddly, but the image should be somehow chaotic and confusing. I wanted to show him plunging into oblivion and soaring like a bird at the same time. And I did all I could to draw you into those unhinged but ecstatic toady eyes."

- Peter Diamond