As Faber publishes the first UK edition of When I Arrived at the Castle, graphic novelist Emily Carroll tells us about her creative process designing a new cover for the book.
In the original edition of When I Arrived at the Castle, I ended up following my gut instinct, which was to zero in on the two lead characters themselves.
In a way, it echoed the creative philosophy of the book itself: when you don’t know what to draw, just draw what you love drawing most. The result was a tight embrace, with a shock of red to highlight the characters’ bared fangs.
But approaching a cover for this new edition, years after originally drawing the book, posed a unique problem: could I remember how to capture the look and feel of the characters, despite the gap? Luckily, it turned out to be as intuitive a process as the entire book itself was, which was written and drawn page by page, discovering the story and the message I wanted to convey at the same time as I put pen to paper (or in this case, stylus to tablet).
With this in mind, I zeroed in on several keywords – Blood, Erotic, and, since we are dealing with a vampire here, Predator and Prey.
I wanted the push-and-pull dynamic between the vampiric Countess and the hapless Cat to be instantly recognised, but also the mirroring that they provide for each other, two sides of the same coin (or at least, a very similar one). In the original cover, we don’t see their eyes, but instead the toothy grin of each as they cling, close-up, to one another – the cat above, showing a ferocity she lacks for much of the story. In this new version, I wanted to showcase the terrible beauty of the Countess instead, and how the Cat, though herself a hunter, is eager to be ensnared.
To this end I once again used the shot of the two of them locked in a half struggle, half embrace, but pulled out a little so that we could clearly see their expressions and hands. My first idea was to have blood dripping directly from the Countess’s mouth into the Cat’s, but the energy of it was too relaxed, and the Cat too passive – so I opted to present the moment after such an exchange has occurred, and the Countess is sealing the Cat’s mouth shut as trickles of blood escape down her chin. The Cat, for her part, both stares in mute terror at the vampire above her, but her lower hands also cling to the Countess’s front, so that both of them are doing the work of fixing the other in place.
I also used the opportunity of a new edition to add to the back cover – one of my favourite sequences in the book is one where the Countess leads the Cat to a bathtub full of black water.
So I decided to put the antique tub on the back as well (with some minor adjustments, such as filling it with blood instead) and add the decanter the Cat drinks from as she ‘makes herself at home’ in the Castle.
For the final version, I ended up changing the position of the Cat’s hands, swapping the hand in front to be clinging to the Countess’s robe, and splaying the hand in the back to create tension between not only the points of her claws and the Countess’s body, but also to freeze it in the moment where she is deciding what she wants to do – claw the vampire, or caress her.
I am so pleased with how this cover turned out, especially since this book holds such a special place in my heart. It was truly a joy to draw and feel my way through, and one of the more personally rewarding comics I’ve drawn.
When I Arrived at the Castle is out now.
A gothic horror story full of mystery and pulsing with blood(lust), perfect for fans of Her Body and Other Parties, Suspiria and The Haunting of Hill House.