#the leviathan trilogy

[gouachemole]

Steampunk? Check. Historical YA fiction? Check. Flying whale airships? …Also check. ⚙️🐋

I made a mockup of the original Leviathan novel by Scott Westerfeld, aka my favorite series of all time, in honor of the upcoming adaptation 👀

Title font: PF Fuel Decay from Adobe Fonts, modified to hell and back

Book mockup site: DIY Book Covers

Programs used: Procreate & Photoshop

[bookishfart]

It's been 13 years since I've drawn these dweebs 🫶

[breach-of-conduct]

the og autism creature

[mistninja]

Happy Sunday! Here's my monthly wrap-up, featuring:

Goliath by Scott Westerfeld

The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Interview With the Vampire by Anne Rice

My Hero Academia season 7

Uzumaki (tv)

Hocus Pocus 2

[roshambeau]

It is my pleasure to finally be able to share with you the project that I've been working on for the past 2 years!

For my final project for my masters degree, I decided to create a visual development artbook for an animated movie adaptation of the Leviathan trilogy by Scott Westerfeld. This 100+ page long book contains all the research that I put into this project, from sketches and concept art to final designs and illustrations, as well as explanations of my creative process.

I am aware that the timing is not ideal, but I promise that this has absolutely nothing to do with the upcoming Netflix adaptation! That adaptation wasn't announced until after I'd completed my project, and I had absolutely no idea that it was happening. This is a fully fan-made project, and has no affiliation with Scott Westerfeld whatsoever.

All that being said: I hope you enjoy! This was a very long labour of love, and I am so so happy to finally share it with you all. These books hold a very special place in my heart, and it is my sincerest hope that my work manages to do them justice.

LINK TO THE COMPLETE PDF

[soranatus]

A sneak peak at the visual development for Leviathan (2025) at Anime Expo 2024

[himbionn]

The queerest bitches I know.

(Early B-Day gift for @galaxyartmaps cause I don't know anyone more obsessed with this book series than them)

[hanahclairart]

[rainybearstudio]

Where my Leviathan fans at now that they’ve announced a Netflix adaptation‼️

rainybearstudio.com

[gouachemole]

Dalek Week 2022 Day 3 - "There is no flag big enough to cover the shame of killing people."

-

AN ENTIRE YEAR LATER, I remembered that I did not post this piece from last year’s Dalek Week 🫣

Alek didn’t kill in the name of a flag, he killed for someone he loved. and that’s romance, baby!

[theladysherlock]

It really is lovely to see everyone coming out of the woodwork after seeing the Leviathan Anime Announcement. It's like watching Cicadas come out from the ground after over a decade to scream and fly around wildly going "WAIT WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS REAL"

[selkiestorytelleracademia]

Netflix hello?!?!?!?

I'm so excited for this, I've been dreaming of an adaptation since early 2014

(And istg Netflix if you cancel this prematurely and we lose out on the slowburn, I will lose hope in streaming services forever)

[ecrivainalene]

Leviathan Panel at Otakon 2024

I was OVERJOYED to be at the Leviathan panel during Otakon 2024! I'll do my best to recap it below, but if you want a more coherent play by play, this Twitter user did an excellent job.

I've got a handful of photos, recap of Sharp Gender Discussion, plus misc. things I remember.

Not everyone was up for the entire time, but I snapped this photo near the end when everyone was on stage! From left to right: Waki Kiyotaka (Studio Orange), Yoshihiro Watanabe (Studio Orange), Scott Westerfeld, Christophe Ferreira (Quibic Pictures), Justin Leach (Quibic Pictures), Katrina Minett (Quibic Pictures), and Diana Garnet (ending theme vocalist).

New concept art! Looks like Dr. Barlow, Klopp, Alek, and Sharp, right before the Germans attack the Leviathan.

More under the cut!

Alternative shot of that art bc I couldn't get my lighting right:

Clanker and Darwinist technology designs. Watanave explained that Studio Orange's early days were spent doing contract work on Gundam anime, so I can't wait to see how that translates to the Clanker machines.

Some more concept art:

By the way, the entire series is being adapted at once - so we'll get the complete story at once! That in mind, the second image here makes me think of that maneuver near the beginning of Goliath to pick up the cargo.

Sharp!!! Look at them!!!

I don't have much to say about these but I'm fairly sure I hadn't seen them before. I am wondering if they downsized Alek's crew for the sake of the story, or perhaps we just haven't seem Bauer and Hoffman yet.

We got some new character art! The panel was very cryptic about who the character designer is. Apparently they're pretty well known, but they can't share it yet!

Volger I am so sorry your photo was unfocused. Forgive me.

The panel jokingly described him as "Alek's dad," which feels accurate. And maybe I misunderstood, but it sounds like he plays an even more important role in the anime than he does in the books. I've always considered Volger to be a pretty important character, so I wonder what else he'll do in this new series.

Klopp looks exactly like how I pictured him in my mind!! They said if Volger is Alek's dad, then Klopp is like his mom. Which is very fair but also made me laugh a lot.

Dr. Barlow!! She looks amazing. There was a lot of talk about the dynamic between her and Volger and how they're often playing mental chess games with each other. I'm really glad they're leaning into that dynamic.

And one more concept art:

This looks like the visit to Istanbul, which I'm desperately hoping means we'll see my favorite chaotic bisexual, Lilit.

That's all of the photos I have! They also showed us a preview of the show plus a live performance of the ending song with Diana Garnet. No video recording was allowed and I don't break rules, but believe me when I tell you it was stunning. The world feels so full of life and adventure and I can't wait to see the final show.

Tbh I was too busy holding back tears of joy but one thing I remember distinctly is there's a shot of Sharp getting ready for the day, and we see a sheet of paper with a bunch of names written and crossed out before finally (I think) "Dylan" is circled.

Which actually brings me to the Q&A part. TLDR, between the use of "Sharp" for Deryn's name, Scott referring to Sharp as "she/he/they" during the panel, and the scene I mentioned earlier, I feel really hopeful about how they're approaching Deryn's gender and identity in this adaptation.

I asked a question about this at the Q&A and voice recorded it, so I'll try to transcribe it here as best I can because the audio is not great lol. I stumbled through my question so I trimmed it down here but I'll transcribe the response as clearly as I can!

Me: I just finished re-reading [the series] for the first time since I was probably in high school, and one of the things that interests me about this adaptation is the approach to Sharp's character... I guess I'm just interested, like, was there a lot of thought put behind, or what kind of thought was put behind how to approach their character in the anime, I guess as a chance to re-approach the story however many years after it was originally written.

Scott Westerfeld: Yeah, there's a lot to that. The "girl dressing as a boy" as a trope was something completely different in 2007 when I started writing this than it is now. And so we really approached Deryn's identity as what was at stake rather than just... rather than just her being in disguise, it's about their recreating themselves and becoming a different person and transitioning and, and so... but it's always been interesting to me that the words that I wrote back in 2009, 10, 11, y'know, as an old guy who grew up in Texas in the 70s - who was David Bowie fan! - but otherwise didn't have a lot of access into issues of gender, I'm amazed at how many people have been [able to?] adopt Deryn/Dylan as one of their own. I just got an email a week ago from a trans boy whose chosen name is Dylan. So it is amazing to me how whatever imperfections or whatever problematics there are in the text, people still find their way into what they need from a character. And as a writer, I can say that I always respected that character, I always respected their choices, I always respected who they were. I never tried to stick them into a dress and have everyone go "Ooh now you're pretty 'because 'cause you're in dress!" We didn't do that, and I think that what may be important for people and I think that's why it's still what's gonna work here, but it's been fun to be able to update it and everybody on the team's been really great about understanding that.

TLDR I don't want to get anyone's hopes up too high, but I'm really appreciative of the care that's being taken with Sharp's story and identity in this adaptation. It seems like Scott and the others on the team are taking that into account, and I'm excited to see how it plays out.

Other random things I remember:

THERE WAS AN ALEK COSPLAYER. I took a photo with them but I won't post it without their consent. Just trust that they looked fantastic.

Scott said one of the first things he was told was that Alek can't actually kill Nikola Tesla because he's too well loved by people in Japan, which I think is the funniest possible reason for a change to be made in an adaptation.

Diana Garnet (they/any) mentioned how much they love Sharp (don't we all) and also how they used to work at a Barnes and Noble and remembers selling lots of Westerfeld books!

Scott said his approach in writing Leviathan was taking everything he'd always wanted to write about and basically throwing it together, because he was just coming off of the success of Uglies and figured he could get away with it.

If I remember anything else I'll add on to this post! Overall, it was a wonderful panel and I'm incredibly excited for this project.

[aldoodles]

I’m rereading 😎

[soranatus]

A new look at LEVIATHAN (2025) From the Studio Orange reel 2024

[himbionn]

I'll spend my days so close to you

cause if I'm stood here, then I'm stood here

and I'll stand here

I'll stand here with you