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Dustin Weaver,  WildClaw Illustrations for The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult (2006)
Dustin Weaver

Dustin Weaver, WildClaw Illustrations for The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult (2006)

“The book was called The Tenth Circle.

“The main plot of the novel is a family drama focusing on a relationship between a father and daughter, but there is a secondary story in the form of the father’s comic book which we see pages of between each chapter. The father is a professional comic writer/artist, who in his super hero comic, “WildClaw,” is writing a story that parallels the drama in his life.

“The superhero, WildClaw, journeys into hell to rescue his daughter from the devil in a Dante’s Inferno inspired tale. Along the way he is forced to face the darkness within himself.

“I was very aware that this was not just a typical comic book, it was also an illustrated novel and I decided to take a more illustrative approach to the art.  Running with the Dante’s Inferno inspiration I tried for an art style reminiscent of the engraved art of Gustave Dore.

“I also chose a layout stile where one panel would serve as a kind of anchor illustration To me this style of layout creates a sense of each page being “a piece” onto itself. It’s a style that I think isn’t usually preferable in comics. In comics you mostly want to keep the reader moving through the story. In this I wanted to create illustrative pages that kept you looking at them.” […]    —dustinweaver.blogspot.com, (September 3, 2014)

Sighting Citation:

“Dustin Weaver, WildClaw Illustrations for The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult (2006).” Dante Today: Citings and Sightings of Dante’s Works in Contemporary Culture. Elizabeth Coggeshall and Arielle Saiber, eds. July 8, 2019. https://www.dantetoday.org/sightings/dustin-weaver-wildclaw-illustrations-for-the-tenth-circle-by-jodi-picoult-2006/.