A Modern, Illustrated <i>Moby Dick</i> (PHOTOS)

I was as obsessed and monomaniacal as Captain Ahab, I suppose, but I really just wanted to create the version of Moby Dick that I had imagined and always wanted to see. Historical accuracy and realism bore me. They always have. This was mythologizing. And in taking this deeply personal, word by word and line by line journey through the book that has meant so much to me since childhood, I began to realize that I was both creating and saying goodbye to a personal mythology. These images are the summation of a lifetime of consuming images, from comic books to cartoons and LP covers to oil paintings, and by pouring them out over the course of 552 illustrations in 543 days I was finally freeing myself from that constant noise in my head and that overpowering need to define and at least temporarily master this great book for myself.

I chose these images because they are among my favorites from the project. They are very iconic, and I believe they best represent the wide range of styles and imagery in my book Moby Dick in Pictures: One Drawing for Every Page