It dawned on me the other day that Night of the Necromancer, the last of the seven Fighting Fantasy gamebooks I have written to date, will be ten years old this year!When I came to propose the idea to Wizard Books back in 2009, I couldn't quite believe that no one had suggested writing an FF adventure that started off with the hero being murdered and then coming back as a ghost before. I had great fun developing that aspect of the game, giving the reader all manner of spectral powers that sometimes worked to their advantage, but sometimes didn't.
One of the things I particularly loved about the process of writing the book was knowing that it was going to be illustrated by Martin McKenna. Martin was a favourite FF artist of mine, ever since I saw his work in Daggers of Darkness*, and I had been fortunate to have him also illustrate both Curse of the Mummy and Howl of the Werewolf.
Martin and I clearly had exposure to similar genre influences growing up and he just seems to get where I'm coming from, which means that when we collaborate, text and art mesh very nicely together. It is for this reason that I am delighted Martin agreed to illustrate the forthcoming Dracula - Curse of the Vampire.
Many of Martin's illustrations for Night of the Necromancer - including such personal favourites as the Sea Demon, the Hellfire Golem, and the Shadow King - are available to buy as prints from ArtPal.
The Sea Demon.
The Hellfire Golem.
The Shadow King.
* Produced when he was only 17 years old!
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