Here we are, two days before Leviathan comes out, and I’ve just realized that it’s the beginning of a new month. That means it’s time to reveal one last piece of Keith Thompson’s wonderful art!
This is an illustration that we call THE GRAND MAP! And it comes with a story:
As I was writing Leviathan, and the characters began to wind their way across Europe, a wise editor of mine suggested that we might want to put a map in the book. I agreed, of course, because all the best novels have maps in them. Also, we’d already decided that Leviathan would have endpapers. Endpapers are the heavy leaves of paper pasted to the inside of the front and back covers of a book. Because they go through the printer separately from the rest of the pages, you can easily make them color.
“Delicious color art . . . ,” I said.
When I told Keith about this, he started researching (he’s always doing that) and discovered a bunch of cool “allegorical maps” of the period, which used illustration to communicate politics. Back in 1914, you see, a lot of people were illiterate, so maps had to show who the good and the bad guys were with pictures.
Here’s a real historical example from the Entente (what I call Darwinist) side of the war:
This map and the following one were reconstructed from smaller pieces by Paul K on his BibliOdessy site. You can zoom into them in greater detail at the University of Amsterdam.
And here’s an example showing the Central (Clanker) view of things:
Naturally, we thought that this allegorical style would be awesome to imitate. So Keith went off and created a Darwinist vs. Clanker version for us to use.
Here is the stupendous result:
Click the map to make it much bigger, and revel in the details!
UPDATE: The map jpg is now much bigger, and with the correct key. After clicking the above, click it again for a HUGE version.
Here are some notes about the map from Keith, explaining what all the symbolism means:
The Clanker Powers
“Germany is a massive military machine with weapons aimed outwards to all surrounding countries. It points threateningly at Britain, not so much as a sign of direct aggression, but more as an indicator that it was now Germany’s turn to start a grand global Empire to challenge the world’s current one.
“Austria Hungary is an aggressive armoured giant, teetering on shoddy foundations. It is also the primary aggressor in a land grab against Serbia, with two bayonets piercing the border.
“The Ottoman empire is a teetering automaton, collapsing under the weight of a paranoid and ungainly spying network that gazes at Europe through many lenses and spy glasses.
“The Swiss watch ticks away the time, comfortable to wait it all out.”
The Darwinist Powers
“Britain is an militaristic lion beast with a Roman Imperial italic-type helmet. It sits upon a mound of riches gathered from its Empire.
“France’s elephant beast (wearing the French kepi they started the war with before adapting their firefighter helmets) is influenced by the Elephantine Collossus built for the Universal Exhibition of 1889 in Paris (later it ended up going to the Moulin Rouge.) It also represents France’s huge significance in WWI, which is something that tends to get a little glossed over.
“Russia is a huge imperialist bear, rotting and filled with maggots. (Russia collapsed during the real war.)
“Serbia’s imagery (a skeleton) is an indicator of the huge amounts of civilian deaths and suffering they’ll find themselves subject to.
“Norway and Sweden are both Scandinavian trolls in the style of John Bauer, an incredible and inspirational illustrator from the time who produced a lot of phenomenal work during the war.
“Portugal is a parrot for the Entente trying to goad a slumbering Spain into the war (this was based on something from a contemporary map and I’m not totally sure about the viewpoint’s veracity, but I couldn’t resist the image, and it seemed to match up with what I knew of the situation.)
“Ireland looks askance to Britain and brandishes a shillelagh. An indicator of their very rough relationship at the time, and of their upcoming involvement with the Central powers.
“Italy is a clutch of snakes with intents on the Central powers despite existing agreements. A foreshadowing of their arrangements at the secret 1915 Treaty of London where they were promised land in exchange for involvement. It was heavily influenced by Italian Prime Minister, Antonio Salandra’s open policy of serving Italy’s self-interest (there’s a great quote where the notion of ‘divine self-interest’ is invoked, but I can’t dig it up unfortunately.)”
Pretty cool, huh?
Note:This map only appears in the US/Canadian and Australian versions. The UK version doesn’t have it! I don’t know about other languages yet.
My tour starts Tuesday, the same day the book is out! For details, click the “Appearances/News” button up in the menu at any time, or just click here.
Cool! (And first post?)
This is perfectly timed… in my IB HotA (History of the Americas) class, we’re just starting study of WWI… talk about good planning!
The is easily one of the coolest things I have ever seen.
Guess who is making a trip to the bookstore on Tuesday!
[:
Whoa, that map is so cool. *_*
I can’t wait for the book!
Scott and Keith, that is like an amazing map and the book is going to be so amazing and one reason its going to be so amazing is because it has awesome art!!! And Scott i have a question do you think the leviathan is series going to be better than the uglies series(which is the best series ever) and whats your favorite book that youve written? My favorite book that youve written is the uglies series, im rereading it right now! And my 2nd fav is the midnighters series, well those are the only books that ive read by you, but i plan to read more of them. Bye!
lovelovelovelovelocelove!!!
I could just state at that picture for forever
I really can’t wait for it to be out now
Awesome map! Congratulations! I like maps.
Excited! Tuesday! Gah! After waiting for so long it’s finally almost here!
That is SO my wallpaper right now… If only history was this interesting last year. I would have rather had Scott-la as my teacher than who I really had D:
That map is made of awesome! I love the detail and just everything about it!
comes out in 2 days! so excited!
the map is super cool! agree with ya scott-la, best books have maps!
i can’t wait wait wait!
i was at U2 last night! so awesome! it was amazing!
the set was super cool! muse was there! it was awesome!
i can’t decide what it will be, but ill be back
i can’t stand it anymore! im breaking in tonight!
must
have
box
As a Geography minor, I have my personal love affair with maps so of course I love this post! This makes it so much more exciting for me to know this is in the book! I can’t wait!
That is one hot map. I love it! It makes Italy even more boot-like!
This map is soo cool!! Although I’ve already seen it (hehe, the joys of meeting Scott in real life) it was totaly cool to see it again. K, gtg school, but YAY tommorow!!!!
ping to Cassidy: My socials class is doing WWI too!
That’s magnificent! You might consider passing it on to the fellows at Strange Maps (http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/); I have a feeling they’d appreciate something like this quite a bit.
w0000tt!!!
well im sad that only the US and Australia have that but mebbe i’ll go to buffalo…(im in Canda!)
oh and im STILL waiting for november 6th!!
Oh and you know what?
I had to be in my worst ememies’ group for a project and when i told her that i didn’t understand why everyones so obsessed over twilight guess what she said?
SHE GOD DAMNED COMPARED IT TO THE UGLIES SERIES!!!
stupid *itch
๐
NOTHING compares to the Uglies series!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NOTHING!!!!!!! Twilights some stupid book about vampire
dang it i didnt finish- Twlights…….vampires who would want to obsess over it let alone compare it to Uglies. oh and if anyone doesnt know what the …… means it means there were words there i just didnt wanna retype them so its like countined cuz that same sentence was in my last comment i just didnt finish and accidentily clicked submit. bye
TWILIGHT DOES NOT COMPARE TO UGLIES!
Beli-wa: The Canadian version is the same as the US!
This just blew my mind.
That’s a pretty amazing map, and probably my favorite piece of Leviathan art so far.
Oh wow. That is such an intricately beautiful map. It makes me hungry for the actual novel itself. *_*
thats extremely cool. i really like the other two maps of the Entente war. I didn’t know they did that =]]
cant. freaken. wait.
that map is so amazing
<3
I have a very important comment about Bogus to Bubbly, on page 154 you said ” Its just lucky that Maddy cured him in time”, referring to Zane and his brain damage. But on page 362 in Pretties you explained how Dr. Cable stopped the brain damage and then put the tracker in his teeth that made him have the same symptoms as the brain damage. I think this is a very important matter to bring up.
Oh yeah, that map is really amazin! รขหยฎ <3 ๐
No Iceland ๐
Oh well.
mappy goodness!
Man, I can’t stop staring at that map! The detail is AMAZING and it has made me even more excited to get my hands on a copy.
My calender was still on september, and I thought yesterday was the sixth…so you can imagine how disappointed I was when my mom flipped the page.
BUT! Tomorrow! I’m so excited….the art…the shiny cover…the extra thick-a-licous pages…
Oops, I got drool on my webpage design book….
Everyone have a good day!
P.s. the art is amazing and beautiful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I finished Leviathan last week and loved it. Though I’m sad we don’t get a map in the UK. ๐
this is one of the few websites not blocked by my school’s servers…
this map is amazing-major!
how about a deka-Helen?
and something else is needed to describe its greatness… what measures maps in map brilliance?
1 DAY UNTIL Leviathan COMES OUT! I’m quite literally going crazy! That map was so indescibably fawesome! SO pretty-making. Keith put in so much detail; it was extremely intricate. Ping to Julie-wa: yeah, we need a new word– something bigger than pretty-making and bubbly and fawesome and mili-Helen. Soemthing like… like… like… oh, darn, I can’t think of anything. Let’s leave the word-making to Scot-la! Oh, and by the way, pople, i happen to like twilight. So… nyah >:(.
P.S. oh, and another ping to Julie-wa: yeah this sight slips throug my school’s servers too! So awesome of u, Scot-la, not making this sight a blog was the most brilliant idea since… i dunno. Sliced bread or whatever.
ping to Jessie-wa: read peeps/last days! Scot-la’s vampires rule. Best vampire apocalypse ( did i spell that right? ) book ever! Sorry for the double-posting-ness… i am blog-happy right now… anyways, i better go… if my computer teacher sees me blog surfing… you’ll never hear from me again X__X!
I work at a WaldenBooks, and even though I can’t buy or read the book until tomorrow, I did have a chance to look at it last night when I was at work. ๐ The map is even more gorgeous in the pretty front pages. The cover is much more luscious than the pictures give credit to also. Keith has done an amazing job.
It’s weird. The map looks like something out of Alice in Wonderland!
Don’t worry that’s a compliment! ๐
ping to samara: W000000ah! How did u do the peace sign?! I luv it!
รขหยฎ(that I jus copy pasted but still)
OK รขหยฎ OUt SUCKAZ! ๐
one more day!
by the way i tried to steel the box, but it didn’t work out.
i didn’t even get to open it! i guess i just have to wait…
BUT I CAN’T!!!!!!!!
Jessie-wa: I KNOWW RIGHHTTT???!!!
Scott-la:really? wow it really has been my month this time!!! yayayayaaa!!! w000000tt!!!
Alice-wa: HOW ABOUT FRABJOUS?! i looked it up on my friends electronic dictionary it means the same thing ex. What a frabjous day!
huh?huh?w00tt!! and scott-la peeps will eat edward cullen ANYDAYY
THE MAP IS VERRRY FRABJOUSSS!!!!
The OTHER tally youngblood: did you know that Alice in wonderland was written by a child molester? wierd huh? i know…
w00ttt!
That is the most awesome map I have ever seen, by several orders of magnitude.
Keith Thompson is a genius of monumental proportions.
I sit here totally gobsmacked.
It’s midnight and Leviathan officially comes out TODAY!!!
One more day for Leviathan! I’m SO EXCITED!!!
ahh this conversation again
I think it’s not the best thing for me to talk about it
cause it’s become an a love/hate thing(you know Hate it so much that you act like the lovers but opposite)
so Im not going to say anything else
cause if you think about it, something gets more popular when it has people critizing it(like in Extras)
So if we all just stop talking about it altogether then adventually it will go away for good
This is pretty gnarly.
It’s strange nowadays that somebody represented Serbia with some simpathy. Following the todays spin doctors propaganda influence I could expect Serbia to be represented as a something evil or nasty at least, even in 1914… Thanks to the author for the some compassion for Serbia…
so I have three more blocks of school, then FAME for only a half hour (thanks to a music teachers’ meeting) then Casting Hall, then home – then the bookstore!!!!!
totally bummed i can’t get this till like xmas, cause my parental’s are demons ๐ and i have no job. so i may get it pre-xmas, just not my own copy ๐
i know it’ll be freaking wonderful (:
I want it now!!!
cant wait til after school
Can I just say that I will quote you forever on “because all the best novels have maps in them.” My thoughts exactly.