let’s talk about today Sleepy Hollow Sees Johnny Depp running ahead of the headless horseman film Tim Burton 1999. The filmmaker was inspired by the story of the Americans. Washington Irving (1783-1859), but in reality his interpretation classical literature fantasy and horrorIt basically maintained its ominous and dark atmosphere. For this reason and despite being a fan of Burton’s gothic universe, Antonio Lorente He went to the original source to create (Almería, 1987). his “darkest, most experimental and adult” work He admits that to this day there is a version that is faithful to the original, polished and carefully illustrated. ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’ (Edelvives) is releasing it after adapting much brighter classics such as ‘Peter Pan’, ‘Tom Sawyer’, ‘Anne of Green Gables’ or ‘Little Women’. Volumes 1 and 2′.
What is expected from Lorente, with his style that often transfers the faces of actors or people he knows to his characters, always recognizable with their big heads and watery eyes, is the hero’s; Ichabod Crane, I had Johnny Depp’s face. But the reader finds twice that Adrien Brody nails it, as he reads his detailed description from the original (where he’s an unassuming professor, not Tim Burton’s terrifying death investigator).
Ichabod Crane arrives in Sleepy Hollow, a remote town rich with supernatural legends. There he aspires to marry Katrina Van Tassel, the daughter of a wealthy farmer, and this provokes the jealousy of the rude young man ‘Brom Bones’ Van Brunt; Meanwhile, a mysterious, headless horseman is wandering through the forest on the back of a ghost horse.
“More than a horror story, it plays with psychology. It deals with fear, reflecting on how it possesses people and conditions the life of a community. How can one give advice to oneself? Because fear is irrational -Lorente assures-. As the story clearly shows, it is not known where reality ends and fiction begins. “This is a story that has been read many times,” he adds. Also talks about dreaming social climbing. There is Criticism of an entire society and a way of thinking. How the townspeople believe that an outsider will take their women away from them. Is that it? fear of the unknown“.
character for illustrator Ichabod “He has a lively and boastful side. He’s a bit ugly and a womanizer, he has the charisma of a snake charmer, he’s smart and knows how to manipulate, but he’s a good person. And she falls in love with him.” Katrina Because she’s beautiful, but also because she’s rich…”
Lorente’s illustration literally evolves from a color palette that “starts with coffee and ends with the absolute darkness of squid ink, showing how fear grows,” who explains that it allowed him to experiment and mix textures and techniques using graphite, charcoal, oil,’gouache‘ and convert watercolor to digital. There is no page without images. His favorite is a powerful stuntman with an impressive headless horseman (featured at the top of this article). “It looks like a horror figment of people’s imagination, made up of leaves, branches and roots of trees. It’s almost like a cut tree itself.”
Lorente notes that the book was “published on Halloween night,” with a very emotional, bold cover and a foreword by Máximo Huerta. Confess now, move on drawn to the dark side, I’m working on another gothic comics project. One last wink: On the last page, among a group of natives, one looks directly at the viewer. There they will find Washington Irving.