Tag: yellow sign

The King in Yellow Annotated Edition – Homebound

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Finally finished up my latest project.

When working on my Yellow Sign display, I was introduced to the amazing Annotated Edition of The King in Yellow.  Unfortunately, I quickly discovered it is no longer available in print.  However, it is available to purchase as a PDF.  So work began…

I’ve done a few homebound copies of gaming books, but I wanted to take things up a notch on this one.  So that means trying a couple of things I haven’t done before.  Most significantly, this is my first time working with real leather in any capacity.  And I needed a new printer to handle larger paper.

So here are some pictures of the finished product.  It was another learning experience, and I already see ways I could have made it better.  But overall, I’m happy with how it turned out.

This copy of The King in Yellow Annotated Edition uses a paper with a natural parchment appearance.  Subtle variations throughout the paper really give it a nice look that simultaneously says rich and aged.  These pictures really don’t do justice to how they look in person.  The new printer did a great job with both the text and amazing artwork.  The pages are hand-sewn and gilded in gold, with a black ribbon bookmark.  The cover is black sheepskin with gold foil on the spine as well as the large yellow sign on the cover.  The yellow endsheets also feature the yellow sign, this time in black.

Cover of homebound copy of The King in Yellow Annotated Edition
Spine of homebound copy of The King in Yellow Annotated Edition
Homebound copy of The King in Yellow Annotated Edition
Inside the cover of homebound copy of The King in Yellow Annotated Edition
Interior of homebound copy of The King in Yellow Annotated Edition
Interior of homebound copy of The King in Yellow Annotated Edition
Interior of homebound copy of The King in Yellow Annotated Edition
Interior of homebound copy of The King in Yellow Annotated Edition
Interior of homebound copy of The King in Yellow Annotated Edition
Interior of homebound copy of The King in Yellow Annotated Edition
Interior of homebound copy of The King in Yellow Annotated Edition

Carcosian Star Chart fragment

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This all started when I saw this cool star chart an intrepid Keeper made for their game.  The constellation referenced in Tatters of the King campaign gave me ideas on the specifics.  And it kind of grew from there…

I originally just made the star chart with a couple of notes.  Trying to decide which version to go with, I asked around, and it seemed everyone agree that a version with notes was the best way to go.  So I decided to expand the notes a bit.  Using a floating frame I discovered amongst my various parts and pieces (still a pain to photograph well) I put together a slightly larger display than I first planned.

The chart itself on the left with a museum tag, and a full page of notes on the right outlining each part of the diagram – while still leaving enough mystery to fire the imagination.

Created all in Illustrator and Photoshop.  These were actually all printed on a single sheet of paper, then cut/torn out.  Just applied a bit of tea/marker/flame to the torn edges that were showing white.  This piece features a version of the Yellow Sign created by Zacharias Holmberg that’s quickly becoming my favored version.  He’s got some cool designs in his Redbubble shop.

For those that are interested, here’s a full resolution PDF of the complete display that you can print yourself. Be aware that the original was created at a resolution of 600dpi, so this PDF is over 80MB.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SYF2i5FFMlsrRK3ec-55sWo9wW2wpJSX/

Here’s an alternate version with no background, for those that want to age their own paper.  Be sure to do a test print on regular paper first to make sure it’s printing at the correct level of detail.

Have You Seen the Yellow Sign?

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Another addition to hang above my Shelf of Madness – followed by a companion piece after some fellow Reddit cultists pointed me to some other variations – these contain a number of examples (9 actually, or maybe 10…) of the Yellow Sign.

Yellow Sign display 1

First Display

The main display includes 4 versions of the Yellow Sign.  Three of these are featured in major tabletop games, and the fourth I came across while doing some research on the others.

Top left is the Kevin Ross design, owned by Chaosium, along with his originally intended inverted version a little smaller next to it.

Bottom left is by Kurt Komoda and appears in the Impossible Landscapes campaign for Delta Green by Dennis Detwiller.

Bottom right is by Christian Knutsson for The Yellow King from Pelgrane Press.

Top right is the work of Zacharias Holmberg. You can read a brief explanation of its creation here: https://zachholmbergart.tumblr.com/post/618992728119902208/i-wanted-to-post-my-design-of-the-yellow-sign-with

Yellow Sign display 2

Second Display

This includes 5 more variations.  The first two are at the top with the notes and are from the earliest printings of Chamber’s The King in Yellow.  You can read about them here: https://kmalexander.com/2017/06/20/hunting-the-yellow-sign/.

The beetle-looking version comes from the amazing Annotated Edition of The King in Yellow from Arc Dream Publishing.

Middle version comes from the board game Carcosa from One Free Elephant.

And the spiral version was made famous by the TV show True Detective.