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kopfstoff — red
Published: 2011-02-09 12:26:57 +0000 UTC; Views: 5483; Favourites: 58; Downloads: 0
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red from the sience fiction novella "roadside picnic" written by the strugatsky brothers. the movie "stalker", directed by tarkovsky is loosely based on the novel - the screenplay was also written by the strugatskys. love this read and the whole message, the concept behind it.Related content
Comments: 49
Looks like an actual person. Stunning
I read on Wiki that story takes place in Canada. I don't know if it's even mentioned in the book, but the fact that it's happening far away from gloomy and grim realities of the East really changes view on the book. I saw film first, then played the games and then read a book, therefore I imagined whole story happening in some Eastern European plain and wetlands (albeit I knew about it taking place outside Europe) and Red to have Slavic face. You picture really puts in picture the real shape of the story.
Frankly, I doubt that brothers Strugatsky knew how Canada used to look back then and that explains why city is never really described in the book. Literally people who had no idea of how it looks there used it as a scenery Which would explain some caricature-like characters (Cop in the bar, a crazy zealot,...)
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thank you man, really appreciating your kind words!
yeah, its not playing in the east, i really liked that its some
sort of parallel reality ind the past (now), in a western scenario.
the book is amazing, really one of my all time favorites, if not my
one and only favorite book.
i played the games first, then read the book, then watched the
tarkovski movie. they all are very different compared to each other,
but i love so many aspects of the different mediums. strugatzkis also
where pretty invovled in the script/movie production, so its kinda their
vision for a movie adaption too. 
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How you did imagine the landscape of Strugatsky's Stalker? Some rusty industrial town with fields, mountain area with forests,...?
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no, more like a european city, with a wide main street,
and lots of smaller alleys with rundown cafes and shops,
not very high buildings and some fields, meadows outside.
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I always imagined Red being a ginger version of Alexander Kaidanovsky, since I saw the film first and book read a long time after that.
Seeing this piece was a shocking reveal of my ignorance to the novel Red.
Anyway, this artwork really depicts Red's personality.
Awesome!
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well, i really enjoyed the movie version of stalker
from tarkovsky, but i imaged red differently (as you
can tell 
thanks! glad i could give you another perspective on red!
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I've seen quite a few fan-art images of 'Roadside Picnic' or images inspired by it but... For me... Nothing has come anywhere near as close to what I felt was described in the book as your work has.
Outstanding.
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glad you think so, really am! thanks!
the book means a lot to me.
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A very good fanart. The compliance with his description in the book is perfect. And you managed to picture something poignant, piercing in his eyes.
By the way, the screenplay for "Stalker" was written by the Strugatskys, yes, but initial version of the screenplay was much more based on the book that the final version. It was rewritten several times, and after that it's nothing about good old Red Shukhart in the movie.
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hey garlickkk! sorry for the late respond, but i really wanted to not rush the answer.
i really appreciate your comment and i am glad that you like my red that much! it's one of my favorite books of all time, and i wanted to be very close to the description, but also add something of my own interpretation. glad it worked.
yeah i know the facts about the screenplay for the movie... for me it's like twisted version and i thought the original book writing is so cinematic most of the time (chasings, tension moments, brutality, action, but also calm moments, monologs, dreamy sequences.. its all there already i mean ;D), i like it really, don't get me wrong... since tarkovsky is a genius himself in my eyes! i just hope that NEVER EVER hollywood will make a version of the book. :/ i've read something about that the rights are already sold to hollywood - travolta as the producer? something like that if i remember correctly. -.-
eitherway, i am always very glad if people from russia like my roadside picnic stuff, since they should know best.
thanks again!
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Oh, thanks for your detailed reply!
I've never known about the planned Hollywood filming of it, now I'll google about it, thanks for information. I suppose it wouldn't be very good, but it's just interesting to take a look on their plans.
It's well known that Strugatskys' novels are "unfilmable" at all. There's lot of catching plots they created, of course, but usually most of the book "takes place" inside the protagonist's head, and it's very hard to screen. The catching plot is like a bright wrap of a candy, the plots are the reason why the youngest readers like this books. But when you grow older, you can reread it many times and understand a little better each time.
And there is really amazing language in which their books conveyed: lots of rare words, puns, "streams of consciousness" which are very different for different characters. I'm afraid that such texts are "untranslatable" too.
In this specific case, Roadside Picnic in the original looks so much like translation from English to Russian because of English names and some stylization. Well, Harmont was created as an English-talking town (Boris Strugatsky said later that Harmont is not American nor British, but it may be in Canada or Australia). But its resemblance to translation is just a good illusion, because the language of narration is really very good literary Russian with some slang (and some new specific slang words invented by authors), and even the best translation from English would be slightly clumsy. When I saw English article about this book in Wikipedia, I found that many tasty details in names and invented slang words were completely lost in "reverse" translation. For example, the different pronunciations of "borscht"
Finally, I must say than that it's the first time at all when I saw any Roadside Picnic fanart - and it's not Russian, what is the funny thing. Maybe I just didn't know where to look. Thak you one more time for your interest to Russian book and for your wonderful illustrations!
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and again, please excuse the late answer! but i wanted to write some words again, thats why i just had time by now...
i just really hope that hollywood movie will never make it. anyway, i am totally on your side that its hard to faithfully translate the book
to the movie medium, or even another medium... i did not read any other book by the strugatzkys', but i will soon... it's also true what you say
about rereading it and understand different parts of the meaning or interpret them differently, there are many layers of meaning in roadside picnic
i think, beside the "warning" for mankind and the strenghts and weaknesses of humans, beside all the philosophic stuff it also has some interesting
political themes to mention i think. but also the relationship between husband and wife and child (mostly of the time) is very interesting. haaaw, i just
love the story so much.
regadring the language, i looked it up again and there are three german translations out there. a first release from DDR times came out '75 (you know the wall, lots of censorship etc.) with illustrations too as it seems, a second german version from the same translator from '81 with an afterword by stanislaw lem and then theres a "new" version from 2010 which is based on the original and uncut russian version - the missing parts where added here by a new translator. it seems like english folks also got a new version based on the original, uncensored book which came out in may 2012.
i own the second version, the one without illustrations but based on the "censored" version, with the afterword by stanislaw lem... but today i ordered the (missing) three
other versions of the book! i want to see the illustrations made in the DDR time by a german illustrator, and also read the new german translation from 2010. i also ordered
the english new translation from 2012, since i am curious about the differences between the german and the english one. some things regarding the meaning i already like
more in the english version, since the "full empty" is a nice wordplay, in german its a "volle null" and an "null" ("null" means "nil"/"zero"). i dont know if the german
translation is closer to the original, but i kinda liked the contradiction in the english version. well, i have to see the whole thing i guess. to sad that i won't understand read
the original version...
the censored german translation i own and read two times till now also plays around with some "wordplay" themes and "slang" and i kinda like it "clumsyness", also the diction at all is kinda old fashioned which really fits the atmosphere i think - today no one would write this way, especially in an sci-fi book. that's what i also like about it alot (but i guess that's because of the time and also present in the original and the old english translation then). i think german is a beautiful language with lots of adjectives, synonyms to explain stuff. maybe thats why the german one might be even better then the english version - but i have to wait and see.
the "borscht" one i dont get in german...
i can't wait to read the new german translation, since they added a special "dictionary" section in the back, where they explain wordplays and specific russian details which couldn't make it into the german language! they kinda solved the problem you mentioned there i hope.
i am glad that my work is the first one you've seen regarding fan art for roadside picnic! there isn't much on the internet, more from the stalker games.. but i also found some nice fan art for roadside picnic. i am currently working on my thesis. i try to translate some part of the book into a graphic novel, i am at the early beginning of research and scribbles right now, but i think you might find it interesting to know. 
some links to" hollywood" btw, since you where interested (thank god it did not make it into cinemas or on any disc to buy or lent
www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread…
www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelect…
www.giantitp.com/forums/showth…
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Oh, thanks. I understood it so that the Hollywood movie was cancelled, wasn't it? So you shouldn't sorrow?
The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game is as far from the original plot as the Tarkovsky movie, but the movie has some philosophical value by itself (I personally don't like it, though, but I admit this), and the game hasn't.
I have nothing against the game plot, but it was an unpleasant surprise when the game first came out and there was NO reference to Strugatskis in the credits at ALL. Game designers had some problems with the copyrights, but they had actually used many terms and objects from "Picnic" anyway.
BTW, good luck with your thesis! I myself defended my PhD dissertation just a few days ago, so I know that it's really tough and takes a lot of time.
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the new audiobook version translation with robert forster reading is very much worth your time too, its top notch
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oh also check out His Masters Voice by S Lem, its almost like the same story, but written from the perspective of Valentine or one of his associates inside the official scientific effort to understand the Visit. very good too.
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Alex, I'm not completely sure that you adressed your comments to me and not to kopstoff. But if you recommended these audiobooks to me, you didn't take account of the fact that I'm Russian and I can enjoy Stugatskis in the original, so there's no need for me to listen to this book translated into English, however good the reading voice is. Same thing with Stanislaw Lem - I can't read in Polish, but surely I will prefer Russian translation to English translation.
I read in English a lot and enjoy it, but I think that it makes sense only if English is the original language in which the book was written.
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"Alex, I'm not completely sure that you adressed your comments to me and not to kopstoff. "
It was to kopstoff
"you didn't take account of the fact that I'm Russian and I can enjoy Stugatskis in the original,
so there's no need for me to listen to this book translated into English, however good the reading voice is. "
suit yourself.
"I think that it makes sense only if English is the original language in which the book was written."
Absolute rubbish.
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Very nice. Resembles a cross between Woody Harrelson and Alan Tudyk.
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thank you. haven't got one of them in my mind while doing him - i just had to check who alan tudyk is to be honest 
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I like your concept, mine is a bit similar but some 20 years younger
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thanks. well, you grow old fast in the zone and these eyes have seen a lot over the years.
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true
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Amazing work! Your vision of Shuhart is the same as mine. Thank you very, very much
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thank you! glad that you see him the same way, just like i do.
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thanks! but now i am curious about the face of your dad.
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Ha, well just imagine my dad with better kept hair lol.
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He looks like Willem Defoe XD
But seriosuly, this is a fantastic piece
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dafoe?! really?
glad you like it
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да да впервые кто-то это сделал!!!вот он рыжий, уставший от всего и потрепанный!!спасибо за этот рисунок он великолепен!
я тоже хотел сделать иллюстрации к этой книге
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Я рад, что вы признаете его и картинку, которую вы так!
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Большое спасибо, я люблю эту книгу!
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It`s really him!)
It`s the best portrait of him, that I`ve seen - I imagine him in similar way, but yet don`t have skills to make my point of view visible.
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it means a lot to me, that people who read the book recognize the character, yet even more: when they say "it's him!" - i am very pleased about your thoughts, sweetest praise for me! thank you :>
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sehr cooles portrait !!
von der vorlage hab ich noch nie von gehört ! muss ich mal reinschauen/lesen !
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solltest du wirklich - ich muss zu meiner schande gestehen dass ich nicht gerade ein bücherwurm bin (comic ja, bücher nein), aber das buch habe ich doch tatsächlich zuende gelesen (und da war jetzt nicht nur der geringe umfang des strugatsky werks schuld dran) 
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hah willkommen im klub der unbelesenen ;D
ich habe bücher sehr spät mögen gelernt, daher bin ich leider noch ein sehr langsamer leser.
so eine empfehlung kann ich nicht ignorieren, das kommt direkt auf meine liste : )
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freut mich dass du dir das buch ansehn willst!
ich denke einfach uns war das bild im entscheidenden alter wichtiger als das geschriebene wort...
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das trifft du ziemlich auf den punkt! gut, dass wir nicht nur beim bild geblieben sind
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jo, obwohl.. hätte bestimmt auch (neben unzähliger nachteile) vorteile
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... how i imagine him, exactly.
hope you like him.
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и мартышку ты тоже здорово представил ,точь в точь прям
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thank you, i tried to be as close as possible
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