Two Men Arrive in a Village

Earlier this semester, I did some mockup picture book pages of a hypothetical adaptation of Zadie Smith’s “Two Men Arrive in a Village.” I figured since the story already reads as a folktale, why not go the way of so many folktales, and adapt it into a children’s book? I also took inspiration from Robert Mosse’s pictures that were paired with the story.

Here are my preliminary sketches. I was going for a dreamlike, candyland quality, which makes it all the more impactful when war crimes start happening.