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    —Jackie Cantor, Diana's first editor

JAMIE AND THE GRAPHIC NOVEL: MR. F. and Mr. A.

So….you really want to know what I think Jamie looks like, do you? [g]

Well, Hoang has been doing wonderful stuff on the artwork for the graphic novel; amazing action, terrific characters, beautiful color and composition—just marvelous. And I love what he’s done with Claire ( yes, her hair is somewhat wilder where it ought to be—as when freshly emergent from a gorse bush—but certainly not ringlets, good grief), Murtagh, Dougal, Jack Randall….

Now, Jamie has been a little more problematic, simply because everyone has such a well-defined (if not well-articulated) notion of what he looks like. The descriptions of him are more detailed than those of other characters in the books, because we’re looking at him through Claire’s eyes, and she’s paying close attention. [g] But to take those details and come up with a gestalt that embodies the whole…harder to do.

The consequence of this has been that Hoang’s been working with Jamie in different aspects, looking for a good “look” for him that can be used throughout the graphic novel.
And the poor artist, of course, has little to go on other than my rather fumbling feedback—”Well, this one is pretty good, but the jaw is too heavy…. that one’s nice, too, but he seems kind of thuggish…and that one’s a little too soft, too young-looking, but the hair’s great!” sort of thing.

Well, in the preliminary shufflings to and fro, I’d collected a few photos of assorted actors and models who had slanted eyes of an appropriate sort—and many thanks to all the kind people who sent me their favorites (and isn’t it a good thing for the men of the world that women have such diverse tastes…)—which I’d sent on to Hoang to add to his mental compost pile.

Among these was a photo of Gabriel Aubrey, and I’d mentioned in re this photo that Mr. A. did in fact have a strong resemblance to Mr. Fraser, in terms of facial physiognomy. So yesterday, an enterprising person named Grace who inhabits one of the “Outlander” discussion boards evidently came across my idle remarks and decided to see if she could make something of them. So she dragged Mr. Aubrey into her PhotoShop for a little revision, and….

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v514/aag567/Role%20Playing/?action=view&current=Jamie7.jpg

(sorry; I tried to make a link for this, but it wouldn’t show up in the post, don’t know why. You’ll have to cut and paste the URL, unless somebody else can fix it for me.)

OK. Yeah. That’s very much what he looks like. In case you were wondering. [g]

[I’ll venture out on a limb and make a small prediction here: to wit, that half the comments made here will be along the lines of, “Well, that’s not what I thought he looked like! I thought he looked like Josh Holloway/Sean Bean/David Cassidy/etc.!” [wry g] To each her own, as I said. But do remember that I can see him.]

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115 Responses »

  1. oooooooooooooooooooooh!!! :)

  2. Ooooh, pretty much how I pictured him too! My vision was slightly more rugged/aged and shorter hair, and hair more the colour of my husband – slightly lighter.
    But yum! LOL

  3. I didn’t know where else to post this but I found an actor who would be a good young Ian… He’s Scottish (in my opinion a must), he was the little William Wallace in Braveheart so many moons ago, and I might add a total hottie. This in the link to his IMDB page. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0732703/
    Sorry if this is an inappropriate place to post this, but I wasn’t sure where else to put it.

  4. This is great. At one point (just for fun) I was making a wish list cast for a movie and I had him down to play Jamie! Right on, perfect!

  5. Not quite who I’ve been seeing, but the red hair is the perfect shade. Yummmmm, lol!

  6. This is late, but I just caught the show ‘Crusoe’ the other night and I have to change my opinion to Philip Winchester the way he looks in that role. Only he’d have to get the red hair obviously.

    http://usera.ImageCave.com/Nightbird/Nightbird/PWcrusoe.jpg

    Maybe it’s the shirt, the weapon and that they have Sean Bean playing his father? :)

  7. Oh he is nice to the eyes!! and he does it for me, he is totaly what i would expect jamie to look like!! good job. I was worried that if I looked it would ruien my picture of jamie! thank you for not choosing david cassadie or any other person but Aubrey! OH Yea NICE!!

  8. I never really had a clear picture of Jamie in my head because … well, I’m not sure really. I think that his personality was just so vivid that I almost didn’t need a face to go with it (I know that sounds odd). Claire, on the other hand, I have a very nice picture of.

    However, I LOVE this pic of ‘Jamie’!!! The smirk on this face is very appropriate … lol

  9. Oh My! That’s Jamie!

    I said in another post I thought Gerard Butler could play him only because he’s a manly man, Scottish, and a good actor but I take it back I would hate to see Jamie changed in any way!

    I can’t wait for the Graphic Novel! You’ve given us the perfect man in your books now gratefully we have a picture!

    That look he has on his face is so Jamie, a little earnest, pretty deep, good humored, brave, and verra easy to rest your eyes on.

    I do hope you do a graphic novel for all the books as I find myself rereading them I can’t get enough of Jamie and Claire!

  10. Wow! That is pretty similar to “my” Jamie :) I like it!

  11. Pretty close, I have to say. lol. Good job! ;)

  12. I’m guessing you won’t hear this very often: That’s HIM! That was my immediate reaction. This is definitely how I see Jamie in my mind. Of course, these days, I see him older, but that’s his face, for sure. What a wonderful composition! I’m so tickled that the image in my mind was so close to the image in your mind!

    My pristine hardcover copy of An Echo in the Bone got drenched by a giant soda, alas. I’d like to find the paperback, but not sure I can stand that horrid green slime cover. Hmmm.

    ~Amy

    • Dear Amy–

      If you contact the Poisoned Pen bookstore in Scottsdale (their contact info is under “Resources” on this site), they can easily get you a UK edition of AN ECHO IN THE BONE–that one is a beautiful dark blue cover, with a gilded skeletal leaf. And the mass-market paperback has a flocked gold and white background with a blue leaf–both are beautiful, though!

      –Diana

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