“Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,” illustrated by Camille Rose Garcia, $16.99
Alice looks gaunt and Goth in her latest print incarnation.
In a new separate, but well-timed, HarperCollins edition of “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,” the blond heroine retains her puff-sleeved dress and white apron. But a black hair bow evokes bat wings, and the pupils in Alice’s sad, lined eyes are fanglike.
Artist Camille Rose Garcia knows her audience: “I have a lot of fans who like darker things.”
When Garcia re-examined the adventures for a new book, she noticed that the story is, in fact, grim.
“It is darker and weirder than I remembered it being,” the California artist said.
No wonder Alice looks so weepy in Garcia’s illustrations, which complement the Goth mood of the upcoming Tim Burton movie. (Movie-linked Goth clothing, plus necklaces that say “Drink Me,” are even offered at Hot Topic stores.)
Garcia didn’t want the book (marketed to ages 9 and up) to be “too frightening,” and she’s not entirely thrilled with the “Alice goes Goth” label.
She emphasizes that she wanted to pay homage to Lewis Carroll’s original illustrator. She even kept the composition of some of the drawings.
Garcia doesn’t think kids will be traumatized by her new watercolors of an Alice with black eye shadow and lips: “I consider this a fairly conservative, classic version,” she said.
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