“It’s like you’re reading in Technicolor and has a vividness and brilliance of characters that jump off the page.”
Manchester DragQueens Cheddar Gorgeous & Anna Phylactic are the cover stars of The Ozone Hotel.
Author R K Williams had been following the two drag queens for years on Facebook and was a huge fan of their futuristic looks.
Robert had a very clear idea of how his characters would look. Back in the early 1990's when The Ozone Hotel was first born Robert, who was fresh out of art school, used to draw illustrations of the characters in his art sketchbooks. When Robert first saw Cheddar and Anna they had a look which reminded him of those early sketches. So when Callisto Green started discussing the book front cover, Robert knew exactly what he wanted to do. He immediately got in touch with Cheddar and Anna to see if they would help bring two of the characters to life. They said yes and the result is a stunning front cover.
“It’s the perfect ‘glitter’ novel!
”
Illustrations of some of The Ozone Hotel characters taken from R.K. Williams art sketchbook from the 1990's.
The pictures for the book cover were taken by photographer James Wilkinson and art direction and graphic design was by Christopher Vass at Bristol based graphics company Kiss My Pixel. Cheddar & Anna did their own fabulous make-up.
“The illustrious Cheddar Gorgeous has a masters degree in anthropology, is a writer, idealist, superhero, alien and occasional unicorn (though Cheddar was recently spotted dressed as an underwater Atlantean complete with gills and a seashell crown). At the helm of salacious underground club night Cha Cha Boudoir, Cheddar Gorgeous is thoroughly committed to the drag arts – after all, this is a queen who wore platform heels, a corset and a cape to ski in the French Alps. A key member of drag collective Family Gorgeous, Cheddar is a polished and accomplished performance artist helping to redefine traditional ideas of drag.”
“Anna Phylactic is a worldly drag performer whose piercing eyes and toothy grin have been immortalised in an incredible mural on The Molly House pub alongside other Manchester icons in the LBTQ community (including the late and infamous drag queen Foo Foo Lammar). Another sister from ‘Family Gorgeous’, Anna Phylactic’s ‘shock in a frock’ style draws from a multitude of inspirations, from 80s club kids, Leigh Bowery, Elizabethan costume and Alice in Wonderland.”
“This book will make an amazing film!”
The final eye-catching cover for The Ozone Hotel - which is available now for purchase on Amazon.co.uk and from all good bookshops including Eason's in Ireland.
