Magnum: Lost on the Road to Eternity open edition giclèe art print

On the 15th of May 2017, Tony Clarkin and Bob Catley came to our studio to drink tea and eat Jaffa cakes.  Tony also had a couple of ideas for this album cover - such occasions, of which there have been many, always fill me with fear, on account of the amount of detail Tony wants to include in the image ... all for £10 or thereabouts! ;)

The first of his two ideas, to my relief, did not have an excessive amount of detail but ... wait for it ... the subject matter was a bloke crucified to a wind turbine! 'Next!' I muttered.  Tony's plan B was much more acceptable, but, of course, highly detailed.  He must have anticipated my refusal of the first idea, which he described as controversial, because he was clutching one of those small pieces of yellow paper with a sticky strip on which he had scribbled the names of seventeen characters - mostly from children's storybooks.

I thoroughly enjoyed bringing Tony's vision to life, (and adding a couple of my own snippets along the way), but even so, at times I despaired at the thought of meeting his deadline!  For me, I feel that this is the best Magnum album cover I've done since 'On a Storyteller's Night'.  You may, or may not agree, but my point is that print sales for Storyteller have far outstripped all my other Magnum images, yet if I had illustrated Lost on the Road to Eternity back in 1985, then it might now be regarded as a Magnum classic?

Just to round off the design, Sarah took my old Magnum logo from Chase the Dragon time and gave it some Photoshop tweaking, which brought it up to the present day.

Lost on the Road to Eternity - I hope you enjoy trip!"

- Rodney Matthews