WORLD BUILDING

Creating a universe requires the use of logic to fill in all the details

They say “write from experience”, so it’s no wonder the protagonist of Gnemo is an artist, using his skills to survive in the book’s universe. “Gnemo is an exploration of an extraordinary world’s natural and man-made wonders that is filled with all manner of exotic wildlife,” describes Tom Kidd. “It chronicles how an artist near starvation uses his art to stay alive and find his way through a variety of adventures.”

Building his world, Tom says he paints with “free association” to develop the ideas of his book’s universe with a logical extrapolation. He explains: “If you have an almost entirely mountainous continent, what would be the best way to traverse it? Airships. Now, what would a world be like, what would it look like, that relied on lighter-than-air vessels for travel and commerce?”