As the campaign for the Kickstarter for the Illustrated Edition of The Gods of Pegana is now up and running, from Dustin Holland and Wig Shop. We are delighted to be joined by writer and artist Dustin Holland.
Hi Dustin, it’s so lovely to have you here with us. Could you please introduce yourself to our readers?
D: Hi! It’s great to chat with you! I live in Colorado with my wife and our friends and a couple of dogs, and make comics and paint every chance I get.
Were you familiar with The Gods of Pegana?
D: I had read a couple of Lord Dunsany’s short stories and poems, but I wasn’t familiar with the book until Jeff shared it with me. Since then I’ve probably read it 100 times! Dunsany’s writing is so interesting because even if you’ve never heard of him, you’ve definitely read stuff by people he inspired like HP Lovecraft, JRR Tolkien, Ursula K Le Guin – pretty much every major fantasy, scifi, or horror writer of the early-mid 20th century. A ton of literature and pop culture exists in conversation with Dunsany (even if there are a few degrees of separation), so his work still feels familiar, but it deserves to be appreciated as its own thing. It is a really unique wonderful book that establishes a dreamy, beautiful mythology and morphs into an epic tale of gods and humans facing their mortality.
How did this collaboration with Wig Shop come about?
D: Well, Jeff of Wig Shop and I first met at Denver Zine Fest in 2018 or 2019, and he’s been a great supporter of my work since then. He’s been kind enough to sell my comics on the Wig Shop Web Shop for years, and when he asked if I’d be interested in working on doing the paintings for this book, I jumped at the opportunity.
How long have you been creating illustrations for the Illustrated Edition of The Gods of Pegana?
D: I read the book and did some sketches before-hand, but I really started painting in ernest in September of 2024, and sent the last pages to Jeff in October 2025, so a little over a year! All 139 pages have hand-painted illustrations, I hand-lettered the chapter titles and drop caps, and each chapter begins with a full-page painting, so I’ve had plenty of work to keep me busy!
What has it been like working with Jeff?
D: It has been fantastic! His typesetting for the book is elegant and gave me a lot of room to play. Jeff shared some great thoughts about his vision for the book early on, and gave me a tremendous amount of latitude to take things in all sorts of wild directions.
Can you tell us about your creative process?
D: I mostly use watercolor and ink, but there’s some acrylic thrown in there as well. read the book over and over and over again! Since a lot of the book centers around the pantheon of the Gods of Pegana, I came up with designs and color palettes for each of the god. Then, as Jeff sent along the typeset pages, I made notes about the most compelling images, and tried to include those in a way that complimented the god in question. As I mentioned, Jeff was really open to whatever I wanted to do, and the book itself is incredibly full of ideas and characters, but Dunsany doesn’t describe them visually, so I was able to lean into whatever I was feeling at the time. Some of these come from days of sketching and planning, and others came together more organically.
Has it been a challenge creatively working on the Illustrated Edition of The Gods of Pegana?
D: The biggest challenge was trying to find a balance between having consistent character designs and maintaining the mystery that makes Dunsany’s work so special. A lot of the art in this book comes from my personal aesthetic and process, but I still wanted to keep Dunsany’s story at the center.
What can you tell us about the Illustrated Edition of The Gods of Pegana?
D: It’s kind of a crazy book. As I said earlier, there’s painting on every page – with full page illustrations and illustrated page borders. Some of the art is intended to be a fairly literal illustration of the text, and some of it is more decorative. I looked to everything from medieval illuminated manuscripts to comic books for inspiration, so I think/hope that it is unique blend of aesthetics and approaches to storytelling art. There’s a portrait or two of my dog snuck in there, I’ve got a few Cthulhu/Man-Thing Mashups, one of the prophets is almost a portrait of the great Jazz musician and band leader Sun Ra! It is definitely an everything-and-the-kitchen-sink sorta book!
Do you have a favourite Kickstarter reward?
D: We’re putting together some fun stuff! We’re really proud to be offering the book at an accessible price, and we’ll have some other cool options, including a tier that comes with a piece of original art from the book, some art prints, stickers, copies of my self-published comics, and more!
Any message for the ComicBuzz readers?
D: Thanks for being curious about books, comics, and the arts!
We would like to say a big thank you to Dustin for chatting with us, and wish him the best of luck with the Illustrated Edition of The Gods of Pegana.
Feel free to check out the Illustrated Edition of The Gods of Pegana on Kickstarter.
