About Our Book
This photo-illustrated graphic novel is an erotic, illustrated version of Oscar Wilde's famous play, The Importance of Being Earnest, utilizing the full text of the play. Sure to be appreciated by those with interests in good porn, photography, period costume, romance, feminism, bisexuality, polyamory, erotic literature, and/or Oscar Wilde.
Dimensions: 8.5" x 11"
Pages: 194
Interior Art: Full Color
Binding: paperback, perfect bound
Printed on demand at Lulu.com
The Making of The Importance of Being Earnest
It was the summer of 2001 when we first started tossing around the idea of making an erotic interpretation of The Importance of Being Earnest. Frustrated by the uninspired story lines we'd found in mainstream pornography, we decided to attempt something different. Although we enjoy our day jobs as, respectively, a mathematician and an engineer, neither of our careers had particularly prepared us to write a script for a porn masterpiece from scratch. We searched our memories for a play with romance, witty banter, and a clever plot. Earnest came to mind at once and, when we learned the play was in the public domain, the choice was made. We spent the next three years scripting and storyboarding. During this process we were delighted to realize that we wouldn't have to edit or cut any of the original text. We experimented with different media (video, stop-motion animation, stage play, slideshow, comic book) before eventually settling on the current photo-comic format.
In October 2004, we put together a plan detailing the budget, schedule, and tasks required for the project and declared ourselves ready to start production. We sent out a casting call to our friends and the Internet at large. The response was good, but we found it difficult to rely on complete strangers. In the end, the cast and crew consisted mostly of close friends as well as a few acquaintances from our loose social cloud. People frequently ask how we got them all to do this for us. As far as we can tell, we just have really cool friends. Anna made costumes and collected props while Rob arranged for lighting, sets, and crew. The photoshoot took place the last three weekends in June 2005, with cast and crew working long days in the hot summer weather.
After taking a few months to rest and recover from the shoot Anna began sorting through the raw photos, over 8,000 in all, looking for the best 10% that would be used in the book. Photo selection and layout took a surprising amount of time, but the first draft came together about a year after the shoot. Another six months saw the bulk of the photoshop work complete, which mainly consisted of erasing anachronistic background elements like light switches and telephone poles. It's taken a few more months to apply the finishing touches, but finally, after almost six years of work, the first edition is ready to be published.
We hope you enjoy the book as much as we do.
Rob & Anna Kirkenhof
14 April 2007
San Francisco
