Cover painting by Pulp Fiction artist Steven Martinez for Love from the Shadows by Gilbert Hernandez

Cover painting by Steven Martinez for Love from the Shadows by Gilbert Hernandez

This is a scan of the cover painting by Steven Martinez for Gilbert Hernandez's March 2011 original graphic novel Love from the Shadows (part of the "Fritz films" series), before being formatted for the cover, having the title treatment applied, etc. (If you saw a different version of the cover on The Comics Reporter yesterday, that was the preliminary version. The final cover design is still in the works.)

If, as I did, you don't know who Steven Martinez is, let Kim Thompson school you: "The brother of graphic designer/Tarantino pal Gerald Martinez (who developed the Big Kahuna burger logo for Pulp Fiction among other things), he painted the portrait of Marsellus Wallace's wife Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman) that hangs in their house and which Vincent Vega (John Travolta) scrutinizes while he waits for Mia to come down." Talk about some pulp cred!

And hey, here's some further Pulp Fiction trivia from Kim: "Did you know Sid Haig was offered the role of Marsellus Wallace and passed on it? Did you know Steve Buscemi was offered the role of 'Is there a sign outside that says dead nigger storage' Jimmie (ultimately played by Tarantino himself) and had to pass on it because of scheduling conflicts?" No, I did not know that.