It's no secret that I love 'Alice in Wonderland' and that it inspires so much of my artwork. And one of the aspects I love so much about the story is it's versatility and ability to adapt to almost any genre imaginable. I've always been fascinated by the dichotomy of the story; how you can read it as a simple, sweet fairytale of a girl who has fun adventures and meets strange creatures in a magical land, usually with cute characters (examples: the Disney version, the 1985 TV movie, Sakura Kinoshito's manga, Koro POP's illustrations, the various other versions for kids including Care Bears and Hello Kitty), OR you can interpret it as almost a horror story, of sorts, focusing on the aspects of madness and insanity, drug use, and getting lost in a dangerous, unpredictable world from which there's no escape (American McGee's 'Alice,' Zenescope's 'Return to Wonderland,' Jan Svankmejer's Alice film, and hopefully the upcoming Tim Burton film). You can put it in an anime context, such as Miyuki-chan in Wonderland by CLAMP, (and just look at the hundreds of other anime/manga takes on this story! Almost any anime with a big cast will usually have at least one picture where everyone is dressed as an 'Alice' character, and it's been the basis for episodes of Cardcaptor Sakura and Ouran Highschool Host Club). You can set it in a modern context, make it into a video game, or use it to do a parody on another story/show/movie/book (look on Fanfiction.Net if you don't believe me-- I've even done this myself with Invader ZIM, as some may know), and in certain shows I‘ve noticed they sneak in an ‘Alice‘ reference or two from time to time (Superjail!-my new fave- being a good example). You can enjoy it as a child or an adult, boy or girl, goth or prep-- even high or straight-- and the best thing is one need not choose-- the same person can appreciate some aspect of it on any level. It seems there is no end to the various facets this story has. Rather than say it's like two sides of the same coin, I say it's more like the surface of a diamond; there are just so many ways to interpret the material, yet each facet shines in it's own way, making up a single extraordinary jewel.
I wanted to do a visual take on this concept using two extreme versions of Alice representing the light side and the dark side of the story. The 'light' Alice was mostly inspired by the Alice depicted by Japanese Illustrator Koro Pop, who did an edition of the book with the MOST adorable pictures ^^ and with just a hint of the Disney Alice thrown in. And for the 'dark' Alice I used American McGee's version, since she is pretty much an icon for the dark side of Alice in Wonderland, though mine also bears a resemblance to Zenescope comic's modern-day Alice, Calie. Since the theme of cards is so prevalent in the story I naturally made this look like a playing card, and it was interesting to try and draw these mirror images and try to get everything to line up exactly. And so HAPPY am I with the colors! ^_^ They really came out much better than I expected.
Okay, I guess I've gone on long enough. Whether you prefer Light Alice, Dark Alice, or any one of the thousands of Alice’s in between, please enjoy ^_^