Known for his gritty, evocative work on Spawn and Killadelphia, artist Jason Shawn Alexander is turning the page, literally, on a long-lost passion project. Scrooge: A Christmas Carol is a prestige hardcover adaptation of Charles Dickens’ timeless holiday tale, featuring over 80 illustrations. Alexander began working on this more than two decades ago.
Now reworked, reimagined, and finally completed, Scrooge is both a haunting visual tribute and a conversation between past and present. It’s a rare opportunity for fans to experience a ghost story drawn with soul. For a limited time, they can own sketches, signatures, and even original pages from the artist himself.
The Beat caught up with Alexander ahead of the campaign’s launch to talk about revisiting old work, his connection to the story, and what it’s like to collaborate with your younger self.
DIEGO HIGUERA: What inspired you to revisit and rework your illustrations for A Christmas Carol after more than two decades?
JASON SHAWN ALEXANDER: Ah, a cash grab. Haha. yeah, I first pulled the work out of a flat file and my wife, seeing it and loving it, convinced me that I should use those illustrations and publish my own version. That sounded great because I wouldn’t have to do any additional work. Then as we started putting the book together, it clicked in my head that this would probably be the only time I ever do this story. It’s genuinely one of my favorite stories let alone Christmas story. So I began cleaning up some of the images because it was 25 year old artwork, and then, as I began cleaning them up, digitally, that started with me, adding color tones, and then becoming a little dissatisfied with some of the stiffness or quality of the artwork and then yada yada yada I just started doing new images over the old ones in a style that I have now but also incorporating much of the free hand cartooning that I had begun originally.
HIGUERA: How has your perspective or artistic approach changed between the original work and the new illustrations?
ALEXANDER:: My perspective and approach has changed just with time and experience. That’s a long way to say that I’ve gotten better overtime. The early version of the art was also meant, I believe, for a younger audience. And with understanding the story and how I work now there is still a bit of whimsy from that Art, but I’ve approached it now with much more atmosphere and mood.
HIGUERA: What is it about Scrooge and this story that has stayed with you so strongly over the years?
ALEXANDER: I love this story. It’s about redemption. A man truly is shown and understands the folly of his ways and is overjoyed for the chance to redeem himself and bring happiness to people in need. And it has ghosts.
HIGUERA: I can only imagine the daunting task of visually capturing the ghostly, emotional tone of Dickens’ classic in your artwork. How did you do it?
ALEXANDER: That might’ve been the easiest part. I’ve grown up with this story and I’ve always had images in my head of it if anything this has been a great opportunity to finally let them out.
HIGUERA: What can fans expect from the final hardcover edition, especially with the Zoop campaign’s exclusive offerings?
ALEXANDER: The final hardcover edition will have multiple stretch goal options. They’ll be sketch plates, signature plates, and even hand toned plates. All designed to be tipped in to the book depending on which one you’re looking for. Not only that, but we may add the stretch goal of a slip case, a print set, And definitely adding the availability of a lot of my original comic art from spawn and a Sapien and more to some of the original 25 year old drawings of Scrooge.
HIGUERA: You’ve called this a creative conversation with your younger self. What did you learn or discover through that process?
ALEXANDER: That I had a lot of strong storytelling bones early on. I’ve been approaching this art not with embarrassment from something. I did a long time ago, but an enjoyment of seeing how good and how fun a lot of those images are and keeping so much of that energy while also showing the younger me what I can do now. It’s been a tremendous experience.
HIGUERA: Anything you would like to say to readers interested in the project?
ALEXANDER: Yeah, not only is this going to be a lovely volume for fans of the original Dickens story but if you’re a fan of my art this book has over 80 original illustrations in it. It’s a beautiful art book as well as illustrated book. And also for fans of my work, I did more freehand, cartooning, for this project Then I’ve done in decades. It brought back a vibrant for me and energy in the work that I will incorporate into the rest of my work from now on. I can genuinely say I put my heart and soul into this book and I think you’ll see it.
Scrooge: A Christmas Carol launches June 3 exclusively on Zoop, offering fans a chance to support this labor of love and grab deluxe editions, art prints, original pages, and more. Don’t miss your opportunity to witness one of the greatest Christmas stories ever told, seen through the eyes of one of comics’ expressive modern artists.
