Most folks don’t seem to know this, but the 1987 film, The Princess Bride, is based on a book of the same name by William Goldman from 1973. The book is built around a clever and hilarious conceit that for obvious reasons couldn’t be incorporated into the film: it’s supposedly a modern abridgment of a classic Renaissance story written by “S. Morgenstern.” Princess Bride is in truth entirely Goldman’s work and S. Morgenstern is entirely made up. It’s worth reading the wikipedia entry on the book which details all the clever additions to this whole literary spoof, including a subsequent book Goldman published under the S. Morgenstern name, a supposed lost chapter you could get mailed to you by the publisher, and Buttercup’s Baby, a sequel mentioned in some editions of the book. Anhoo…
I is for Inigo Montoya – From The Princess Bride by William Goldman
As I’ve done with any previous AlphaBooks subject who’s from a book which was later adapted to film, I’ve gone back and used the original text as my start-point. In the case of Inigo Montoya, there’s surprisingly little description of him in the text. This is just about all we get:
The second, also dark, probably Spanish, was as erect and slender as the blade of steel that was attached to his side.
Beyond that quick description, I dug up a bit of visual research on Reniassance-era Spanish clothing that helped me get a general look for him which wound up being a lot different than Mandy Patinkin’s version of the character from the film.
Process: I did a pencil/colored pencil drawing of the character in my sketchbook, then inked in Manga Studio, colored in Photoshop.
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