Cover art for Novas Trio albums

Back in 2012 the New-York based jazz band Novas Trio asked me to illustrate their album cover. It was their first album as a band, and they wanted something different.

"Do whatever you want, Fran" they told me. So I created this bear.

That year I visited New York for the first time and I felt in love with Central Park. I thought "what if this bear is a mega super star, worst temperament issues, super demanding BUT still dealing with the fact he's a wild animal in a city amongst humans!"

This was a world before the incredible BoJack Horseman, but if I need to compare this bear to someone, that someone is BoJack.

To my surprise, the band LOVED this concept. Borderfall was released and the album sold out! Jazz musicians kept telling me how different this album is from other Jazz albums you see in record shops and how much this one stands out from the rest. What a nice compliment!

Four years later, in 2016, the band contacted me again. They wanted to release their new album "we want the bear again, keep the bear, BUT you need to add SPACE cause that's the theme of the album" they told me.

So this is what I did for Gravity's Empire:

This time our main character is filming a space movie, saving the planet and being our true hero.

We also made t-shirts together for their last tour!