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Description
[A little background:] As a kid, I enjoyed Suzanne Collins’ Underland Chronicles, so I found her newer Hunger Games books interesting on a nostalgic level as well. For those of you who don’t know, the book’s premise was a futuristic rebirth of Romanesque imperialism in North America, with televised gladiator tournaments called the Hunger Games. Adolescent children are randomly selected from the peasant class and placed within a carefully controlled wilderness arena, where they fight to the death until one single victor remains.

The books are about to made into a Hollywood movie, which is usually not a good thing, so I decided to dredge up this fan-art character of mine (the drawing is ~3 years old, but the rendering is new) and share it as a tribute to the books before the story gets too popularized.

Prior to being selected at age 17, Jack Rackham lived in District 8, spending his days in the rank textile factories typical of the area. He is said to have worked with dyes, bleaches, and other chemicals associated with the treatment of fabrics. Long-term exposure to these chemicals can cause severe health problems, so the factories typically use children in the process as they can be more easily replaced. Jack was one of these children, but instead of dying after a few short years in the toxic treatment centers, he lived well into adolescence - though not without some adverse affects to his personality…

Jack Rackham smiles and laughs constantly, has mismatched eyes, and generally acts inappropriate in all his behaviors. During the pre-games show Jack interrupted speakers, mocked officers, and actually stripped off his clothes and exposed himself to the audience. He is short and frail in stature, suffers from nerve tremors, and is ridiculously reckless in his actions. He also shouts prayers and incantations to the sky in the name of strange gods, furthering everybody’s assumptions that he is mentally deranged.

When the games began, Jack simply ran off into the wilderness, taking to the sumac jungles in near nudity like a wild ape. The only tools he took from the cornucopia was a knife with a sharpener hidden in the handle. Later he found a rusty axe-head from before the war, which he sharpened and crafted a handle for. While the other tributes formed opposing sides and battled each other, Jack wandered the wilderness and practiced disturbing rituals. The monstrous animals of the arena are terrified of Jack, and seem paralyzed as he stares at them and slits their throats. When the others finally attempt to hunt him down, they find a jungle transformed into a sickening madhouse. The mutilated corpses of animals lay strewn all around, taunts are written in blood cover every rock and tree, and hundreds of wretched little dolls dangle from the tree branches…

The Hunger Games are over… The nightmare has begun…

Description
[A little background:] As a kid, I enjoyed Suzanne Collins’ Underland Chronicles, so I found her newer Hunger Games books interesting on a nostalgic level as well. For those of you who don’t know, the book’s premise was a futuristic rebirth of Romanesque imperialism in North America, with televised gladiator tournaments called the Hunger Games. Adolescent children are randomly selected from the peasant class and placed within a carefully controlled wilderness arena, where they fight to the death until one single victor remains.

The books are about to made into a Hollywood movie, which is usually not a good thing, so I decided to dredge up this fan-art character of mine (the drawing is ~3 years old, but the rendering is new) and share it as a tribute to the books before the story gets too popularized.

Prior to being selected at age 17, Jack Rackham lived in District 8, spending his days in the rank textile factories typical of the area. He is said to have worked with dyes, bleaches, and other chemicals associated with the treatment of fabrics. Long-term exposure to these chemicals can cause severe health problems, so the factories typically use children in the process as they can be more easily replaced. Jack was one of these children, but instead of dying after a few short years in the toxic treatment centers, he lived well into adolescence - though not without some adverse affects to his personality…

Jack Rackham smiles and laughs constantly, has mismatched eyes, and generally acts inappropriate in all his behaviors. During the pre-games show Jack interrupted speakers, mocked officers, and actually stripped off his clothes and exposed himself to the audience. He is short and frail in stature, suffers from nerve tremors, and is ridiculously reckless in his actions. He also shouts prayers and incantations to the sky in the name of strange gods, furthering everybody’s assumptions that he is mentally deranged.

When the games began, Jack simply ran off into the wilderness, taking to the sumac jungles in near nudity like a wild ape. The only tools he took from the cornucopia was a knife with a sharpener hidden in the handle. Later he found a rusty axe-head from before the war, which he sharpened and crafted a handle for. While the other tributes formed opposing sides and battled each other, Jack wandered the wilderness and practiced disturbing rituals. The monstrous animals of the arena are terrified of Jack, and seem paralyzed as he stares at them and slits their throats. When the others finally attempt to hunt him down, they find a jungle transformed into a sickening madhouse. The mutilated corpses of animals lay strewn all around, taunts are written in blood cover every rock and tree, and hundreds of wretched little dolls dangle from the tree branches…

The Hunger Games are over… The nightmare has begun…