Well, it’s finally happening. We’ve been talking about this project for years now – I think the first time Diana and myself sat down and chatted about Rasputina must have been around February, maybe March, 2014.

Since then, we’ve both been busy: rushing from one project to another, with no time to really put much thought into what we both knew could only turn out to be a massive commitment. But it’s a story that we both felt deserved to be told; and with the centenary of Rasputin’s murder looming ever closer – 30th December 2016 – a few months ago we decided that it was finally time to make this happen.

Here are the very first sketches. Tsar Nicholas and Tsarina Alexandra, Grigori Rasputin and his daughter – our heroine – Varvara. This is the moment that Rasputina crossed over from our imaginations, into the real, physical world.