Sincerely, Richard Murdock

A series of three conceptual illustrations which used the content of Nigerian fraud letters as literary source material. I chose to re-contextualize the elaborate story proposed by the email scam artist in the Silent Film Era. Turn of the century films relied heavily on music and images alone to communicate complex plots. It was age of acting gold, giving rise to the careers of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, John Barrymore, Louise Brooks, Clara Bow and Mary Pickford.

I thought the style was fitting to my visual representation of the letter. As in a silent film, every element of the sequence was carefully considered. In addition, the scammer's epic English name immediately recalled the time period. The short amount of time I had to produce these three pieces allowed for a harmonious combination of detail and expressive ink washes--something estranged from my regular portfolio work.

 My selected story was more of a mercenary opportunity than it was a plea for help. The client of an  attorney named Richard Murdock has recently died along with his daughter in the London Bombings of 2005. After receiving the news, the wife died shortly afterward of a heart attack. The predicament lies in the fact that the former client willed his $35 million fortune to his only daughter. Richard Murdock wants to capitalize on this fateful accident by asking you to act as beneficiary of the will...leading to one devastating and inevitable con.

http://fraudgallery.com/2006-07-06.html