Cover Process - The Forgotten Divine
Earlier this month I wrapped back-to-back weekends at TCAF and Heroes Con, which was energizing in the way the con frenzy of meeting readers, olds friends, and new people always is. It was my first Heroes Con and a bit of an experiment to see if I could scrounge up the commissions and original art sales I heard are such an integral part of Heroes. It was a success!
So I have been organizing and fixing up my originals lately and wanted to walk you through some process for my cover to a new comic The Forgotten Divine. First, here’s your boy at Heroes with my new Toxified banner.
The Forgotten Divine is an unsettling and exceptional sci-fi drama by Mark Russell and Russ Braun. It is a 72-page standalone story that is Kickstarting right now from Ahoy. I’m always down for some cover work, but after reading this one I was bowled over. I genuinely think it’s one of the best things Mark Russell has ever written and worth your dollar as a reader. My cover is available in a special tier of the campaign and, I am pretty sure, as an add-on to any pledge level.
The story follow a homeless veteran plagued by dreams of an alien civilization, who links up with others having the same visions. Where it goes from there, I won’t say, but you can find out more about the book on Kickstarter.
I found the alien eyeball in the story, designed by Russ Braun, compelling enough to warrant cover status. A giant eyeball staring at you when you dream—everyone loves that calming scenario and it fit with the surreal, paranoid elements of the story I wanted to rock with.
I worked up two sketches on my iPad. The first one featured the main character, Rodney Coleman, in a night sweat, almost paralyzed by the eye as its tendrils envelop him. I was playing with some other compositions and arrived at a more symmetrical idea, with the eye baring down on a resting face. For this one, I wanted to swap in another character, a young girl who also has the dreams and plays a key role in the story. I imagined her drifting up through a green pool as she fell asleep, arriving in her subconscious where gravity obeyed dream logic.
This is a gig where I’d have been perfectly happy illustrating either one; the editorial team went with the second option. The girl’s face was a little wonky at that upturned angle, so I had my daughter model for a more studied look. I didn’t model the character to look like her, however, only to get the positioning of the ears, nose, eyes, and lips laid out accurately.
I drew the new face, printed out the line work, then lightboxed it, inking on 11x17 bristol. Here’s a look at the original art,
For coloring, I take it back to the computer. This time in Photoshop with a Wacom tablet. And the final, with no trade dress:
Upcoming releases
July 14 • The collected edition of Toxic Crusaders by myself and Tristan Wright drops mid-July. Anyone who loves mutants should call their comic shop and order this one—you don’t want to miss Tristan’s eye-melting art.
July 29 • The tenth and final issue of Toxic Avenger Comics will conclude our “Toxie Goes to Washington” story in an explosive fashion. Artist Fred Harper and I believe this storyline depicts more sitting presidents killed on page than any other comic book on the stands. We challenge all comers! The full collection of all five issues will drop in October.
September 2 •I’m back in EC Comics for Cruel Kingdom #1, the dark fantasy anthology, with a medieval spin on pre-crime and surveillance.
Then that’s all I have announced, but not all I have in the works. Should be some news coming soon…