How to create a scifi comic cover (with dystopian design maven Brian Wood)

by and by this year , Dark Horse Comics will release The Massive , a fresh ongoing comical book from author / illustrator Brian Wood ( DMZ , Channel Zero , Northlanders ) .

In this apocalyptic serial publication , every drab forecast for climate alteration rattle the planet at the same time , and a radical of environmentalist must uncover why the ecosystem ’s cash in one’s chips to pot . Brian took io9 through the aim summons for the first issue of The Massive . Here ’s an exclusive behind - the - scenes calculate at how a comic cover gets prepped for stores .

I ’m go to take you through the cognitive process that I , artist Kristian Donaldson , and editor Sierra Hahn went through in craft what is the cover to The Massive # 1 , the first issue of the ongoing serial that complain off in June ( the three prequel stories come out in Dark Horse Presents # 8 - 10 , Jan - March ) .

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I have a history of instance and/or designing the covering fire to my books , so I preemptively design up this as an idea …

This , despite all appearances , is a cartoon for me . I adumbrate digitally , often using placeholder trope and rough in - in people of colour , since its so much quicker for me to do , plus if its O.K. , I already have half the work done , at the correct size of it and resolve .

So I did this , and it was refuse . I can see why – - it ’s a niggling number too much like the DHP # 8 cover , and its also very much in the manner of my past piece of work and perhaps that ’s not the undecomposed way to present a brand new series . Although there are aspect to this I like a great deal and some of it will probably show up in promo image and other related to design .

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Around this time we lock in the incomparable John Paul Leon to be our veritable cover creative person , but due to a scheduling quirk he could not do # 1 . So we asked Kristian , currently passing meddlesome in interiors , to bring with me on coming up with something .

I did a few sketch , this fourth dimension a trivial rougher and in black / white , to give him some starting point . I also throw off in the Dark Horse logo and other cover constituent like the barcode so we love more precisely how much space we have to work with .

Sketch #1

Sketch #2

Sketch #3

Sketch # 1 took the day , and it was my pet as well . So we passed it along to Kristian for him to make his own and take it to net . It presented a few problems that I could see : it was really important to separate the two one-half of the cover , so that globe present as the land , and not some other planet brood in the sky . Or the foreground coming off like the moonshine . Or the dry land not reading as a major planet but some kind of elephantine caoutchouc glob hang in the sky .

I also did n’t want a realistically dark-skinned ground , with crayola - blue and green . I always favour circumscribed palette and non - representational coloration . Were it up to me , I would have kept it black and white .

Like I said before , the glass , the digit and the dry land were dropped in image I sourced online , not for final use . The ship is one of Kristian ’s drawings . Kristian came back with …

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Sketch #4

Which was quite a shock after only seeing a grim / white sketch . I think the red coloring material was smart . Sure , it may come off as Mars or something , but I was n’t too worried .

Kristian has tremendous endowment , but one of his all - clip strengths is color theory , and I would never oppugn that . Red study , he sail through it .

The logotype is also perfect . It was my excogitation , but he used really elusive color to lapse it into the art just a bit .

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The bottom half was n’t there yet . The gruelling crinkle dissever the too halves was probably too severe , and I missed the sense of distance in the sketch , how the landscape painting kick the bucket back to the sensible horizon .

Sketch #5

Now I feel we had that “ pencil eraser ballock in the sky ” trouble , by positioning the earth within the distance fill by the ship and the people . It literally looks like hanging fifty feet above the ship .

The background chalk cliff were working against us , but that aside , the bottom half was really coming together .

I did bespeak to off - center the triad of chassis , to set aside for the rubric discourse and also so it was n’t so perfectly in stock with the globe .

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We were really down to the wire , time - wise , so editor Sierra Hahn and I had a really warm sound chat that leave in her make this …

Sketch #6

And me following up with this . I imagine , literally , we did all of this in 10 - 15 transactions . The goal was to assay and address the proceeds of the background chalk shelves .

I matt-up that ambit figure element was believably unnecessary and mold against us , so I deleted it and further discriminate the land from the ice-skating rink . I also offset the figures and drop in proxy text so Kristian would know , roughly , how much infinite to will .

I loved the red sum to the logotype . Kristian , the best mutation ever , send out us this …

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Which is our concluding back . He took the cloud off the world to admit us to see continents . He did some telling rendition on the solid ground itself , drew the net ship , the figure , and the glass shelf , and re - introduced the compass constituent in a way that worked , subtle as it is . There is chilliness here , now , that really works and the earth has an almost alien feel to it that is not exotic in the “ out infinite ” sense , but rather “ what has become of it ? ” which is really what The Massive is all about .

I think , from sketch to final , we ’re mouth a daytime or two . It was straightaway , and at the same clip a very crucial patch of art , as any # 1 cover is . Like I said , JP Leon is take over covers with # 2 , but this same stratum of tending and design and considerateness that Kristian took with # 1 he ’s also applying to every panel of the interior art . Wait till you see it .

In addition to The Massive , Brian’spenning a fresh Conan The barbaric serial publication that strike stand next week . you could hold out a preview of that here , andread Brian ’s sketch block for free here .

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