Wednesday, January 05, 2022

The Knock On - Cover Process


My book the The Knock On is now available in-store and on-line exclusively from Little Deer Comics


Here's some process on the cover design.

It all starts as doodles in the sketchbook.

Rather than trying to tell a story with the cover as is my first instinct, I wanted for this book an image that might be more of a mood piece with plenty of space included.



The pointing bouncer figure was considered initially as was as a 'big head'.


The crowd image was interesting but once skewed, as if looking through someone's eyes, it really became a winner.


For the finish I wanted to try an ink wash style for a change.


I was afraid however I'd be too timid on the final piece. I decided to pencil it fairly tightly and then lightbox over the top so I could take the pressure off and do another take if needed.


The first pass ended up just fine.
The speakers were added to the pencils to make the skew more obvious.

The title was originally going to skew in line with the scene but it was a bit much in the end.

FYI The text styling is a fairly flagrant 'homage' to the Paul Bacon designed covers of Philip Roth's novels of the 70's and 80's.

But hand drawn of course.


Wednesday, March 31, 2021

Notapath

Colour versions of some of the 'notes' that went out with internet orders. See all the notes here.




Tuesday, January 26, 2021

Friday, August 21, 2020

Monday, August 17, 2020

Wednesday, July 22, 2020

Monday, May 04, 2020

Amateur Futurology

I'm posting a few older comics that may have previously appeared on more ephemeral social media or in publications unavailable or out of print.
The following piece originally appeared in now defunct Rabble magazine.



Friday, March 20, 2020

Tuesday, July 02, 2019

Thursday, April 05, 2018

Savage Town Thug Sketches

For the launch of the Savage Town graphic novel at the Thoughtbubble convention back in November 2017, I put together a small photocopied collection of the 'Thug of the Day' images I had been posting on Twitter and left a space on the cover to add a custom sketch for the first few purchasers of the book at the con. Here they all are collected for posterity with the addition of a few copies I had left behind and since sent to friends.