ONE TIME PRESS

Here is a comic I did year’s ago which opened my eyes to how we look at museums. This is a short story designed to make you think and discuss with others.

For my first book Black Mane, I had a hard time coming up with a cover. When you are the new guy on the block you want to make an impression. Black Mane received the Xeric Award in 2005 which meant I didn’t have to pay for the production. It also meant that I was guaranteed some sort of audience. The cover is a tricky challenge. Commercial comics have really figured out a formula. They just tell you what is basically going to happen in the book or give you a cliff hanger image. At the end of the day that cover needs to sell the product. With indie stuff it’s a little different because we are not catering to the masses. Most indie artists are creating works that satiates the artists goals before the viewers,meaning, I make work that  deals with ideas and themes I am interested in, hopefully I can find like-minded viewers. So with Black Mane I initially took a horror type approach. The concept of Black Mane is sort of ambiguous so I wanted to hint at that.The first two attempts were sketches to figure out composition. I didn’t spend time on fonts and type design.

Here is the first try:

I like this image but it was too frightening in the sense that it completely distracts from teh content. This image only indicates horror and doesn’t seem to hint at any underlying mission of purpose. So I scrapped this and tried something totally different. Exhibit B please….

Design-wise this is a terrible cover, but it was closer to what I wanted. This is a photo of my hair when it was at it’s longest. Here I am giving some context to what Black mane could mean, more so then the first image. This has more of a contemplative look but that’s about it. It’s not engaging. I took both ideas and combined them to get the final version. Voila..

The final version is very minimal and modern. Something different from what we usually see in comic book stores. Which is why it stood out at conventions. It’s frightening and unsettling yet there is something pensive about it.  You feel a subtle movement in the hair when you see it. The text communicates the uneasiness of the story. I was very pleased with how it turned out. I had it printed on uncoated stock so it has a matte finish.

Joey Weiser is a fantastic cartoonist who is working hard to get his new book Caveman in Space. Thanks to websites like Kickstarter.com, artists can plead to the public to help support their projects, raising thousands of dollars to offset production costs. Joey is hard at work with his new book and is looking for you to help out. Please go to his website and check out his work and consider a donation. If you donate you’ll get all sorts of goodies. Good luck Joey! Here is the link.

Logo for "Cavemen in Space"