CCREATING A COVER
Variant for Vampirella Comics Magazine #3
The Cover is arguably the most important image of a comic book. It can determine whether a casual reader is going to walk by the rack or stop in his or her tracks and give that book a chance to go home and be read. So it has to be considered long and hard and constantly reevaluated through its creation. I've trashed cover concepts with days of work already in them because I thought of a better idea along the way, even though the one I was working on looked good (and was almost finished!).
When the editor at Harris Comics asked for a variant cover for the issue my story ran in, I was even happier about it than usual because it was a chance to do a cover image in the larger magazine format. I started making tiny roughs in my sketchbook, most of which would be indecipherable here. After a day and a half, I picked four I liked and scanned them into Photoshop so I could add rough color schemes. Then I sent them in to wait for feedback.
Most of my ideas focused on Vampirella, the Monster, and the Horror Show Hostess. Anytime you can work with three main elements you have more possibilities for strong compositions.
This scenario would have used the shooting set from the story, with camera and props. My whole layout and color approach was an homage to the old Warren issues, using white space. My editor appreciated the motif, but didn't think the publisher would go for it, this one takes a powder.
Since I had a cool color rough, it seemed natural to experiment with the opposite end. This actually represents the final scene when Vampirella confronts the witches in my story. I liked the idea of a bold main shape, with her cape blowing up to solidify the top as the people do for the bottom. She looks a little like she's dancing for them, but it was a tiny rough!
The editor felt this was too similar to what they usually do, so it bites the dust on those grounds. I shouldn't have any problem eventually using something of this idea in another job though, so it's hardly wasted time.
