Human Bomb#2 from cover sketch to finished color

 Here's how this cover process worked-- I read the script, and, not wanting to give away any major reveals, I was left with a kind of a lead-in to page one of this issue.

This was rejected.

This one was also rejected

I was told to give them multiple ideas in hopes of them liking one.

They ultimately chose the first of the four-on-one-sheet, the sketch I was LEAST invested in:) At this point, NO logo existed, so I was worried about how or where a logo would fit, which just hung over my head through the rest of the process. Little things like this always affect me more than they should, but I worry about the final printed cover, not just my part of the process.

I did the pencils and inks, trying to create a big enough gap between the upper figures to accommodate a cover logo, and hoped for the best.

 I played with the color scheme, and settled on how to imply the gore without bloody spatters, by just making it all warm color, and contrasting it with the blue background. Clarity is important, and I was trying to anticipate the copy over that area. This allows the price info and DC logo to "pop" in white, or any light value color.

The Human Bomb is trademark and copyright 2013 by DC Entertainment, and used here for promotional purposes.

Human Bomb #1 cover from sketch to finish

I got the email on a weekend asking to get a cover done by the coming mid-week. I dashed off these two sketches, and got the okay on the first one.

 Since I wanted to try coloring myself, I did this in photoshop, in order to give myself a color rough to work from.

The line art followed, and I finished this by Monday night.

 My daughter helped set up the scan, and flatted the piece for me while I slept, so that I could start in on Tuesday.

I probably spent more time on this than I needed to, as I had no way of judging what level of detail would show in print, but I got it done by the deadline, and was generally happy with it. 

Human Bomb is trademark and copyright 2013 by DC Entertainment, and used here for promotional purposes only.

Doomsday Annual#1/Gil Kane and Jerry Ordway

Earlier, I posted pencils drawn by the late, great Gil Kane, for the Doomsday Annual, published by DC Comics in the 90's. Here are my inks for the story. I was directed to beef up Doomsday, and change a few other things, as directed by the editor. One page had to be fixed, as I inked what I thought were rocks, but it was supposed to be transparent solid energy. It was great to ink anything by Gil, who was one of my favorites.

Blogged here for fun and educational purposes.
Doomsday is trademark and copyright DC Entertainment, and not to be reused without permission