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James and Gary are working together on a comic book project called "Adam Among the Gods" which explores the evolving meanings of beauty and perfection and the possible dangers of using genetic engineering to improve the human race. Check back for updates!
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Cover Design
by Gary Scott Beatty, Owner and Production Manager, Aazurn Publishing, September 28, 2006
Hello, adventure fans! I begin by apologizing for waiting over two months to update you all on what's happening behind the scenes here at Aazurn Publishing. Worry not, come rousing success or dismal failure, I plan to chronicle every step here at Comic Artists Direct. Previous chapters, including writing the proposals, logo development and communicating with the artists, can be read at www.comicartistsdirect.com/aazurn.html.
After months of working it in between other (paying) comic book projects, the decades-spanning vampire hunt romance tale that is "Seductions" is completed - almost! Bill Bryan's awesome pencils are colored in that style I've been discussing in these articles, a style that works with the pencils so you can see they're pencils, but adds the interest of full color. Be sure to check out the DOWNLOADABLE WALLPAPERS for your computer from "Seductions!" Revisit '65, '75 and '05 (That's 1505).
I'm now knee-deep in coloring James Lyle's inked drawings for "Adam Among the Gods," a retro science fiction short story with the new twist of genetic engineering. More on that project in the next update.
COVER DESIGN - To design ref="http://www.
comicartistsdirect.com/aazurn.html">Aazurn Publishing covers, I began with a concept I had before ever putting pen to paper. I believe the comic book industry is moving toward nonsuperhero adventure stories in a single issue format. The rise of graphic novels in the last several years is an excellent indicator that readers want to finish the story, darn it, don't make us buy another three to get anywhere. I harkened back to my youth, when Ray Bradbury and Isaac Asimov first interested me in reading science fiction, when Robert E. Howard first thrilled me with sword and sorcery, when H.P. Lovecraft and Stephen King first instructed me on how pacing, not gore, is important to a good horror yarn.
So my comic book cover designs, I decided, should look more like books than comics. While comic books covers usually portray full figured adventurers swinging fists at each other, book covers hint at the story inside with powerful, symbolic images. Since readers form their own images when reading books, the covers often use nonspecific pictures, if there are pictures at all, to convey the mood of the book.
Mainstream books have been going over the top with the use of interesting typefaces - mile high letters, for instance, make sure your book has the biggest headline. Books that feature writers who have reached a certain plateau of notoriety use larger typefaces for the author than they do the title! I suppose that must be the current measure of success in literature - to have your name displayed on the cover larger than the title.
Another consideration for Aazurn Publishing books was to unify them with a common look, a look that will stand out in a good way among the other books on the shelf. I decided simple artwork can work to my advantage in this respect, if I used a limited color pallet, common typefaces (or typeface looks) and a common layout.
The colors were easy to decide - I am, after all, a colorist and am always observant of modern color trends. (This helped immensely with using color to identify the decade in "Seductions." An obvious example - remember the aqua and pink from the mid-'80s, that later morphed into dark green and pink/purple? I do.) I settled on the color pallet below, bright colors you see all the time today on the covers of national magazines.
Your asking, "Where have I seen these colors before?" Well, they're in right now. The bright green, especially, is everywhere. Also, I've been using similar colors for quite a while on Comic Artists Direct!
For typefaces, san serif says "modern and clean" right now. Who knows what it will say in 10 years? To read about my thought processes behind the logos for Aazurn Publishing books, see the logo article at www.comicartistsdirect.com/aazurn4.html.
I'm using Copperplate for the secondary type, a face that was used for decades on letterpress machines pre-computers that fell out of favor (along with many old things) in the '60s. Lawyers and bankers used Copperplate on their business cards for years after because of the old, classy, dependable look. I'm after that classy feel here. To strengthen it, I'm using an italic face for the prepositions (is, for, in, on, by, etc.), a classy standby named Garamond. An important tip for combining typefaces is to be sure the weights are similar. You don't want a change in the thickness of the letters. To make things even more complicated (and, I hope, classy looking) I'm increasing the size of the initial capitals ("G" in Gary) slightly (Remember that thickness tip!).
Usually messing with the type like this would create a mess, but I'm an old fart who has been playing with type since before PCs, so I have developed typesetting skills far beyond those of mere mortals. I can break the rules because I know what they are and why they are. If you want your cover type to look great, stick to one or two typefaces on the page in a minimum number of sizes.
And please, please don't distort your typefaces. No matter what you think, it really does look crappy. Well designed typefaces are not designed to work at 68 percent horizontal scale. Badly designed typefaces (There are many) should not be used at all. A REAL typographer works with kerning to make things fit. Don't force the type, just type it in and it will tell you, visually, how to use it.
Okay, enough soapbox ramblings about typography. We've talked about common colors and typefaces. Now comes the layout. By studying modern book (Not comic book) design, I came up with the looks below. Layouts are all logo at top, graphic in middle and type at the bottom, with a background element of pinlines and circles to unify them. That's it, no big mystery, just planning. Check these out!
Note that the third Aazurn Publishing book, "Number One," is in development. In fact, this, adventure fans, is the first anyone has heard of this project, so you're here for a FIRST! The artist "attached" to the project (As they say in Hollywood when everything is still up in the air) cannot even be announced yet. The title "Number One," like all good titles, refers to more than one thing, the most obvious being the first issue of a comic book. See? I'm a fanboy at heart and Aazurn Publishing will not abandon its comic book roots. The circle in the middle of this cover will contain a graphic. This is the web, and your monitor is not calibrated like mine, etc., so use your imagination a bit - these colors are very bright!
Thank you for allowing me to occasionally invade your email. If you know anyone who would enjoy hearing from me, please forward this to them. Anyone can join our email list at Comic Artists Direct - just look for the little box that says, "Join the Aazurn Publishing Email List."
We're having a blast telling stories over here! Thanks for your interest.
- Gary
PUT YOURSELF ON THE EMAIL LIST to learn when Aazurn comics are available and where to buy them! See below!
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