CGStories Intial Cover Designs

There had been some discussion on the Comic Geek Speak forum for quite a while about doing some sort of anthology. The idea would get kicked around every so often, and then die. Sometime during the past year, a concerted effort was started to make the thing a reality. Chris Murrin shouldered the daunting task as editor of the entire project. It went for a grand 100 page plus monster of an anthology down to a typical comic book length read. A title was selected, CGStories, by a poll on the forum. What he didn't have was a suitable cover for the book, so he asked me. I gladly accepted and set about designing the cover. I ran through a half dozen goofy ideas and settled on an idea based the artwork of M.C. Escher. I wanted an image that would convey the fact that the book was done by artists and writers that are fans of the CGS podcast. Here are my initial sketches and mock-ups.

This first sketch is my original blueline rough of the cover idea


This next image is a cleaner and slightly inked version of the sketch. I added the outline of what would be the sheet of drawing paper and I added the iPod controls.


This image is the black and white mock-up, without type, that I sent to Chris for his approval. He really liked the idea and the art so I proceeded. I added the CGS logo and woodgrain to show what I was going to do and I rotated the art slightly to mimic the original illustration by Escher.


I'll post the initial colors and final artwork for the CGStories anthology comic soon.