Edge Of Fantasy Second Issue
For the second issue of Edge of Fantasy, I was asked to do the front and back covers. Since the inside of the comic is black and white, I was excited to be able to do something with as much color as I wanted.
I had never done anything like this before so I mocked up dozens of ideas and looked at hundreds of comic book covers before I finally figured out what I wanted to do. While researching comic art, several covers really caught my eye. Specifically, The Ice Cream Man, but I ended up being most inspired by a DC comic from the 70s called, "Plop!." Issue 13 was the one that really caught my eye.
It was drawn by Wally Wood, no relation that I'm aware of, but what a great name! The framing was something that I wanted to include in my own cover art and that's where I started. It reminded me of my favorite part of Mad Magazine: Sergio Aragonés.
I initially drew out a rectangle of my monster creature things and planned on having a larger creature in the foreground, much like the Plop! cover. For some reason I decided to draw another, smaller rectangle of my creature monster things and just kept on going towards the center in a similar fashion.
About the time I finally finished up the entire front cover, I got a request to also do the back. I was very excited and quickly agreed to do it. I immediately knew I could make those weird intestine looking
things connect from the back cover to the front. I worked for about twenty hours on the back cover but was unhappy with it. I actually deleted the entire thing and started over. The original artwork showed someone's lips being pulled open and nailed to the background, a worm forcing its way into the person's mouth, and his brains unravelling into the front cover. It was a bit more gross or morbid than I was comfortable with putting my name on. After playing around with a lot of doodles, I finally added some prison bars and a creepy photo of yours truly. I think the whole thing flows together pretty well. If you'd like to own a copy, let me know.
-Derrick G. Wood
