Dark Horse Comics

Welcome to the third installment of “How I Did It,” where I share the process behind the variant covers I drew for the wonderful Mignolaverse books. Today we look at the variant cover for Baltimore: The Curse Bells #1.

As with my other covers, it all started with a detailed synopsis and breakdown of the miniseries. Reading through the script, I decided right away I wanted to feature the creepy nuns and the monastery (where the curse bells of the title reside) on the cover. As usual, I did a couple of sketches to give some options to Scott Allie and Mike Mignola.

Scott and Mike loved the first option, which had a more graphic approach to it. The graphic style has been a constant on all these covers, so I wasn’t surprised to find out that was their favorite.

Scott and Mike gave me a couple of notes (removing the bats from the bell, straightening up Lord Baltimore’s head to make it more heroic, and making the title more prominent). Based on those notes, I produced the final version that will be on the cover of the book out this week in stores.