Welcome to this second installment of “How I Did It.” No, it’s not the title of the Dr. Frankenstein book found by Gene Wilder in Young Frankenstein. “How I Did It” is the process behind the variant covers I was invited to draw for the wonderful Mignolaverse books.
Today we look at the process behind the variant cover for B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth: Monsters #1.
Just as for Hellboy: The Fury #1, I started with a couple of concepts for the cover.
Once again, doing multiple sketches provides a wider array of elements to choose from, and Mike, Scott, and Daniel liked some elements from the first sketch (action pose) and some from the second (divided background, creepy people), and asked me to do a new composition using those elements. They also asked me to add the B.P.R.D. logo somewhere in there.
So I came up with this version:
Everyone loved it, so I was okayed to go to final art.
A little trivia: As you can see in the approved sketch, I listed Guy Davis as artist (because we all know that Guy is da man for B.P.R.D.). That was before it was announced that Guy would be leaving the title and passing the B.P.R.D. art duties to the very talented Tyler Crook.
So there you have it: the variant cover for B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth: Monsters #1, out in stores this week.
Hope you guys enjoyed this inside look at my process.
Cheers,
Francesco