After the tough task of putting together a first-issue cover that not only established our heroine but the entire world of a brand-new comic—a new comic that’s a sprawling fantasy/sci-fi epic, no less—issue #2’s cover came together quite easily in comparison. Editor Sierra Hahn picked out a key action sequence from the issue—always a good place to start for cool cover concepts—and our brilliant cover artist Massimo Carnevale turned in an engaging and interesting sketch for a cover idea on his first take.
After the first issue’s introductory cover, getting some action images out for our new series was key. Our heroine taking on some mutant beasties from the Wild? Not a bad way to start showcasing the action/adventure angle of <i>Orchid</i>.
After asking Massimo to remove Orchid’s Valk headdress (which she lost in issue #1), we moved on to the painting phase.
You can’t really go wrong with a cover that involves a scorpion bear, right?
While Massimo nailed the mean mutant and our hero’s look in this epic moment, we weren’t sold on the color palette. A bit too brown and a bit too drab. We wanted something that would punch you in the eyeballs a bit more, something in which Orchid’s earth-toned outfit wouldn’t blend into our big brown bear so much. Massimo took another shot at coloring the piece . . .
Definitely some stark contrast between Orchid and the bear now, but we’d gone from too brown to too blue. The blue coloring here also gave the appearance that this scene takes place in a cold climate, which is definitely not the case in the Wild (as you’ll see in issue #2). So, we took these two strong images and asked Massimo to combine them . . .
. . . and we got the best of both worlds. The image popped better with a combo of brown and blue, leaving us with an awesome, action-packed cover for our second issue!
Then, as always, we sent it along to our terrific design department to dress up and we ended up with one great-looking comic that’s ready for your local comic shop!
We certainly hope you enjoy it! Let us know what you think of it at orchid[at]darkhorse[dot]com!
Jim Gibbons
Assistant Editor