My first sketches for this cover had the crew tied up and kneeling on the ground surrounded by a bunch of armed Ulon Dosi goat aliens, all pointing their rifle sticks at them. But I realized that imagery was too much like the “Bad Goods” issue #4 cover, which had the crew surrounded by Jondhi police officers, all pointing their weapons at them.
For a little while I thought about doing it anyway. Maybe it would have been a funny running gag to make every story arc issue #4 cover feature the crew being held at gunpoint by someone. But then a flash of inspiration struck and I came up with the idea of having a brick of Crush as the main focal point of the cover instead of the crew.
I really like how this one turned out. It’s a nice and simple mood-setting piece that still features the cast but also spotlights what the real story has been about this whole time. I toyed with the idea of having a couple armed Ulon Dosi guards in the background, but ultimately I decided that the stark simplicity of the crew and the brick would work best.
“Shit, bricks!”
I like it too. And again the individual characters shine through splendidly. It is a good team!
Up front it is also a good thing that the stone floor/wall inset detracts from the pole and heavy duty rope making it look like the innards of a ship. I’m figuring we are seeing the interior of the village temple, that have been sacrificed for worthier purposes. Or maybe the Ulan Dosi sucks at building roofs.
Something bothered my perception of the frame though, and it took me a while to understand that the knife looks a bit dull edged. But the appropriate half-shade makes the result believable in the end.
Speaking of believable, I then realized I hit a world building suspense of disbelief conundrum. The Crush doesn’t look plastic wrapped now, so apparently at this stage of the process, “raw” Crush isn’t digestible or even being able to be water/acid diluted. (Good thing too, or the yaks would have yakked sooner. And destroyed valuable property.)
So there must be some heavy duty processing left. Um, maybe its just prepared for heating as is, or with some simple ingredient, making the result able to be metabolized … yes, that may be the ticket.
Good choice on the cover idea and well executed as it really sets the mood.
Two things come to mind:
1. Where is Cember?
2. Are those ropes able to hold Bennesaud and/or Sky?
1. Back of the pole, or they wouldn’t be as stacked in front. But being Cember, the question is why we can’t see tentacles waving about? (If it hadn’t been a silent frame, the question would have been why can’t we _hear_ Cember. :-D)
2. Good question. Strangle knot by way of the others? (I.e. they move, the others get pinched into bits.)
1. Good point. 😀 Cember missing the opportunity to show his mug on the cover just seems so unlikely.
2. That would make for a nice Batman TV series cliffhanger. 😉
Subtitle for Big Snow Job part 4: “Who cut the cheese?”
Sorry, I was really hungry when I saw this page.
@ Torbjorn: Funny that you bring up raw Crush. It actually is a bit different in its raw and processed forms. Without going into any real detail, I will say that some of the characters address that point in issue #4. As for protection, while in the yak stomachs, the Crush had sheaths on them. Outside the stomachs, they don’t need the sheaths. Not to say they’re completely safe either…
@ Feroz: And funny that you mention Bennesaud and Sky and the ropes. That will also be covered in issue #4.
As for Cember, he’s with the rest of them, but I had to take some liberties with the cover image. In the actual scene in the comic, the 5 of them are split up between 2 columns. But for the sake of this cover, I decided to show most of them all tied to one column. I thought it would get a bit busy with all 5, so I settled on showing 4 characters. Since Cember usually gets the spotlight, I thought it would be nice to get Sky and Bennesaud a little cover time this go-around. Or we can just say Cember is on the far side of the column, taking a nap.
@ Dan: Damn, now I want cheese. Thanks a lot.
Oh, snap! Plastic wrap, for sure: it’s one click (snap) back.
I figured Cember was tied up more like a sausage off panel. They probably would look at Sky, tie her up normally; Bennesaud, look at him and decide to add some more rope so any attempt to break them would pull the ropes and crush his companions; and then Cember, say this thing looks like it could squeeze through a 15cm hole and cocoon the bugger.