Here are some earlier versions of the front and back covers for M. I’m going to try to write a bit more about process here since that’s something I enjoy and haven’t done lately.
The idea with this initial approach was to present on the covers both the color scheme used in the book and a few key images that appear over the course of the story. I did several possible drawings like those in the first image and then compiled my favorites digitally. However, I decided that I didn’t like the way the covers above were developing visually. Sometime just felt off. It also felt lazy to me to simply repeat images from the comic on the cover. So I chose to scrap these and start over.
I thought a lot about density for this comic, as I do for many of my projects. I wanted to make the stories very dense with information, and make the book reward rereading. Of course there are many ways to reach this goal, and I also recognize it’s a flawed instinct that could risk making my work confusing or deny the pages the room they need to breathe if I go too far in this direction. I push back against it sometimes. Anyways, the final versions of both the front and back cover function essentially as interior story pages – though I hope each stands alone as visually compelling! This felt more in line with my goals for the comic as a whole.