I'm so excited to share these with you!
Take a look at the covers for Sky Sharks Remastered #2, including Fred Perry, V Ken Marion, and my very own first comic cover
I’ve finally managed to finish coloring the new covers for Sky Sharks Remastered #2 amid a month of too many birthdays, covers, Valentine’s day, ongoing illness in our house, and trying to recover from the massive amount of work done for Lady Death.
It’s hard to believe that February is already over. Crazy.
But enough of that, let’s get to the goods and check out the covers for the upcoming Sky Sharks Remastered #2!
Leading of the variants is the classic cover by Fred Perry remastered.
The remastered cover includes brand new inks by Jimmy Reyes and colors by me on top of the original line work by Fred. I always liked this cover in the original run, though, depending on the day I feel my original coloring swings between success and failure.
The original series was printed in China, and for the most part looked good. But there were a couple of issues that had some noticeable variation in the printing, and if I recall this issue and the final issue were the biggest offender. So depending on the copy picked up, the printed color could look more blue, more green, less saturated, or more saturated.
I remember the idea I had in the color approach, and I still like the idea though I don’t think it was fully successful. I like it, but I’m also glad to have the opportunity to do it again.
Here’s the Kickstarter Exclusive cover by the one and only V Ken Marion with colors by myself. There’s lots of energy in this piece and I’m very happy with how this came out in the end. Especially considering how much trouble I had in deciding what cover design to choose from.
Ken is someone who I’ve had a long working relationship with starting back in our days working for Aspen. He’s an exceptional talent and a wonderfully kind individual who has gone on to do some fantastic work with DC and more.
He is about to dip his toe into the creator owned comics realm, as well, and will be launching a brand new title on Kickstarter very soon. You can check out the pre-launch Kickstarter page here to be notified of it’s impending launch.
And here’s my cover for Sky Sharks. I’m pretty happy with this all in all and on top of being my first pencil, ink, and colored piece to be used, it’s also my very first attempt at trying to recreate a more classic limited palette coloring from the Bronze and Silver Age era.
I don’t think the low resolution jpeg will really capture the detail of the halftone and dot patterns that make up the colors, so you’re going to have to get a physical copy to really see what I tried to accomplish.
Again, I did not originally have the idea to approach the colors in this manner, I had planned to do my usual style of rendering on it. But in the middle of one of the many nights I had trouble sleeping, it struck me to try and capture a more “pulp” or classic feel. I’ve been wanting to try to do it and had not given myself an actual try at doing it, but something said now was the time, and I’m glad I did. I think the piece is all the better for it.
I’m sure you notice that there is more than just a difference in coloring technique, as I also gave it a new logo and cover treatment as a whole. This came after I finished coloring it and put all the elements together and it still wasn’t “right.”
Ultimately, it felt like the traditional Sky Sharks logo, even simplified didn’t work, or more specifically looked too modern. Same with the Cosmic Roots Studio logo. And after discussing with a friend of mine about options I began to experiment with a new “old” cover treatment. Here’s some of the covers I used as inspiration for covers.
And instead of my usual Cosmic Roots Studio logo I had the idea to put a spin on the classic Comics Code Authority logo as my new logo for the old cover treatment. If that makes sense…
Anyway, I hope you dig them as much as I do because I’m very pumped for these and I am already brainstorming for my next old school cover for Sky Sharks!
Until next time, have a great weekend!