The Mignolaverse Back Cover

~~ Click on the image for biggie ~~

Hello Pulp Friends,

as you know, I realized a set of 4 variant covers for Mike Mignola and Dark Horse for the issue 1s of 4 different new miniseries: "Hellboy: The Fury" #1, "BPRD: Monsters" #1, "Baltimore: The Curse Bell" #1, and "Abe Sapien: The Devil Does Not Jest" #1.
The Mignolaverse books always have an image on the back cover: such image can be a small illo Mike did specifically for the mini, or it can be a panel from the interior art (usually this happens when Mike has a guest artist drawing interiors).
When DH approached me to do these variants, they also commissioned me a 5th illo, the one to go on the back cover of these books.
Since we are looking at several minis, I wanted the image on the back being a little nod to all 4 characters protagonist of these stories.


~~ Click on the image for biggie ~~

Hence I provided DH and Mike with the above sketch, a panel showcasing HB, Abe, Liz, and Lord Baltimore (yep, you can see his peg leg in the painting ;)). I also provided DH with a second option, something a little different from the classic panel or little illo: a (almost) full page icon of the Right Hand of Doom (symbolizing HB) holding a cube that has a fish, a bat, and a flame (symbolizing Abe, Baltimore, and Liz) on the 3 surfaces facing us. Needless to say, MM and DH loved the idea so we run with it.



~~ Click on the image for biggie ~~

I did a stylized version of it for the back cover and a more realistic one. At the end we all decided for the stylized version.
This was the very first thing I drew before getting to work on the cover, hence once we had the illo done, I decided to incorporate it on the front cover and it has became a bit the logo for the whole set of covers. (you can see it in the top left corner of the cover).



The cover for the ABE book you ask? Well, I am leaving that to Dark Horse to reveal it (don't worry, it will happen very soon)> All I can say is that that cover is one of mine and DH&MM's favorite of the set :)

Hope you guys enjoyed this and if you wanna see more making of, check out the making of the FURY cover here on the DH blog.

Have a wonderful Pulp Sunday, everyone :)

Cheers,
Francesco

All Artwork © 2011 Francesco Francavilla