Standing on the Shoulder of Giants

Cover for the eventual Boondocks Saints II comic prequel from 12 Gauge Comics, tied to the sequel for the flick of the same name. It was a freaking bear, even if you don't go to the San Diego Con deadlines crop up around it and make for a hectic time regardless- this got brutal. Did 30 hours straight on it at one point, slept 2 hours, got up and went again for another 12 or so. AND did another cover directly following in the same week. blahblahblah, nother post.

Percolated watching the movie, going thru reference, drawing other stuff a while before diving in here, wanted something symmetrical. Stanley Kubrick uses symmetry in a way that knocks me on my ass constantly (usually kind of "meh" on it), an in this book "Stanley Kubrick-A Visual Analysis" he refers to it as "the face of god" (if im remembering right, think he also says its "the void staring back". sorry, great book, no index to check). Anyways, the Boondock Saints obviously have a religious thread to the story, between this and Kubrick, was set on a symmetrical, stained-glass window sorta cover. Then the assignment morphed into a wraparound cover/poster, and I got really stuck on how to pull off symmetry in on the right half of the layout (what would be its own cover) when the whole of it had to hold together. Seemed pretty impossible, then found this "Italian Job" poster. hallelujah. Kinda bungled the cross shape I was going for near the bottom. And that guy screaming. ah well, strikes and gutters.

Rico could've colored this about 3 different ways at least, tho still had to juggle his ideas wif a movie studio approval process that tends to favor literal colors- sky is blue, grass is green, etc. I really liked the Bros bottom right all blue. Want to jump in here sir?

Thanks Chris, I'll toss in my two cents. My general allergy to local colors makes me think this movie tie-in stuff may not be for me! It's a shame too, the checks are always a bit better. I wish the seated/smoking guy made the cut, I LOVED him! Anyway, I had the luxury of getting to color Chris' rough layout on this, it's our preferred way to work but it doesn't always work out time-wise. So, I did a couple of different takes on it. It's a good thing I did because we didn't end up using the one I wanted to use, we had something to fall back on, an ace in our pocket. Chris had a few things he wanted the viewer to be able to focus on, the brothers and the geezer with the guns on the front, the cross behind them and the pennies on the ghosts' eyes. It can be a lot to juggle so I tried to keep the rest simple so it didn't turn into a big mess.

Here's what I thought would be the final but the client didn't dig it so we went back to the drawing board. -rico.



my awesome niece, zaria! not a staged photo! she picked FF out herself at the library. and does the spider man web shooting hands w/noises. and kung-fu chops. :)