Vertigo: Graphic Content

Problem: How do you entice readers to start reading a monthly comic with issue #21?
Solution: Make it look like #1.

Brian gets a lot of well-deserved praise for being a great writer. From the damaged streets of the DMZ to the frigid wastelands of Northlanders, Brian brings heart, drama and truth to all of his stories.

But he doesn’t get enough praise for being a great designer and artist too. The first 34 issues of DMZ? Those covers were all Brian. That bold logo? Brian. And the new trade dress for Northlanders? That’s Brian too. He really wanted readers to know, “yes, it’s okay to start here!” We knocked around a few different ideas, but ultimately what did he do? He took the Northlanders logo, kicked it to the side, designed a new logo for “The Plague Widow” and put that front and center. Slipped a “1 of eight” in there and suddenly you’re thinking, “Hey, what’s this comic? I’ve never seen this before, maybe I’ll give it a shot…”

See Brian thinks about this stuff. He talks to retailers and readers, finds out what works, what doesn’t, and incorporates all of it into his work, sucking you in to a unique comic experience from the logo to the last line of dialogue. Start to finish, you know you’re in the hands of an artist. Enjoy it.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Tags: brian wood, dmz, mark doyle, northlanders, the plague widow

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 4th, 2009 at 7:00 am and is filed under From the Editors. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.