IDW Covers: The Colonized #4

The Colonized #4 (IDW, July 2013)
Art by Dave Sim

DAVE SIM:

Meanwhile back at Chris Ryall's January 17th fax:

The Colonized #4, where all the s--t blows up. A couple humans (handlebar mustache guy from that first crop of pages, and the black guy in the cabdriver hat) and a couple aliens completely surrounded by zombies (humans and even sheep and chickens, if you felt so inclined) or some variation thereof.

So I took him at his word. All the s--t blows up. I started with the logo, actually redrawing it from my own rough and crashing the word "ZOMBIES" into it (I figured what the heck, we aren't going to need it after this issue, right?)  Inked a few of the stars in "THE" going nova. And coincidentally, I had just picked up a DC SHOWCASE volume with Russ Heath army stories in them (HAUNTED TANK -- well worth picking up) and lots of cool Russ Heath explosions. So I did a couple of those.

And then I thought, "Whoa. Wait a minute, what if Chris was speaking metaphorically about all the s--t blows up?"

Hm. And then I figured, well, in that case he'll learn to be more literal when telling me what I'm supposed to do, I guess. And we'll have another fine example of crazy Dave Sim.

Mentally in Neal Adams mode, I thought, "I wonder if Neal ever shot a scene between the femur and the ulna?" (I think that's what those bones are called). If he didn't, well, let me be the first. I got too far along before I realized the perspective was way to high to get a good zombie sheep or zombie chicken in there. D'OH!).

I started to have fun with tattoos again (carry-over from the DREDD cover). Is it just me, or is there something inherently funny in an arm being devoured so you don't know what the guy was "Born to..."?  And you sure can't ASK him.Well, you could but I wouldn't recommend it. "Pardon me, can you tell me what you were 'born to..." YLLLGGKHH!"

Same with the toddler. Cute t-shirt, but I wouldn't recommend a "Big Hug". I also thought he'd have a Heavy Metal Band Tour shirt (the guy with the tattoos, not the toddler: I don't think a Heavy Metal band called "Big Hug" would go very far). What's a good name for a Heavy Metal band?  How about AXE FIGHT?  Works for me.  

The further into the background I got, the more I needed to use the magnifying glass and a brand new Hunt 102 to ink the tiny little figures. The whole cover was a little too...grey when I was done, so I inked the evergreen trees all the way down to the stone ridge. That seemed to help snap everything forward. I'm trying not to overdo it. There IS going to be colour to help the different effects.

IDW has very good colourists. Uh. Colorists, I mean.

I've been very fortunate.