July saw the release Comic Book Tattoo, a 500 page graphic novel anthology inspired by the lyrics of Tori Amos and published by Image Comics. The book was released in 3 editions (softcover, hardcover and a limited edition signed and numbered by Tori) and was lauched at the annual San Diego Comic-Con. The book was a huge hit and so far has sold really well, and a 4th “special” edition will be released in time for the winter holidays.
Back in January (or was it late December ‘07) Rantz Hosely (the editor of the book) got in touch with me to ask if I’d be interested to design the book and the advertising collateral. Rantz is a guy who has been involved in the comic and video game industry for over 20 years, and one of Tori’s best friends (for the trivia freaks among you: Rantz introduced Neil Gaiman to Tori, and inspired her to write Flying Dutchman).
Of course it was pretty much a no-brainer and I said yes immediately.
This would be a perfect job for Mr & Mrs M!
From the start we were up against a hard deadline: To make the most of the book, it had to be launched at Comic-Con (end of July traditionally) — the biggest event in the industry, supported by an aggressive press campaign. This meant that everything needed to be at the printers by early May to make that date. Rantz had a very clear vision of what he wanted the book to be: not “just” a comic anthology, but a coffee table style book that appeals as much to fans of comics, Tori, and music/media in general.
The 12″ x 12″ 500 page book was going to feature a mix of mainstream and independent creators, each interpreting a song rather than doing a straightforward adaptation. The production values were going to be lavish (aside from the formats, we were going to have spot varnishing, semi transparent inlays, a leather bound slipcase, etc…). While Rantz, Tori and her team and the guys and gals at Image Comics were working out the logistics, we started thinking about the design of the book.
I started playing around with some ideas for the title (Comic Book Tattoo — after a line in Flying Dutchman), looking for a design that doesn’t scream “this is a comic”, but is rather more considered while still having a strong visual impact.
First attempt at CBT logo
My first go at the logo straddled the bold graphics of comics, in a custom typeface that is a mix of styles and elements — visualising the idea behind the book whilst creating a unique looking name mark for the book.
While I was working on the logo, Rantz had contacted illustrator Jason Levesque to do the cover piece.
Jason’s art is quite unique and straddles that fine line between comics, commercial illustration and fine art — a perfect choice for the book.
Soon enough, I had a rough sketch from Jason to work with, so I tried some options with the logo.
Initial cover sketches, using preliminary cover art by Jason Levesque
As you see in the above sketches, the designs are far from perfect. The immediate problem was that the logo was taking up too much space and obscuring the art. Included in the sketches is the spine of the book just to give everyone involved an idea how it would look stacked on the shelves. A few days after I had sent those ideas, Rantz got in touch with feedback from him, Tori and Image Comics.
Naturally the logo and cover layouts got shot down. The problem was that the logo looked too sophisticated and, sad but true, it might alienate people because it doesn’t look like a comic book logo (comic fans, predisposed?!). They were looking at a much more literal version of the logo — something that looked like a typical tattoo. I did agree with the layout feedback though. It just didn’t work.
Rantz’s feedback notes on the cover & logo
Using the feedback as a starting point for a new approach. I wasn’t too keen of using a literal “tattoo” design for the logo design — I thought that would only do the book harm — but I could see that using the visual language could work. It also made a lot of sense to use Jason’s patterns in the logo design to bring all elements together.
Tattoo patterns designed by Jason Levesque
Instead of creating a bespoke font for the logo, I figured it might be smarter to use existing typefaces. Partly to restrict myself to go off on another unworkable tangent, but mostly because the majority of comic book logos are custom type designs all adhering to the “BAM! POW!” visual language — something I felt was important to avoid. So I settled on a combination of Eagle Bold for “COMIC BOOK” and Leather, a blackletter font, for “TATTOO”.
CBT logo development
Finally the logo was starting to take shape. The combination of the typefaces worked well, creating a nice tension. Part of Jason’s pattern “flows” out of the work TATTOO and the logomark is held together by the graphic device at the top — creating something that can stand on its own, as well as being applied to the book and related collateral.
By now Jason had finished the cover art, so now I could start using a specific colour palette for the logo. But soon enough we all came to realize that even the new logo wouldn’t work on the cover…
Final cover art, not so final logo
The new logo still took up way too much space. Reducing the size wasn’t really an option since it’d become illegible and we’d use the details of the ‘tat’ art. Using a bold outline around the logo to separate it from the art made it look like someone slapped a sticker on the cover, so that was a no-go either.
Cover versions of the logo
The only solution that I saw fit was to make a variant of the logo to use on the cover art (and subsequently for use when space was limited).
The immediate ideas weren’t perfect: there were no graphic elements (i.e. the lineart), and Tori really didn’t like the circle idea, because it looked too much like a price sticker on a CD (something I really liked, since the book was after all album sized and had an obvious music tie-in. Anyway, I digress).
Eventually we all came to an agreement and the final logos were signed off:
The “full” CBT logo (L), and its little brother for the cover (R).
Now that the logos were set in stone, we could move on and soon enough the cover was designed, using both logos (back & front covers) and using the tattoo pattern subtly in the background. (for bigger pictures, just head over to Mr & Mrs M!)
The cover design for the paperback edition of Comic Book Tattoo
Now that the logo and cover art were done, we could start focussing on the actual book, which was looking like a mammoth task – roughly 500 pages, mostly comprised of art pages. Pages we didn’t have yet.
TO BE CONTINUED…!