We did a lot of research before I started illustrating the cover this time, so we had a really clear idea of what we wanted. Basically, the cover is a recreation of two old movie posters:
We loved the composition of "Plan 9 From Outer Space", but preferred the toxic, fiery color palette of "First Spaceship On Venus". So we decided to combine these two elements into a new, more ninja-like design!
Dr. McNinja in the space helmet was a given:
But then we also had to decide which scenes from the book we wanted to showcase. We knew we had to feature the Ben Franklin Thriller routine:
(Incidentally, I don't think Ben ever looked better!)
Finally, we wanted to reference the training sequence with Gordito and Dark Smoke Puncher:
(Fun fact: I posed for both Gordito and DSP! I think I've found an alternative career posing as prepubescent/adolescent boys.)
All of these elements together made for a pretty cool front cover! After that, we just needed to design the back. I loved the colored squares on the bottom of the "'Venus" poster; apart from the aesthetics, I thought the captions underneath struck the perfect chord. I had a lot of fun writing the new ones for this book!
Last, but not least, title design was courtesy of George Baier IV, who also helped layout the interior of the book!
Put it all together, and what do you get?
Violà!
The book is up for pre-order right now at Topatoco.com! The pre-order comes with all sorts of goodies! Did I mention it's the biggest volume of Dr. McNinja yet? What are you waiting for? ;)
