INNOCENTS COVER 1B: design 2

And we have our winner. Not quite as much breathing space as on the first design, but much closer to the original sketch. I wanted a strong powerful figure to attract attention from a distance. The beauty of what Annette does is that it attracts your attention from a distance then keeps on giving as you go closer and closer to it. On some levels there's an incredible amount of closure required making the piece almost impressionistic. On some other parts it's incredibly literal... pore for pore, stitch for stitch.

Seeing how I feel, I might do an extreme closeup of the eyes just to show you the sort of detail that Annette puts in. It's quite incredible.

My next job is to go through the interiors of the book and offer some constructive insights to make them better under the deadline we already have. Unfortunately it's been drawn and coloured already making changes really hard to do.

For those of you interested in the Tokyopop project, we just got a fascinating email from them placing Lucy at the top of the list of the projects they like. Keep your eyes and ears peeled. While I'm not asking for any formal submissions, those of you who read my blog can have a little heads up. Here's the first thing we're going to need to get you sold as a Tokyopop artist:

- 5 pages of sequential art featuring the style you're going to use for the series. It must contain figures and background. The darker, more urban and gritty it is, the better. JAn and I would love to have a Hiroaki Samura or Kazuo Koike sorta look and feel. That line-heavy manic intricate manga. We're inundated with clean line manga and we want a more organic, rougher feel.

So those of you who are interested start putting together 5 pages of good, solid storytelling. Inked. If a penciller and an inker pitch as a duo that's fine, but I'm not putting together inkers and pencillers. And no, you won't get paid more if there's two of you. One flat rate to divide between you (or keep for yourself). No figures yet, but a standard Tokyopop budget will apply.

Don't send it to me yet, and don't blame me if you've drawn your ass off to send me something and it all falls through. Way I figure, is if you don't have 5 good pages lying around or aren't in a position to hammer out 5 pages anytime soon, then you're not up for the gig. It will have a manic timeline so an artist with a high page turn around will be smiled upon.