Chaser Platoon design gallery 3
Conceptual sketches for cover art
This one made it to the “finalist” category for the first issue’s cover, so I built it up.
Penciled version, July 1990
Steve Krueger’s painted version, 1990. I’m pretty sure it was rejected because the color style didn’t match the publishing standards.
“Finalist” for the cover of issue 2.
Steve Krueger’s painted version. Better than the first one, but still not what the publisher was looking for. I still like it. Especially the background.
Alternate idea for the cover of issue 2. After this I found an angle and composition that worked better.
Another “finalist” that didn’t quite go the distance.
Working out more ideas. The one at the bottom evolved into the cover for issue 3.
Headshots for inside front cover text page.
Ianus publications had an anime/manga magazine titled Protoculture Addicts, and every year they did an “anime shower special” issue. Predictably, it was full of girly art of varying quality. I did something for every issue and always found a way to turn it on its head.
Jumping forward to 2016, here’s the cover painting for the Cosmic Times color reprint. Drawn by Ryan Miller, painted (I think) by Zach Bassett. Not all that different from Steve Krueger’s work, is it?
When I was asked to do a cover for a limited-edition Kickstarter variant (just 100 copies), I dug into my archive of older cover concepts and picked this one.
Finished version, inked digitally. If I were to redraw the series today, this is what it would look like.
Color version by Zach Bassett. I wanted the splash at the bottom to be blood, but Zach thought that was too explicit.