Zeus Plug 1
Al Has It Covered
And so to the front cover of Zeus Plug one. Here’s Al:
It seemed Peter had been suggesting the idea of a zine composed of a single sheet of paper, folded in on itself with complexity rivalling a mobius cube, for quite some time. Flirting with the dark side of origami was all well and good but the resulting inter-dimensional planes would eventually require actual content to be printed on them.
Typically, Peter was soon walking-the-walk and before I knew it I’d been catapulted from zine artist retirement to making my first attempt at David Tennant.
Armed with Radio Times reference and a doodle boasting more character than my finished illustration would, I was sent off to suck the ink clots out of my drawing pens and put a quiff on top of Tennant’s Casanova face. As well as a peerless artist and cartoonist, Peter is an imaginative Art Director, and suggested the stained glass window approach. I forget why, but like Jack Sparrow’s walk or ‘V’s Betty Boop wig, this piece of inspired randomness somehow worked – particularly with the colour version which he published on-line. Intoxicated with being involved in something new and potentially exciting, I was happy to tackle Tennant’s likeness (although these new-fangled young Doctors lack the inspiring facial crags and crevasses of their predecessors), and depict what is still my favourite Christmas special.
Being forced to use an absolute minimum of line and tone which this approach demanded gave a result which I’m still happy with today, although I always made sure I supplied a mock-up suggesting how my illustration be used on the cover from this point on. It was a good lesson learned – never expect someone else to compose a page using your illustration the way you imagine, unless you tell them.
Update: Here’s the final cover, scanned as Jono requested. I didn’t want to include this in case the other details detracted from the topic at hand. But it’s probably the best place for it at the moment!
September 15th, 2009 at 6:45 am
I’m wondering how much this was influenced by the cover of Jubilee.
September 15th, 2009 at 8:11 am
Good question, Thad!
I can’t speak for the actual concept, because it wasn’t mine (Peter?) but I’m pretty sure I didn’t see the Jubilee cover artwork until sometime afterwards.
Still, who knows what random input percolates away in our minds – I once stole Peter’s idea for a ‘Bill and Ted’-style Who illustration, completely forgetting that I’d heard it from him first!
September 15th, 2009 at 9:39 am
I know, I know… My fault regarding the cover placement! I remember getting a very upset call from P. Adamson when he got his copy. I do blame our brilliant logo though for hogging too much space.
Still, it did make us aim for square illustrations going forward. Can’t wait till we get to issue 5…. ooooooh, Nelly!
September 15th, 2009 at 9:40 am
Actually, Pete…. can you post the final cover on here?
September 15th, 2009 at 9:25 pm
Done!