As you may or may not know-- and how could you NOT know? It's pictured above!-- I've redone the cover art for PoPT #1. Why? Because reasons.
And here they are-- in a If-You-Give-A-Mouse-A-Cookie kind of way:
A few months ago, the cover for PoPT #1 was the last page of art I created for the issue. It was hurried, it was (IMHO) boring and static, but it was needed. The printer gave me a deadline and if I wanted to have one hundred books printed and available for Free Comic Book Day, I had to get them my files. So the cover was rushed and the deadline was met.
So I've been working on Issue #2 ever since #1 was wrapped up. I had the cover to Issue #2 cleaned up an inked, so I took it to a local office supply store chain to scan it so I could go home and color it on my computer. The lady behind the counter said, "Oh we can't scan something that large."
I said, "That's crazy, I've done this here at least five times."
She said, "Oh... then our scanner... is... broken?"
Yeah. I know, right?
So in frustration I strode over to a copier where I made a black and white copy-- just to see how the inks held up. I was pretty satisfied with it and as I left, I joked to my wife, "Maybe I'll just take this copy home and color it by hand."
"You totally could," she said. (OMG I LOVE THIS GIRL.)
I'll likely never identify myself as a digital colorist. But part of this whole passion project is pushing myself creatively, so I grow as an artist. (I'm not much of an inker either, but I'm getting better!) So I went home and colored the copy using colored pencils.
I was pretty satisfied with the result, but most importantly-- it was fun! But this raised a few problems... The shaded colored pencil drawing for the cover of issue 2 didn't match the stagnant, digitally desaturated cover for issue 1. I kept telling myself, "I'll come up with a new cover for issue 1 if I ever get around to a second printing." But that wouldn't address what, to me, is the most glaring problem: The books that I have left still say "Pieces of Eight" instead of "Pirates of Padre Tiempo." It was just one more obstacle in selling these books: I shouldn't have to take five minutes to explain why the title on my book is different than the title of book I'm selling. (WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?!)
THEN I had the idea that I could just re-cover the leftover stock of issue #1. It would give me an opportunity to practice inking again before getting too far into issue #2, it would stylistically match the cover for issue #2, AND it would have the correct title on it! It's like a revision hat trick!
As for the new design of the cover: I always wanted Issue #1 to look like a movie poster. The way I thought of it is-- if I ever collect the complete story as a trade paperback, I'd want the cover of #1 to be the cover of the collected edition. So I went back and pulled some of the layout from the cover of the ashcan preview edition I created in 2015 (before I had really nailed down designs on a lot of the characters.)
So there you have it! That's why I re-did the cover for Pirates of Padre Tiempo #1: because the lady at the office supply store told me she couldn't scan an 11x17 piece of bristol board.
-TM