None Shall Pass - Comic Design and Lettering
I had so much fun with this one! None Shall Pass, created by John Murphy of Bold Puppy and pushed a step further with LS Comics, was of those projects that really makes me fall in love with graphic design all over again. A great team of talented people came together to work on this teaser-version of the book, and I was utterly delighted to have been a part of it. Many thanks to Eoin of LSComics, John of Bold Puppy, Robert Carey, Dee Cunniffe, and Cormac Hughes!
My part in this project was lettering the sequential pages, and designing the overall aesthetic of the book, including front and back covers. So, I began with the character biography pages, because I felt like it'd be a great way to establish the overall graphic language. I was given the character designs and the text, and then I created 6 drafts to send on for review. They were all celtic-inspired and a little bit rough, to enhance the type of character and story that the book aimed to capture. Some of them included blood splatter-effects, others included old scripted text to capture the age of the myths that these stories originated from, and others included sharp angles and edges in the form of borders to try to capture the harshness of the content too. In the end, the team decided to move forward with the 6th one (which was my favourite too!) and so I pushed that design a little bit further, and carried the styling throughout the rest of the book.
The next step was figuring out the covers. These didn't change much from my initial proposal, which included the illustrated wolf's head, and the same graphic style that I'd established in the character pages. The most significant changes were in logo and text placement.
Above, you can see the final book. Just 8 pages to create what I believe is a powerful teaser for the comic. Overall, I think the team did an incredible job on this, and I'm delighted with how the end product turned out.
PS This preview comic will be available for free at the Lightning Strike Comics table at Dublin Comic Con this year, while stocks last, and on a first come, first serve basis!