For those familiar with the humour element that became a feature of Excalibur's covers, it may seem strange to learn there was a very hesitant genesis. Dark
and gritty comics were in vogue and when Terry Kavanagh asked me to include humour on the covers I certainly wasn't confident it would work.
The first issue was a traditional heroic pose with the Warwolves almost as an afterthought.
In my sketch for the second issue the page was cropped down the right side of the Warwolf (excluding Meggan and about a third of the Warwolf) so that Rachel
was the focus of the cover. Terry told me to pull back.
For the third issue I went for a straight sight gag and Terry accepted it immediately.
Issue 4 started out as a headache.
After days of trying to come up with a cover sketch I decided the problem was that the issue, which was setting up a number of plots without any resolutions,
didn't have a cover image in the story-- certainly not a humorous one. Writing that out in a note to Terry led me to the janitor image. Terry approved the sketch,
and text, immediately (only changing the last line of text from '... You'll have to wait until next issue...' to '... You'll have to look inside...'. The first writing I did for
Marvel.
and gritty comics were in vogue and when Terry Kavanagh asked me to include humour on the covers I certainly wasn't confident it would work.
The first issue was a traditional heroic pose with the Warwolves almost as an afterthought.
In my sketch for the second issue the page was cropped down the right side of the Warwolf (excluding Meggan and about a third of the Warwolf) so that Rachel
was the focus of the cover. Terry told me to pull back.
For the third issue I went for a straight sight gag and Terry accepted it immediately.
Issue 4 started out as a headache.
After days of trying to come up with a cover sketch I decided the problem was that the issue, which was setting up a number of plots without any resolutions,
didn't have a cover image in the story-- certainly not a humorous one. Writing that out in a note to Terry led me to the janitor image. Terry approved the sketch,
and text, immediately (only changing the last line of text from '... You'll have to wait until next issue...' to '... You'll have to look inside...'. The first writing I did for
Marvel.
I had intended Excalibur 17 to be my last issue but agreed to 'fill-in' on issues 23 and 24
to help with deadlines. Both Paul Neary and I had moved onto other work so it was all a bit
chaotic which is why Paul inked over my breakdowns on issue 24 and I inked the cover,
to help with deadlines. Both Paul Neary and I had moved onto other work so it was all a bit
chaotic which is why Paul inked over my breakdowns on issue 24 and I inked the cover,
