The Lightning Thief: The Graphic Novel
Disney Hyperion, 2010
Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief, the Graphic Novel was to be the first in a planned series of comics from Disney/Hyperion adapting the New York Times bestselling Percy Jackson series.
The series' editor sent me copies of Rick Riordan's young adult novels on which the comics would be based. Once I'd read the first few books, I had a feel for the general arc of the series and marked some opportunities for a few design motifs that would, ideally, work on both paperback and hardcover editions of this first volume, but were also felxible enough to keep running through any subsquent adaptations of the remaining books in the series.
With each of the Percy books taking the reader along on new and different adventures, I proposed a symbol for each book that could be used to create a unique sense of identity for each installment, as well as provide some distinction on the individual spines when lined up on a bookshelf. Shown above are the three icons (the latter ones developed for the ensuing books) representing Zeus's master bolt (Book 1), the eye of a cyclops (Book 2), and the hunting bow of Artemis (Book 3).
The icons would also be used on the title page design, which featured extreme closeup views of Atilla's paneled artwork from the book's interior.
In addition to the dust jacket (above top) and the casebook (bottom left)—the wrapped printed cover of the hardbound book under the jacket— a design was needed for a handful of righthand pages being used to divide the comic into chapters (above right). Since the Percy Jackson series is rife with magical objects, weapons and devices, these divider pages made for a good spot to feature them, often in greater detail than they could be shown in the context of the comic.
I sent a list and descriptions of the illustrations needed over to the book's artist, Atilla Futaki, and he knocked them out in record time.
Title page (left) and copyright page (right) for The Lightning Thief.
The casebook, from the hardcover edition. It doesn't photograph particularly well, but the color panels here were hit with a spot UV gloss, giving them a reflective finish and distinguishing them from the more muted look of the tone-on-tone inks surrounding them.
