Blue Bloods graphic novel
Disney Hyperion, 2012
Blue Bloods, a series of YA novels written by Melissa de la Cruz, follows the lives of several teenage Manhattanites—each of them young, rich, and beautiful...and secretly vampires. Disney had decided to adapt the series for comics, beginning with the original novel.
When I joined the creative team, a decision had been made to avoid using the same photo-based look and titles treatments seen on the original covers of the prose novels and instead develop something entirely new.
I began with an assortment of new logos, using a mix of classic typography with more modern, hand-rendered calligraphy to touch on the interesting divide of the characters wealth and fashion existing atop centuries of vampire lore. These logos (shown below) were designed and presented to the editor, the original author and the Disney marketing team. A favorite was picked and we quickly moved over to cover designs.
(above) The final logo treatment was sketched by hand then rendered digitally.
The book's artist, Alina Urusov, was providing a steady stream of stunning, fully-inked and colored pages of artwork for the book—but running slightly behind schedule on the interior pages. As such, she was unable to provide input or ideas on the cover as originally planned.
In addition to conceptualizing several ideas for the cover illustration (...generally a few short sentences on the basic idea with emphasis on the visual keystones for the cover image), I also suggested a few names of freelance illustrators whose styles I felt would sync well with the book's fanged-but-fabulous tone. At the very top of that list was Fiona Staples, best known for her work on various titles for DC Comics and Saga, a sci-fi series for Image Comics. (She's amazing as well...check out her stuff at fionastaples.tumblr.com/)
Fiona polished up the cover in record time, and we dropped it into the design for the dust jacket and paperback editions.
Shown above: The hardcover edition with its dust jacket removed. A splash of blue blood spills over a collage of artwork from the artist's original lineart, and within reveals the fully colored panels.
