HOME STRETCH!!! possible help needed...
 

so..quick update.

I just got the email from the LAST guy we needed art from and hes going to be sending it to me probably tonight. once we have that on hand, everything is done except for the lettering on my pages, which ED is working on.

but really, this is like practically finished. I think we are hitting 70 plus PAGES in total. guys..this is an awesome achievement and something I think we will all be proud of being part of.

now..for the part that we need help. I haven't been able to get a hold of the guy that's doing the cover. I'm NOT writing him off yet. he IS a working pro and stuff comes up and we all understand that. but I haven't heard from him in a bit and so I want to start coming up with options if we cant get the drawn cover by the artist.

so..my question would be..what could we do? is there anyone out there that's good with photoshop and graphic design? maybe something with "digitalwebbing.com presents" and the title "Hellboy MONSTER MASH" in big bold text?
maybe someone could put that together and take cut scenes of some of the various pages and put them around the text in places?

I don't know..im not good at figuring out that stuff. I wouldn't mind the cover just being big bold words saying HELLBOY MONSTER MASH or something like that. but it would be nice to have it in color.

I am VERY open to any suggestions and help about this part. I will keep trying to contact the artist and hopefully that's still an option for us. but in the case where we need to come up with a different option..tell me what you think would work.

ROB

70 Pages? :eek::eek: Damn...

BTW It'd be possible to put the title text in while pdfing the thing using InDesign or something similar, but cutting the images together, that's completely beyond me.

I don't know if simply putting the words and nothing else on the cover is a good idea though; we need something that grabs attention right away. A proper cover would go a long way towards that.

I agree a proper cover is best.. that's why I liked the idea of a pro artist doing it for us. if it turns out the artist isn't available..i don't know what else would be best. I don't know...we will figure out something.

I kinda like that. the simplicity of just having HB face there. I do think that if we are going to shout out the website here as where it originated from, we should have it spelled out specifically tho. like maybe across the top of the page... like

digitalwebbing.com
presents
HELLBOY
MONSTER MASH

Obviously the hellboy and story title would be bigger and the focus.

GAH.. anyone have any connections to any pro artists...? I KINDA wonder if I should approach Renae De Liz again. shes a supporter of the website. she might be up for it again. tho her and her husband might not have time to do non paying stuff..i think they are having a rough time at the moment. I don't know.

do any of you follow artist Lewis Larosa...? I follow him on Instagram and he recently put up these sketches. holy crap do these just look SPOT on. he has taken the specific design look and anatomy that Mignola puts into the character with his stylized art, but also makes it looks a little more real-ish. it totally LOOKS like mignolas design. jeez. makes me feel like my horrible renderings of hellboy on my pages needs to be completely reworked.

anyway... I just thought these were incredible and wanted to share.

https://orig00.deviantart.net/4e0e/f...01-dc6wc84.png


https://orig00.deviantart.net/78d9/f...01-dc6wc3n.png

yeah..i think that would look better. I mean..im open to all suggestions. I'm not a graphic designer.

oh that I agree with. but I mean..we aren't selling anything. id imagine we are okay. but like you are saying.having it say homage or Fan book or something. maybe having "digitalwebbing presents" isn't a good idea because isn't that the exact title of a book that's actually been put out? we wouldn't want anyone to think its another issue of that actual book. so using a specific title to say "FAN" book or whatever is probably the best idea.

We could rework the wording for that a bit, maybe turn it into:

Hellboy: Monster Mash

A fanfic anthology by digitalwebbing.com

OR

Hellboy: Monster Mash

A digitalwebbing.com fanfic anthology

Instead of "DW presents", put that black bar with our address at the bottom. I also think using the whole website address would be better, since not everyone would know what DW is and seeing the whole address will (hopefully) drive more traffic to the site, which is after all how this whole thing started out.

Love it

^Might be too wordy. Overcrowd it and the ring of a good title goes away.

"Digital Webbing Fanfiction: Anthology Homage: Hellboy: Featuring: Monster Mash?"

Less is more for something like this, so a more straightforward title would be better IMHO.

Also, Introducing and Featuring are used before a character's name, not a book title. "Monster Mash: Featuring Hellboy" is accurate, "Hellboy featuring Monster Mash" isn't. It would have to be "Hellboy featuring IN Monster Mash" which doesn't have the same ring to it.

I still say keep it simple. Either -

Hellboy: Monster Mash

A digitalwebbing.com Fanfiction Anthology

OR, like Rob suggested -

digitalwebbing.com Presents

HELLBOY: MONSTER MASH

A Fanfiction Anthology

So, to summarize, remove “Featuring”, and “anthology homage”?

I also feel like the "featuring" has got to go...The homage thing..I think it should go, but if it needs to stay for any kind of legal reason, I could see that.

cover
 

How about something like this - i incorporated the design from a Hellboy book from DarkHorse.

[IMG]http://i1379.photobucket.com/albums/...pspwxtmcqz.jpg[/IMG]

^ Putting Mignola's name there could be troublesome, even in a fan work. Can't say for sure, but still.

Other than that, I think that one works.

EDIT: Tiny nitpicky suggestion - Could maybe add an "A" before "Digital Webbing Fanfiction", changing it to "A Digital Webbing Fanfiction", since this is a one-shot.

But I do agree with the overall design. Keeps the title simple, throws our name and logo on there, makes it clear the contents are a fan creation.