Monday, February 23, 2009

New Criterion covers (updated)

Somehow I missed that we've announced these already, so this may be old news to everyone, but I've been meaning to point out a recent Criterion design I'm quite proud of:



Pigs, Pimps, and Prostitutes, a boxed set of some fantastic early films by Shohei Imamura, is my favorite Criterion design of mine in quite some time. I'm especially happy with the type: all the title/headine type is hand-drawn; I even created a whole font set to finish off the menus and packaging. And how do you not love that slipcase cover image? And here's some shots of the individual covers; click to see them larger:



And while I'm at it, I should mention Wise Blood, too, which I also designed, though I can't take much credit for the cover--that brilliance is all Josh Cochran. I've been looking for an opportunity to work with Josh for a while now, and I couldn't be happier with the final results, he really knocked it out of the park. (The film is pretty great, too!)



UPDATE: Josh has generously posted some (or, actually, I think it might be all, unless I'm forgetting one) of his sketches for Wise Blood at his blog.

Josh also points out the coincidence that Wise Blood star Brad Douriff played Doc COCHRAN on Deadwood... I wouldn't think anything of it if it didn't follow so closely after hiring Ian DINGMAN to draw Bottle Rocket's DIGNAN. Is it possible I'm putting more work into these assignments than is necessary? Apparently I could do just as well by assigning projects via free association... ;)

Friday, February 20, 2009

EGG on sale in NYC

Exciting (I hope) news for those of you in the New York area: EGG is now available for purchase at local comics retailers!!

As of today, there should be copies for sale at Jim Hanley's Universe on 33rd st, Forbidden Planet at Union Square, and Rocketship on Smith st in Brooklyn. Each store has a self-published/minicomic section, and I assume they'll be racking the books there, but don't hesitate to ask somebody if you don't see them right away. They're only $4 each, which, for 25 story pages in full color, ain't a bad deal. Stop by and pick one up, then, if you like, drop me a line (design [at] ericskillman [dot] com) to let me know what you think--I'm very interested in feedback!



Coming soon: online sales!

EDIT: Available now at Indyplanet.com!

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Golden Arrow

This is a crazy busy week for me, so I don't have time for a full play-by-play of the design process, but I'm told that this was officially released yesterday (available for purchase here), so here's a look at the packaging I designed for the new Randy Bandits studio album, Golden Arrow. I'm sure you can visualize how it all folds together:


And here's a rejected cover comp that I had also quite liked, but unfortunately the band wanted to stay away from anything too overtly "Robin Hood."