Cover for X-Force #19.
Colored by Sonia Obi-wan Kenoback.

This one was an absolute headache.

Usually editors ask for multiple layouts for covers to pick from, which I personally hate to do. The editors I've had the pleasure of working with for the past couple years have been cool with what I prefer, which is to submit what I'd like to do, and just have it be approved or turned down flat, in which case I think of something else. To arbitrarily come up with four or five layouts can be bad, because you invariably find yourself with a favorite, then just pulling two or three alternatives out of your ass just to have alternatives, in which case you're screwed when the editors choose one that you totally didn't want to do.

This was a situation where there were five or six passes before we finally agreed on this layout, almost out of desperation. The first four or five were all dismissed by either myself for being too derivative of existing images, or by editorial for being too explicit. None showed blood, but the imagery of disembodied heads and arms were too much for a non-Max title.

See, Marvel does have standards!

Anyway, even this layout had final changes. The approved version had Domino instead of Archangel, but while laying it out I thought the wings might make a good framing device, plus he's supposed to be the embodiment of DEATH (shoehorning logic to fit into aesthetic... LAZY ), and Marvel approved the idea blind. Hopefully the logo will fit in the space between the wings, the great thing about the X-Force logo is that the "X" is towards the center of the logo, which means the edges can be sliced off without sacrificing too much recognisability. All of this stuff is crap that has to be incorporated into the layout of a cover.