Evolution of a Cover by Josh Williamson

We reached out to Josh Williamson, the writer behind the awesome new series GHOSTED, and asked him to do a little guest piece for us. And now we’ll turn it over to Josh to explain the evolution of the iconic cover to GHOSTED #7, in stores this week:

Thanks, Skybound! With the issue 7 cover I knew I wanted a focus on Anderson. She was one of my favorite characters from the first five issues and I have plans for her that go beyond her death, starting with issue 7.

We’re really lucky to have Matteo involved with the covers. Matteo is a super talented, friendly and smart artist. He always gets the design, style and tone that we’re going for. So most of the time we try to give him little direction. I can be a little bit of a control freak, but with Matteo I’ve learned to just let go and let him have fun.

With the first set of roughs we went with the furthest right because I liked the empty background and again… the focus on just Matteo. Goran’s design of Anderson is so simple and yet so identifiable. Her hair alone stands out like an icon for the character.

Then Matteo dived into the pencils. Which I know some women who would kill for those leggings. It makes Anderson look badass, psycho, and just a bit creepy, but still sexy.

At first Matteo did a blue cover, but as much as I loved it, and liked the cold ghostly look of it, I knew that Anderson was pissed and red was going to be a better fit.

We had always planned on using this cover as a teaser, so I did a quick mock up of what I was thinking. Which is the ugly bright red version below. Just to give Skybound an idea of what I was thinking. So glad we didn’t go with that shade of red. Way too bright.

Then Skybound and I made the much more subtle red teaser. Super happy with how this one turned out. I love Anderson, and felt that this captured where we were going with the character.

Then we have the final cover which I think turned out great. One of my favorites. The pose, the look in her eyes, the colors, it’s all there. That plus the log placement just makes a fun unique cover that I hope turns heads.