In the climax to the 12 issue comic book series I co-plotted with Joe Casey, we wanted to find a way to visually express the idea that the universe was dying and simultaneously being reborn. Casey suggested that I create the art for these pages, and wrote the script for artist David Messina to work around that. Over the next month, while Messina drew the comic book he and his team of inker and colorists had to trust that my art would mesh with theirs. It was daunting, since I'm so in love with the way Messina has been drawing the book, but I understood that my ideas about symbolism would be impossible to communicate otherwise.
Taking my cue from the Crowley Thoth deck of tarot cards (with art by Frieda Harris, no relation but I very much appreciate sharing my last name with such a talented woman) and classic symbols from Western art history I compiled the elements which I wanted to use as visual cues for the metaphysical changes I was depicting. I combined my photos with a number of illustrative elements created in Photoshop and Illustrator into the finished digital collage.
When the official art was ready the colorist, ScarletGothica allowed me to work with her layered colors for the sky and Messina's drawing of a reborn earth to fold my 4 pages of art seamlessly into the flow of their pages on either end. Below are the 6 pages of story presented as one long panorama (click to view larger):
Designing this comic book each month was a genuine pleasure which I will miss, but as in the story, every ending is also a beginning and next I'm on to designing the collection.