Those of you that have been reading for a bit know how much fun I have coming up with covers. Yesterday, I spent about eight hours coming up with something for my next project (I’m thinking ahead to Camp NaNo in July). I had a lot of fun but I’m not satisfied with the result. I showed it to a friend and she liked it a lot but there’s something off about it. I think it might be too busy, not focused enough, but I’m not sure if that’s what’s bugging me.
A quick plot summary: A young man survives a myriad of apocalyptic situations and finds himself the sole survivor in a remote small town. He soon starts going a little crazy and decides to write an Onion-style, end of the world newspaper call The Apocalypse Gazette. It will hopefully be a funny story.
It’s a fairly simple premise that shouldn’t be too difficult to get across. My idea for the above image was a guy selling papers in an empty, post-apocalyptic town… but if you don’t already know that’s what the story’s about, I don’t think that’s obvious from the image. I like it, I wouldn’t have spent eight hours on it otherwise, but I’m not sure if it works. Maybe it doesn’t need to change, maybe it’s amusing enough to make people curious and click… or maybe I need to start over again. I’m not sure.
So, I’m putting it to all of you. What do you think? Is it good enough as is (for now anyway)? If not, should I start over or is there something that could be done to improve it? Any feedback would be appreciated.
J. M. Payer 