Just came in today, and I had to share — Larry Johnson’s cover for the forthcoming PATRIOT book!
And pardon the watermark – need to protect Larry’s work until the book is formally launched!
It’s been a long time coming — I started working on the script back in March 2021 — but we’re in the home stretch! Tony is over 2/3 complete with the inks on the 33-ish page story, my lettering (with art-inspired script retouching) is largely keeping pace…and the cover is done!
I can’t adequately express my excitement at being able to work with Tony and Larry on this project. Tony has been drawing since the 1980’s, Larry has been self-publishing comics since the early 1970’s. I respect their skills and bodies of work so much…and to have them work on this project…it’s beyond humbling.
I think we have something special with Patriot. It’s nothing like what I’ve seen from the self-published comics community in both style and scale. I’ve never constructed a story like this before, and Tony has told me on occasion that it’s provided a healthy test of his talents as well.
As for Larry, well…does anything faze Larry? He’s so great. When I asked him to take a stab at the cover, I sent him the script and some of Tony’s work in progress. I then unloaded a veritable word salad of ideas, impressions and thoughts I wanted to convey in this cover. After he reminded me that he was only drawing one cover (as in, Tom: Stop typing), he said he would try to synthesize what I tossed at him. And wouldn’t you know, he did just that. As much as any single image can tell the story of a larger 30+ page tale, this cover does the job.
Look for Patriot to be complete around the end of January. Current plans are to make a small run for United Fanzine Organization members, friends and contributors…then try out a big push for the book via crowdfunding if I can make the numbers work.
Exciting times!!
Phoenix Productions 