Digital Graveyard: Covers And Artwork For Genetic Disorder Magazine, Part 4

(Click most for bigger. Apologies for the vector parsing error on the red rat.)

My fourth cover for Larry H's Genetic Disorder zine, completed in 2003, was another case of "This super-complicated idea seems easy! I can do that!" followed, ultimately, with "OMG, what was I thinking?"

Searching for a gimmick, I approached Larry with the idea of doing a 3D cover, something I had always wanted to do. He liked the idea a lot, but said he could never afford to bind in the 3D glasses. "What if I paid for it?" I asked, and we were off to the races.

It ended up being a nightmare. Once again I had assigned myself a task for which I was ill-suited. In the end, however, I think it came out really pretty well, although I believe (I don't currently have a pair of the glasses, so you tell me) I did it backwards, with the reds and blues flipped (so turn over your glasses if you have them).

Li'l Kunty, again, is the star of the cover, surrounded by random symbols of death, decay, and destruction, as suits her evil nature. Note that there are several call-backs here to details from the previous covers, as well as a post-911 boxcutter. The hands holding the guns are swiped from Roy Lichtenstein's famous "Pistol" of 1964/68:

After sending in the finished design, Larry and his layout person told me they wanted to put it on a gray background, feeling that the cover looked too anemic on white. I objected strongly, feeling that the gray would blunt the impact of the 3D, and I was right, so above you can see what it was supposed to look like. Alas.

Here's the back cover:

The hands/guns are lifted straight from Bushmiller (surprise!), while the layout is, obviously, based on the Sex Pistols' album cover.

Here's my inside-front-cover "advertisement":

 

Next up: I turn to (bad) food photography for Genetic Disorder #18.

UPDATE: Part one is here, two is here, three is here, five is here, and six is here. Purchase copies of these wonderful zines here.