After the first cover for volume 1 was rejected, Victor and I took it back into the shop. I came up with a list of cover ideas and Victor, with his usual blinding speed and work ethic, did thumbnails for each cover that very day.

And here is what we submitted to our editor:



Here are some of my notes to Victor which he used as input:

* Make the chain of Theo’s necklace thicker and the 20-sided die bigger, more rapper-bling-like? -_-
* One idea… I like the extreme red background of that Chamillionaire album cover.
* Shesh gesturing at the camera with brass knuckles made out of four six-sided dice on the knuckles? (like in the Bun B “Trill” album cover?)
* Shesh and Theodore (and Jen or Mike or Callie? One other person) breaking out of the top of a 20-sided die like in the “NERD_Fly_or_Die” album cover.
* Something with them standing around/leaning on a car (like on so many rap covers). There’s lots of good poses like this. A Black Escalade.
* Shesh and Theodore walking through a doorway towards the camera, lit from behind, like on the cover of the Kanye West album “Late Registration”. Only cooler-looking. (?)

Victor also wrote extensive notes, which are online on the flickr page. At any rate, one of these images was chosen to be made into what would eventually become… A REAL COVER IMAGE. Please stop back next week for more artwork!

Last time I showed you some of the sketchy ideas for the cover drawn by me, Jason Thompson, the writer. Now I’ll post some cover sketches drawn by Victor Hao, the actual artist of the comic!

Victor considered the manga parody covers, but we were uncertain that enough people would get the reference, so he ended up going with a gangster-rap, in-your-face, posing-style cover. He came up with several original designs, of which a couple are printed here. I kind of like the Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure-esque “heroes aren’t afraid to cuddle faces” version in the lower right.

One of the original ideas was to do a landscape-style cover. However, this was rejected because it was felt that the “King of RPGs” logo should appear prominently on top of the book, in case it’s racked so that only the top is visible.

Finally, we come to the first finalized version of the cover design! Oh yeah! With their 20-sided die and miniatures figure in hand, our heroes look like they’re ready to kick ass and draw maps with dry-erase markers — AND THEY’RE ALL OUT OF DRY-ERASE MARKERS. I like this design a lot; however, in the end it was decided that there were some problems with it. Mostly, it didn’t scream “GAMING” enough. It looks too much like a comic about some tough dudes who may or may not be nerds. Just a single die and a single miniature doesn’t quite do it; we needed excess. Secondarily, although this wasn’t a big issue, I have to admit I always had an issue with the use of hexagonal map grids in the background — it does shout “nerd”, but the standard has been square grids since D&D 3rd edition came out, nearly 10 years ago! -_-;

Still, I was very fond of this cover. But there was another cover design still to come. More designs coming soon!

Now that the front cover for King of RPGs v1 has been finalized, here’s a look at how the cover was made.

First, I, Jason, drew up a couple of sketches for how the cover should look. My key design themes were “ACTION!” and “SHONEN MANGA!” and lastly, of course, “RPGS”! I wanted a cover which would show the suspenseful, action-packed nature of role-playing games! The furious intensity of someone trying to convince the DM they should be allowed to play with their pregenerated character whose statistics are all 17s and 18s!

I also may have been inspired by the desire to parody a certain manga. Anyway, in this shot, we see the two main characters of the story, ready for action. Back to back facing any comers like the dudes on the cover of the CONTRA video game! However, this picture doesn’t really make it clear that the comic is about RPGs, and it is missing something.


This version (which may also coincidentally resemble an image from a certain manga) says “RPGs” a little more clearly. There they stand, poised atop an enormous pile of dice. Laptop and graph-paper matboard in hand. Damn! Who would dare mess with these dudes? Look at them gazing off into the distance, looking into the far horizon of the future of gaming! And yet the composition is a little static. The characters are swallowed up by the dice around them. Furthermore, how are the dice actually holding themselves in that position?


Oh yeah! This is more like it! Two friends united by their shared desire to play role-playing games and murder their enemies! I was pretty happy with this cover design, and ended up using it as the cover for the King of RPGs minicomic. Note also that this cover is not a direct parody of anything in particular. However, in the end we decided not to go with this composition either. Victor would create a new cover, which kept the fiery spirit of “King of RPGs” but gave it a different spin and vastly better figure drawing! (Note also that the logo for these covers is different from the final “King of RPGs” logo.)

COMING FRIDAY, AUGUST 7: More King of RPGs sketches! Prepare yourself!

THE FELLOWSHIP HAS BEEN JOINED! Victor Hao’s cover for King of RPGs volume 1 is finalized!

Also, King of RPGs will be at San Diego Comic-Con this weekend! Check out a Colossal-sized version of the cover image at the Del Rey booth. Then on Saturday, from 5:30 to 6:30 in Room 4, I’ll be making a special guest appearance at the Del Rey Manga panel to talk about King of RPGs. It’s an extra-thick (224 pages!), extra-dark RPG/LARP/CCG/JRPG shonen manga adventure. If you like the bits of King of RPGs that have been posted online, know this: in those excerpts, WE’RE ONLY USING 10% OF OUR FULL GAMING POWER!