The final issue of Dawn of the Black Axe will have a variant cover by Matt Smith! I've admired Matt's work on Barbarian Lord, Lake of Fire, and Hellboy for years, so I was grateful when he was able to fit a cover for this Mouse Guard mini series into his schedule (due to other circumstances the turnaround was much shorter than normal)
Matt sent along his process for approvals along the way and I asked him if I could feature them here with some of his commentary. I've added a bit of mine for context too.
Sketches:Matt –– I was shooting around here in various directions but mostly of a contemplative moment before confrontation. I think of these scenes in books and films, that moment on the castle walls, among the ancient burial mounds, that calm before the storm mood.
David –– I believe that with tight turnaround somehow Matt only got the few sentence overview of the issue's story rather than the full script and so there were moments he was emphasizing in his roughs that don't really feature in the story, even though they are all fantastic and would be great covers.
David –– Instead of playing telephone through editor channels, Matt and I had a quick message back and forth where I suggested that the seated conteplative version of Bardrick could be better if outdoors in autumn leaves. I also liked the snakes at the top of one of the options, but in a way to better lean into his interests as an artist I suggested they could be the two snakes in the issue, but drawn as norse carvings/knotwork (I also told him he could draw then as real snakes if he preferred)
We somehow neglected tell him originally that the logo wouldn't feature on his variant, so he didn't need to accommodate that spatially.
Inks:
Matt –– This is the relatively easy, straightforward part. Keeping thought towards a balance of line weight, detail, and readability, but mostly it's a meditative phase.
David –– Matt inked this digitally, and he's one of those digital adopters who I don't see much difference between their traditional work and their digital work.
And as Matt says, it's that balance that is the trick here, because it would be easy to over texture or leave too much open space or make all the lines/textures the same from those pencils and not get the clean readability of this cover.
Colors:
Matt –– I usually dive in to coloring work without much of a plan, stumbling around until something clicks. I had an autumnal direction to work with and that gave it a starting point with yellows and oranges and then bringing in purples and greens to work in contrast to those.
I love how muted the oranges get in the leaves, how the white fungus leads our eye through the piece like wonky stair steps, and how perfectly the norse carving pops without looking out of place.
I'd love to have Matt come back for more Mouse Guard at some point...
Matt's cover is a 1:15 variant. The third and final issue of Dawn of the Black Axe will be in shops June 18th, 2025
Bardrick's quest to protect the Lockhaven and mouse territories from the surrounding serpents comes to a thrilling conclusion! Will the Black Axe's first wielder be able to complete his task before the poison flowing through his veins claims his life? And who shall come to his aid in his hour of need?!
