Dawn of the Black Axe #1 Rodriguez Cover

Announced a few weeks ago Dawn of the Black Axe is a 3 issue mini series written and colored by me and illustrated by Gabriel Rodriguez (Locke & Key) about the first wielder of the Black Axe! 

It's up for preorder now in local and online comic shops (JAN250016 for the Gabe cover) And I wanted to use this post to share a deeper dive into the cover art for cover A (I also have a variant cover and there will be at least one other guest artist for each issue)

Gabe agreed to do the project, but really wanted me to be the colorist. It's been the hardest coloring work I've ever done...

The cover art was created after the first issue was already drawn. I co-ordinated with Gabe letting him know what scene/visual I thought he should focus on and also what I was going to do for my cover (that way if he wanted to do something beyond my suggestion, he knew what I was doing to avoid overlap).

This series really leans into snake battles (if you know the Black Axe lore from the illuminated pages in Fall you understand) and I asked for the big confrontation for this issue. Gabe sent over pencils, and then this amazingly clean and detailed inked art. 

While the interior pages were all drawn & inked, I had yet to finish the colors on the issue––importantly, I hadn't yet colored this scene, so the cover is were some of the color choices were made. Bardrick (first wielder of the Black Axe) had a color scheme and so did the snake (Gammeltann) and the elk, but what colors the backround were and how that may alter the hue and saturation of my established character base colors was something I figured out with the cover first.

This flat color stage is where all the color shapes are established, a coloring-in-the-lines for pros. I also established the color holds, which is where I want the lineart to be a color other than black. In this case I made color holds for the elk, the snake's eye, and the puffs of dust.

Rendering (adding shadows, highlights, & textures) has proven to take much longer for me on Gabe's inks than on my own. I think part of that is the realism of forms in Gabe's work requires a different style of lighting. He also tends to have a lot more degrees of depth in a panel, where I almost always break forms into 2 or 3 planes.

To render the color I used a bit of a painbrush tool (something I don't often do on my own work) to get some color transitions, then Photoshop's dodge and burn tools with a textured brush.

Below is the solicitation info for the first issue that will be in shops March 19th, 2025:

CODE: JAN250016
(W) David Petersen (A/CA) Gabriel Rodriguez

The origins of the legendary Black Axe are revealed for the very first time!In celebration of its 20th Anniversary, experience the earliest tale in Mouse Guard history...
Adventure with the ancient weapon's first mouse wielder and champion, Bardrick, as he sets off on an epic quest in the newest installment of the Harvey Award-winning series by Mouse Guard creator David Petersen and Eisner-nominated artist Gabriel Rodriguez (Locke & Key)!