The Sea of Monsters: The Graphic Novel
Disney • Hyperion, 2012
For The Sea of Monsters, the second installment in Disney's series of Percy Jackson comic book adaptations, I was involved in the design of the book from the outset. That meant a good deal more time was set aside in the production schedule to develop ideas with the editor and artists for the cover artwork.
The Lightning Thief's artist Atilla Futaki was returning to handle the sequel's interiors. I'd sent him a handful of concepts in written form, which he then turned into quick thumbnail sketches to test against the cover layout and run by the internal marketing team.
Below is a sample of one of the written concepts. The artist's thumbnail of the idea can be seen at left below.
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The following isn't scene-specific, just symbolic of the story. Our viewpoint is from inside a dark, narrow crack that stretches up the wall of Polyphemus's cave. Percy stands with Riptide held ready, Annabeth pressed tightly beside him with her knife. There's no room for them to go any further, but our angle is such that we can see the angry face of the cyclops pressed against the crack, trying to squeeze the thick shapes of his fingertips inside to get at the kids or else trying to stretch the opening wider. Percy and Annabeth would be dark inside the crack, as the cave would be lit only by torches. A warm fiery glow from the cave rakes the rock wall. Let’s cheat the size of Polyphemus and have him be much larger than the kids.
(far right) Attila's concept roughs. The final cover can be seen at far right in an early form.
(above) Final dust jacket artwork for the hardcover edition.
(above) Front and back covers of the paperback edition.
The back cover illustration was a concept I floated to the artist and editor that would allow for the placement of fairly lengthy review blurbs, yet still convey an aspect of the story.
Title page (left) and copyright page (right) for The Sea of Monsters. Like the first book, the title page uses an abstract detail from on of the artist's inked pages.
