Group shot! Another cover concept of C.O.G. This was surprisingly the most difficult to color because each character has their own color scheme and I needed to to unify it. This also features characters not appearing on other covers before: Mrs. Applegarth, Pruitt & oh so sexy Dr. Cavendish.
C.O.G. Cover - The Rescue
And we get to my third Cover Concept for C.O.G.! This one features the Aeolus Airship and introduces the dashing Plunkett and the spunky Pyott. Plunkett’s the dark haired guy swinging along with Rosejack, and Pyott is the fellow in the jetpack and wings.
C.O.G. Cover - The Aeolus
The cover pencils and layout for issue #5. This was the most simple but it was probably one of the most fun. It gave me the opportunity to draw a lot oc characters I haven’t been able to before now, like Pyott & Pruitt. The art nouveau frame was something I created on a whim while doing the pencils.
This is the pencils and layout of Issue #3’s cover. Generally, after I have a layout I’m happy with, I scan it into the computer and then blow it up to actual drawing sise, which in this case was 11″ X 17″. Then I would very loosely and lightly trace my initial layout on the page as a very rough, and I do mean rough, underdrawing for my pencils.
This is the Pencils and Layout of the cover for Issue #2. As you can see I switched the two versions of Myles on either side. I did this, so that Myles in his gentlemanly attire would have the more prominent portion of his apparatus. I did the layout while I was out and about and mistakenly thought it was on the other side.
Rosejack’s full name is Catalina Alexandra Rosejack, however, no one calls her by her given names. Her father was a wealthy Scottish merchant and former pirate. Her mother was a Caribbean spanish beauty much younger that he. Rosejack is already a legend when the story begins, with a long list of adventures, conquests and stories told about her. She defies all convention, ignoring the station of women as willfully as she does common decency. She loves risks and danger, using everything in her arsenal to achieve her goal weather it be her blades or her abundant sexuality. When the story begins she has been working for Myles for a few years. It is worth her while, as Myles is constantly under attack and be provides her all the best weapons and gadgets a girl can ask for.
Rosejack was one of those characters that just sort of leaped into existence in the mind and just up and roared when you put pen to paper. I always knew red was going to be her color. With a name like ‘Rosejack’ could it be anything else?
Dr. Cavendish was born in the in the United States to a British father and and Native Indian mother. He spent the first 10 years of his live with his mother’s people where he learned to track, hunt, ride a horse and more. After his mother’s death, his father took him away from that life and brought him to Chicago. There he was highly educated and graduated with top marks form medical school. However, Cavendish did not go into practice, as his father wanted, instead, he joined the Pinkerton Agency and became an expert tracker of criminals and solver of crimes. At his father’s death, he inherited some money and went to his father’s country, Great Britain. After a variety of circumstances, he found himself introduced to Jane Ballantyne, the eldest sister of Myles Ballantyne, and after a few years they were married. They currently have 3 children. Dr. Cavendish also was Myles’s principle financial backer for his invention and the two eventually created the company called Empyrean Industries. Cavendish runs the more business aspects of the company, allowing Myles to focus exclusively on the invention side. It is Dr. Cavendish that bring Miss Delyth Gwynne to the Fortress and installs her as a maid there. He is one of the few members of the Ballantyne/Cavendish contingent that know Delyth’s secrets.
Dr. Cavendish is based loosely on Mr. Darcy from Jane Austin’s Pride and Prejudice. While Darcy’s time is well over a 100 years before the one in this tale, they basic archetype is the same. Thus, he was designed with a certain level of style at all times. He doesn’t advertise his mixed heretage but doesn’t hide it either. Thus people usually mistake him for being vague “Mediterranean,” lol!
Now it’s Eddie Youngblood’s turn to take the spotlight.
Eddie was born a gutter rat. His mother (now dead) was a whore from Leith, the port city outside of Edinburgh. He speaks with a pronounced brogue that is more street than highlander. He is only 14 when our tale starts and he has been in Dr. Beaumont’s service for the last 2. How he came about the position of henchmen to the sniveling Beaumont is a mystery. Eddie is extremely bright and a brilliant inventor with natural talent. The staff he carries was created by him and has a number of functions, all of which even his master doesn’t know. He as a certain level of contempt for Beaumont, but he sees it as a means to an end. He has a particular venom for Myles Ballantyne, the other young brilliant mind of his age who was born with everything and Eddie nothing.
Eddie was originally NOT supposed to be in these initial design pin-ups but I liked his design so much that I added him anyway.
Here is Mrs Applegarth in her full color glory.
Mrs Applegarth was made a widow at a very early age and still wears black to symbolize her grief and her desire to never marry again. She also lost a son when he was a still a toddler. She is a native to Scotland, and it actually from a very rural highland area. She speaks with a profound scottish brogue. She is in her 50’s and has worked for the Ballantynes for almost 20 years in some capacity or another. She was initially brought in as a nurse to tend Myles’s mother during her pregnancy. She is currently Myles’s housekeeper and primary “babysitter.” She treats him more motherly than the usual servant/master relationship typical of their differing station. She also runs the Fortress’s day in, day out affairs. She is the one that Delyth is entrusted too when she is brought to Myles’s home. Mrs. Applegarth is unaware of Delyth’s secrets. Then again, Mrs. Applegarth has secrets of her own.
Incidentally, Mrs. Applegarth was one of the hardest to design. Her color scheme eluded me and she really didn’t come alive until I started coloring her. She’a a mix of black with grey and purples. Lavender was considered “Half-morning” for a long time, however it was also a color adopted by the suffragettes.
And now the Grand Finale: Pluckett’s Pistols! This is a matching pair of exquisite etched silver plated pistols with gold plated accents and teak wood handle. This is, by far, the best set of guns Myles has every created. Nothing but the best would suit a sharpshooter like Jasper Plunkett. Not only is it the most accurate of Myles projectile creations, it also pack a wallop! These lovelies in the hands of Plunkett are exactly what you want watching your back from you laundry list of enemies.
Plunkett's Pistol
C.O.G. Chronicles - The Graphic Novel 