The Cover of Black Womb
AS TOLD BY MATTHEW LEDREW

They say you can't judge a book by it's cover, and it's very true... but in todays market, if the cover doesn't catch a reader's eye then they don't pick it up and never really get to judge it, which is bad for the writer, publishers, and most of all, the readers who missed out on a great story.

With that in mind, we got a chance to sit down with Matthew LeDrew and dicuss the process of designing the cover to the first book ever published by Engen Books: Black Womb, and even see some never-before-seen early designs from the production room floor.

"I've come to beleive that there's some kind of problem with every publication." laughs Matthew. "With Black Womb, it was the cover. It went through more drafts then any we've had since and hopefully ever will. There was input from graphic designers, artists, computer analyists... and in the end, it ended up being an image I drew myself. Such is life."

This was the first image ever created with the intention of being the cover to Black Womb . It preceeds the others by years, its completion date being in 2003.

"Wow, where'd you guys dig this one up? If we're going this far back, the cover process is going to look even more stressful than it was... and it was pretty bad as is. I had actually forgotten about this one until very recently. I remember doing one or two of these with the idea that they would be movie posters for each book after I 'made it big'.

"Most of the characters here are nowhere near the way I picture them now. The only one even close is Cathy, located middle-left. This was also the first time I drew the 'Womb-symbol', which at the time was just a heart. Good thing that changed."

This was the second image created to be the cover of Black Womb. It was pencilled and inked in early September 2004.

"In a lot ways, this will always be the cover to Black Womb in my mind. For years this has been tacked above my computer for me to stare at when I get writer's block. It was originally intended to be the cover of a comic book if there had been one, but was deemed too 'busy' for a novel cover.

"The cover itself is a montage of different images and characters throughout the novel. The Womb is supposed to be in a pose akin to Da Vinci's 'Man', but the arm was lowered a little too much when I inked it. This is also the first time the Black Womb symbol was drawn the way I still draw it today, something I regret not getting into the final cover design. Maybe for a later installment."

This was the third image created to be the cover of Black Womb. It was drawn in ink media in October 2005.

"Once again, another one that I forgot about for a while. This is proving to be quite the trip down memory lane.

"I drew this one while working an overnight shift at my day job. At the time I was working on a comic book version of the novel with a friend and coworker. This actually wasn't going to be a cover to an issue, but more of a promotional image for if we published and needed a magazine spot. I had a habit of getting ahead of myself in those days.

"It actually got me into a little trouble at work when someone saw it and thought it was a picture of a dead baby and freaked out. No matter how many time I tried to explain that it was a birth, she wouldn't listen. I was so mad I didn't draw for a month."

This was the forth image created to be the cover of Black Womb. It was created digitally in July 2007.

"This was the first image I created once publication of Black Womb got into full swing. It was meant to bring out the horror aspect of the series more than anything else.

"On very good advice from a friend and fellow writer, this cover was scrapped for looking 'too photoshopped'. Looking back, I agree completely. Too many covers lately are overly computer generated and throw too much at you all at once. I'm proud that the final design was hand-drawn and very simple."

This was the fifth image created to be the cover of Black Womb. It was created digitally in July 2007.

"After scrapping the first cover completely, this one was drawn up quickly and made by simply cropping the eyes out of the second image and adding on the text.

"I went to far in the opposite direction, making it too simple to the point that it was unclear. The only thing I wanted to save from this design was that the title was changed to Matthew LeDrew's Black Womb, which a vain side of me really enjoyed."

This was the sixth image created to be the cover of Black Womb. It was pencilled and inked in July 2007.

"This one's much simpler. Obviously it was never meant to be a cover itself, merely a little sketch I did while over at a friends house.

"I played around more after this, but this is very close to what the end design ended up being. In some ways, even though it's rough, I consider this little sketh superior to the final product.

"It should be noted that this image is blown up. It was originally about the size of a matchbox."

This was the seventh image created to be the cover of Black Womb. It was pencilled and inked in July 2007.

"With this one, I started to finally get close to what the final design would be. I still very much wanted the Womb-symbol on the cover, incorporating it into the letter 'm'. The letter 'b' at the end also is hiding a pair of womb-eyes.
"After sitting on this for a few days, I discovered that the words were pretty much unreadable unless you knew what you were looking for.

"Also, some people don't realize that the image in the middle are eyes. The following is a list a what readers have claimed they thought the image was:

- A man jumping into the air.
- A pregnant woman's stomach.
- A woman's uterus.
- A woman's pelvic bone.
- A woman's breats.
- A whale tail.
- A crescent moon.
- Jesus. I'm not making that up. Someone saw Jesus in it.

"The 'spatter' design owes itself to my friend Sarah Thompson, who was helping me with input as I was drawing it."

This was the eigth image created to be the cover of Black Womb. It was pencilled and inked in July 2007.

"Started to go back a little with these ones. I thought that maybe the original covers weren't bad, just that they weren't in my style anymore.

"So, I went about the task of re-drawing them. This is a remake of Image 1 in a much more realistic style. The Womb-symbol has been updated and most of the characters are the way I picture them now. Sara in particular is great here, she almost looks like she could walk out of the page (front left).

"In the end it wasn't the quality of the image but the composition of the original, and this one suffered the same issues. Be a great movie poster, but a horrible book cover. The Womb eyes look great, though."

This was the ninth image created to be the cover of Black Womb. It was pencilled and inked in July 2007.

"Same thought process as the last image, really. Just re-doing the really old covers in my current style.

"The result with this one was spectacular. The Womb is in a much better pose, Alpha looks more zombie-like. Cathy and Sara both look real enough to touch and the fear on the mother's face screams agony. The baby looks real.

"The end result was something that no longer looked 'too-comic book-ish' but still didn't feel like a novel. It was still too busy, and trying to fit it to the dimensions of the book would have been monsterous."

This was the tenth image created to be the cover of Black Womb. It was pencilled and inked in July 2007.

"I find this one the most interesting because it really did work. It's me reimaging the forth cover, but instead of creating it digitally I hand drew it, and I think it turned out well.

"This images failing was timing. If I'd have thought of doing it like this closer to the beginning of the process, it might be the cover of Black Womb. I already had other designs floating around my head when I did this one and it got shoved to the back-burner.

"Maybe if I ever do a collection of the first few Black Womb books, I'll use this."

This was the eleventh image created to be the cover of Black Womb. It was created digitally as a composite of the fourth and fifth images in July 2007.

"At this point, I think I was losing my mind. I somehow managed to combine the worst aspects of the previous two designs, then had the hardest job of looking shocked when it didn't work.

"All problems inherit to the previous designs are still here. Around this time I thought the book would go cover-less. Seriously."

This was the seventh and final image created to be the cover of Black Womb. It was pencilled and inked in July 2007.

"I love the way it turned out. It really did combine all the best elements of the previous designs. I can't take all the credit, though. A friend in the business helped out a great deal, adding in the text and cleaning up the image so that it was usable. If not for him, I'd probably still be cracking pencils in half trying to figure out what I was going to do.

"This cover-scheme has since become standard for the Black Womb series, with all covers following the same format. As a result, the process shouldn't be as long and painful in the future. I hope."

October, 2007
Engen Books