RANDOMS

Here is a cover illustration I did for an upcoming young reader novel called Randoms.  Published by Simon & Schuster and written by author David Liss (The Day of Atonement, A Conspiracy Of Paper, Black Panther, The Spider, etc.), Randoms is a fast paced sci-fi adventure story centred around an awkward, nerdy, good-hearted kid, Zeke Reynolds. 

Having not read a lot of young fiction I didn't know what to expect when I read the manuscript to prep myself for creating the cover illustration. But I was pleasantly surprised how well written and how enjoyable the book was. I was also surprised how mature some of the themes were, but these were handled well by Liss, and they never felt inappropriate for the intended age range for the book (10+).

The cover itself was a lot of fun to create. Things flowed well with Simon & Schuster art director Lizzy Bromley and after several option comps we settled quite quickly on this cover idea. The illustration is a full dust jacket wrap around, including interior flaps and features the 6 major characters of the book. I also had the opportunity to create the Randoms title logo.

As you can see in my original versions of the cover the logo and the line elements were white, but Lizzy had a great idea to change them to a hot, neon orange on the final for additional "pop.  

Randoms is set to be published in August, 2015. Pre-order, addition info. and editorial reviews at Amazon here.

Thanks to Lizzy Bromley at Simon & Schuster.