Xenozoic Part 1

Mark's original rough sketch with his type treatment suggestion.

An attempt at adding a dynamic flair to the type.

Another "experiment" with the title font

Another happy day for me! Flesk publications is going to reprint the entire Xenozoic Tales saga in one volume. It's been seven years since these stories were last printed, and this is the first time they will all appear in one fantastic volume. I'm excited because, this is one of my favorite adventure stories of all time, Mark's art is absolutely gorgeous, and I get to design the book.

Mark started the whole process by not only providing the cover sketch, but also possible type treatment for the title. Many years ago, when Mark and I started working together, we wanted to establish an ongoing look that could be carried through from project to project, with the use of a recognizable type font. The font became "Futura," it has such a bold clean masculine look to it, that it seemed like a perfect fit, for all things Xenozoic. The challenge is how to use the font without it becoming repetitive or boring. I experimented with various ways of tweaking it to try to keep it vital and interesting. The first attempt looked too much like the Superman title treatment and the second one just looked too much like crap. Even though they both were failures, Mark was very kind and considerate in his remarks about them. I was hoping he'd give me another chance...