Over the years, I’ve chronicled my affection for and work within the worlds created by Jim Henson and Brian Froud here on Muddy Colors. From the official prequel novels for The Dark Crystal (which became the foundation for the Netflix series) to original works set within Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal, to creating the 40th anniversary poster, and more, I’ve had the opportunity over the last 15 years to work on some amazing projects with wonderful folks.

And any chance I get to contribute a little something to those worlds is an opportunity for which I’m tremendously grateful. 

When the offer to work on a series of four interlocking covers for the Jim Henson Presents series of comics rolled along, well, nobody had to ask me twice.

BOOM! Studios, in partnership with The Jim Henson Company, is proud to bring JIM HENSON PRESENTS to life! An exciting new anthology filled to the brim with new tales set in the many worlds of Jim Henson.

Explore the far reaches of Farscape, the dangerous streets of The Goblin City, and the wacky world of Fraggle Rock with a lineup of all-star creators including Brennan Lee Mulligan, Kelly & Nicole Matthews, Aabria Iyengar, Jared Cullum, Kyla Vanderklugt, Shannon Watters, Max Sarin, Jill Tew, Daniel Bayliss, Darcie Little Badger, Danny Luckert, Christine Larsen, J.M. Lee, Nori Retherford, Corinna Bechko, Carlotta Dicataldo, Shobo, V.V Glass, Cameron Chittock, Cory Godbey, Seanan McGuire, and Countandra.

As the comics are now releasing (issue number two is on the shelf at your local comic shop right now!) I thought it’d be fun to take a look at the creation of this four piece set over these next few months, with a specific look at the first cover here.

Today we’ll take a look at my cover for the first issue, next time at issue number two, and so on. 

But first, a look at the rough for all four covers (minus the fourth because that one has not been previewed yet).

I wanted the piece to flow as seamlessly as possible between properties while not necessarily feel like they’re all in one world, if that makes sense. Each one needed to stand alone, of course, however I wanted everything to contribute to the whole and not have one element stand out in particular. However, those Fraggles on cover three do stand out a little. That’s fine with me, though. When we get to that cover, should by May, I’ll have a lot more say about them.

Labyrinth is one of the first Henson properties I ever worked with. I illustrated a six page Hoggle story way back when for their Free Comic Book Day offering in 2012.

They did a hardcover giveaway that year! I’m told that one is pretty sought after by collectors. And at least once a year at a convention, someone will bring me a copy to sign. Always nice to see it out there in the world doing well.

In any case! For this first cover in the series, I wanted to feature the trio of Ludo, Hoggle, and Sir Didymus (along with Ambrosius) getting up to some goblin wrecking trouble.

In fact, the spark behind this idea was the top panel on this page from my book Jim Henson’s Labyrinth Tales. I always really liked it and wanted to play with something a little like it again. 

Once the sketch was approved, I set to work drawing all of the figures.

For this process, I drew most everyone and everything separately to speed things up a little, and give me some extra flexibility when putting the finishing touches together. With the very specific needs of the covers to overlap, but just slightly, this freed me up to focus on the character work and not stress over the technical side of things when it came to the layouts.

With the traditional drawings finished, I scanned everything and colored the work with a mix of watercolor and Photoshop painting. 

From there it was the simple matter of finishing things. Simple, right?

A look at the work space in progress. A smart person (with more time) would do all four covers at once. But, as a rule, I’m only able to do my best and barely plan ahead. Even so, I worked on the same file for all four covers.

The tree was a major overlapping element so I did have to be sure that was done before any other work on cover two.

And the finished!

And as a bonus and preview for next time, here’s a look at the first two covers together! They look real nice side-by-side, if I do say so myself.