There's a ton of stuff that goes on behind the scenes when putting a magazine together, and REDEYE 4 was a particularly arduous experience, mostly due to major computer problems. Having more of less rectified the problem, I had lost about four months worth of development and proofreading time. But for all that, it was still an improvement on previous issues with all its square-bound goodness, and again lessons were learnt that can and will be implemented on future issues. I thought it might be interesting to show some stuff that didn't quite make it for what ever reason, with some notes.

COVER REDESIGN:

I was never happy with the original cover design, although it fulfilled the function of the title being visible from the top left, and having a lot of negative space made it stand out from the shelf. But we noticed some people weren't sure what issue was the latest despite the different cover images. With Dave Hitchcock's Spring Heeled Jack image bleeding off the edge (RIGHT), and with not enough room to have the issues contents on the bottom right as previous issues, we thought it might be time for a shake up, but I was reluctant to change the format.

   

Graphic designer Ben Dickson submitted a redesign proposal (LEFT) early on in RE4's development, and to be honest it took me a while to warm to it. Looking back I was a fool to wait so long, but I'm glad to say Ben's keen eye won me over and I started to incorporate his design into different versions.

   

I wanted to keep the title on the top left as before, and retain the list of contents on the cover. After trying several hundred fonts, the final choice (LEFT) also informed the redesign of the interior pages as well. As for future covers… well, that depends on the image. It may not even be red next time. Find out in November.

INTERIOR REDESIGN:

There was equal criticism for and against the interior design of previous issues, usually constrained to three column layouts with the same fonts being used throughout the different features, whether interviews, articles or eyecandy pages. This was due really to the page count we had to keep to. There's a certain point, usually over 64 pages when the unit price jumps considerably. I was determined to maintain not just quality, but the £3.00 price tag, while steadily increasing page count, and the only way to do this was to either dramatically increase the print run beyond what I knew we could sell (a false economy) or change printers, so I went for the second option. The extra twenty pages allowed me to be a lot more inventive with the layouts, and it was while going through the art for Jock's interview, particularly the original black and white cover art to The Losers #2 , that gave me the idea to break away from the three column format (BELOW LEFT). This allowed each section to have its own visual identity, allowing me to develop more individual designs and do the double page spreads more familiar from movie magazines like SFX. Unfortunately some of had to be truncated to fit in.

      
                
              

One spread in I really wanted to include but was unable to was the colour splash for D'Israeli and Edgintons' Great Game interview. We were lucky enough to see preview art of this project that is currently on hold while the creators are working on Dark Horses own online War of the Worlds e-comic. In fact to date we're still the only magazine to actually have that artwork in print, albeit the b/w line art rather than the gorgeous full colour art like below.


And here's some photos by interviewer Matthew Badham of the creators themselves.

             
      

Issue 4 also has a report from Denmark's Komik.DK convention, and below are a few photos from the AUK ‘B' Team abroad.