a Red Queen

Whenever we have a cover reveal, I get nervous I'll spill the beans. It's a big secret and there's lots of anticipation and I'm always paranoid that somehow I'll have a cover lurking in the background of a photo. This actually happened not too long ago when a co-worker took a HILARIOUS picture of me at my desk, rolling out my back with a racquetball. We liked it because it looked like I had a back boob:

Me, My back boob, my embarrassment moments before said racquetball fell down my dress.

Anyway. In the back is the spec'ed comp of RED QUEEN along with the crown from the photo shoot. Thankfully it's nice and smudged and you can't really tell what's going on. But here in full regalia, and after the official reveal, our Red Queen.

4C over foil, mad hits of white, embossed crown, blood & title <3 it.

I'm not going to lie and pretend I don't absolutely adore this jacket. The full sales proof came in and I can't get enough of it. It's shiny and slick and beautiful. We printed a four color process over silver with various hits of opaque white. The silver crown bounces of the page, helped along by a sweet embossing plate. The blood runs in and out of those swirls and fleur-de-lis... ah that beautiful blood.

We had maybe too much fun on this shoot. The photographer, Michael Frost, got an ear full on blood consistency, drip lengths, and gore value from the Abracadabra costume shop on 19th street. (There is an actual "blood expert" at Abracadabra!) Finding fake blood that is beautiful proved to be an excellent challenge. I think we've managed to get that right balance of right and wrong here. And in truth, that crown is such a lovely shape, you almost forget what it's covered in—almost.

The story which is featured here, is wonderful. You should read it this winter. You can borrow the actual crown when you do—we cleaned off most of the blood... I think.