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Because of the importance of the cover, and because it serves as a full-color advertisement for the magazine itself, all the elements of the illustration must be very carefully put together. Here are some of the things which the artist must always remember:

Always leave enough room at the top of the illustration for the logo (title of the magazine).

Nothing important must be drawn at the outside edge of the bottom or the right side of the cover, because some of that paper is trimmed off at the printing plant. This area, approximately a half inch in width, is referred to as the “bleed.”

There must be a number of “dead areas” on the cover—areas which, although exciting-looking to the reader, are unimportant enough to be covered over by dialogue balloons, captions, and/or blurbs if the editor so desires.

Since the color on a cover is vitally important, the artist mustn’t use too many heavy btack areas in his illustration. The expression employed in the Bullpen is: “Leavethe drawing open for color.”

The drawing must be provocative enough to make the reader want to get the magazine and read the story, but it mustn’t give the ending away, or tip the reader off to any surprises.

Weil, that’s enough for you to cope with at present. Now, once again, let's tracę the progress of our drawing from the initial rough stage to the completed pencil version. The finał inked cover can be seen, of course, on page 136, where it was used to introduce this unforgettable chapter.