Babylon 5 custom cover art (1 Viewer)

[nolesrule]

I look forward to the slim version of thesecovers, but now I need to find some slim6 cases.

 

[Bhavesh]

Ric you've got more brains and talent than the whole of WHV put together!
Here's why:
One reason they didn't have a single picture stretched across 5 sets was because they didn't expect B5 to sell that well. Season 1 was still just testing the waters and they hadn't committed to all 5 seasons before it came out.
But your spine for S1 stands well on its own and fits great into the panoramic image!
Not to mention that those few who skipped S1 wouldn't be at a disadvantage either.

 

[Ric Easton]

Thanks Bhavesh, but I think you're giving me too much credit! I decided to move that jumpgate over a little bit, so it's creeping onto season 2's spine (the Starfuries and the jumpgate were just looking a little too lined up for my tastes). Besides, if that was my thinking, wouldn't I also have to design it so that season 5 was optional?

I think its safe to say that anyone who downloads custom B5 covers will have all the seasons.

I'm still playing around with the background and perhaps I can have a preview of the finished seasons one and two sometime tonight or tomorrow.

Ric

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Nope. The number of people who didn't like Sinclair/Michael O'Hare, and who found S1 too much of a "stand-alone" and "set-up" season far exceeds the number who think hate Byron so much that they'd skip all of S5 rather than own the (8) episodes he appears in. The teep thread in the first half of the season is undeniably weaker than much that came before, but the Centauri/IA story that dominates the second half, and the resolution of the various character arcs make S5 much less "optional" than S1 for those who think in such terms. (For the record I think both S1 and S5 work much better when run back-to-back-to-back and after watching the whole series straight through a couple of times. Some of those "disposable" "non-arc" S1 shows suddenly prove to have substantial foreshadowing, for one thing.)

I suspect that WB's sales totals will show S1 with the lowest total sales, S2, S3, and S4 about dead even and S5 falling somewhere between S1 and the others.

Anyway, that's what I predicted the sales pattern would be before the first movie disc was released, and I hope I'm right because I love saying, "I told you so."

BTW, I was thrilled to see S5 with its own end-cap display in my local Best Buy - a far cry from the two copies of The Gathering/In the Beginning that I had to dig to find, or the three or four lonely copies of S1 I'd seen in the same store. While I was there I picked up NYPD Blue S1 and intend to grab S2 when I get paid again in two weeks - a probably vain attempt to get a studio to finish releasing another show worth presvering.

Regards,

Joe

 

[Ric Easton]

Well, this has been taking a little longer than I thought...

First a slightly updated season 1 now featuring the back...

Click here for larger view

As you can see I removed the number from the spine. The jury is still out on that.

And now for the hard part... season two.
This was the official pic...


Here's what I tried to do with it...

I think I was less than successful. I tried to add color to the faces and give the whole thing more of a "Coming of the Shadows" feel by adding and splitting up the booklet image. I just don't know if it's working at all.

Here is an alternative idea for season 2, also pictured is the back, again featuring Jupiter's excellent ships from his own set.

Larger View

While not featuring a collage of the cast, at least Sheridan has less of a constipated look. Please let me know what you folks think

Ric

 

[Dave Scarpa]

Sheridan definately looks less constipated, always a good thing. But it still looks off to me. I don't mind Sheriden alone on the cover becasue season 2 does introduce him, but I would also say we need Londo in there somewhere. If anything Season 2 hinged on not only Sheriden coming to the station, but the Coming of the shadows hinged on decisions made by Mollari, So I think an introspective picture of Londo would balance things out.

Hope I helped.

 

[Mikel_Cooperman]

Great stuff. Do you do this in Photoshop?
Being new to this thread and others like it, can someone tell me how you print or get these covers??

Thanks

 

[Tony Whalen]

Hmmm. Tough call.

I like your Sheridan-only cover Ric, but I also like your recreation of the "official" cover.

If I could only have one of them, I think I'd go for the first one.

 

[Deb Walsh]

I like the introduction of the Gray Council to the design. I'd have to agree that Mollari would balance the Sheridan alone version - with maybe a hint of Morden? Or perhaps Kosh in the shadows behind Sheridan, balanced by the claws of a Shadow to his right.

All the faces on the "real" artwork look too airbrushed. I have to admit I've never really paid much attention to the cover art on boxed sets, just got 'em and piled 'em up or put 'em on shelves without really thinking about it. That is, until I started to see these threads at this forum. I like some of the multi-box image designs on some of the PAL VHS sets I've gotten over the years - Stargate SG-1, Crusade, Farscape, and I've come to expect that type of packaging from UK releases. It never occurred to me to replace the blah packaging with something gorgeous instead.

Well, Ric, your artwork has certainly changed that point of view for me. :>

 

[GarySchrock]

Just my personal opinion here, but I kinda liked the number on the spine for the season number.

 

[Jeffrey Greiling]

Ric love your work on the Star Trek covers, are you making the first season big enough for a seven disc case fo those of us who have the pilot/In The Beginning disc?

 

[Rick P]

You might consider ridding yourself of that now, the next box set (per JMS) will be a 'movie' set with "The Gathering", "In the Beginning", "River of Souls" and "Thirdspace"

and before you ask, "A Call to Arms" will be in the Crusade box...

 

[Mike Broadman]

I like the Sheridan alone cover with the grey council. I always thought the ensemble faces look pretty retarded anyway. And the grey council just looks so mysterious, so ominous- very appropriate for the season's theme.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

I'm curious, Ric, what's your source on this? My reading of the only JMS comment I saw on the subject was that ACtA would be in the movie set and not in the Crusade set. (Because it was the last B5 adventure, not a pilot for Crusade. The main character is Sheridan, not Gideon, who doesn't even appear in the TV movie - only Dureena, Galen and semi-regular Lochley are common to both movie and series, along with the ship.)

Regards,

Joe

 

[Rick P]

 

[Rob T]

Oh, yeah...and next year you can expect two new DVD sets that a) include all
of the TV movies in one package (with commentaries from me on "The Gathering"
and "In the Beginning") and b) package all 13 of the Crusade episodes into one
box.


Even though he is a very cryptic guy, that's what I think he meant too.

 

[Rob T]

interesting...

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Just to pick a few nits:



A "pilot", strictly speaking, is a sample episode or TV movie used to demonstrate the viability of a TV series concept, characters and cast. The pilot is a tool used to sell the series.

Crusade had no pilot. The deal for the series was made on the basis of the series bible and a handful of story outlines - and Babylonian Productions demonstrated ability (on S5 of B5) to bring a show in on-time and on-budget on a six-day shooting schedule. The deal was made before the series was cast or a single frame of film exposed.

A Call to Arms was just the last of several TV movies that TNT had contracted with Babylonian Productions to produce. Because the Crusade deal was then in place (although casting wasn't finished) JMS used the TV movie to tell the story of the Drakh attack on Earth - Sheridan's last great military adventure - which set the stage for Crusade. But it was hardly a pilot. The series was already a "go" and would have been produced even if ACtA had never been filmed.

As for JMS's reply - in the context of that entire discussion both the Crusade release and the movies had been called "the set". So JMS's answer was either a deliberate non-answer answer (a speciality of his) or unintentionally ambiguous. When I posted a follow-up note to the thread asking him to clarify which set he was talking about, he never answered.

I'm inclined to believe, for a variety of reasons including the reported contents of the R2 movie set, that ACtA will (properly in my view) be included with the TV movie set, not the Crusade set.

At best JMS's message is unclear, meaning that the question is open and no definitive statement can be made on the issue either way.

Regards,

Joe

 

[Joshua_W]

What about "Legend of the Rangers?" Will that be in the movie box?

 

[nolesrule]

From jmsnews.com: