All We Ever Wanted is a new anthology that presents a positive vision of the future. Steering clear of the “doom and gloom” the 24 stories are meant to inspire hope and restore the belief that a better world is possible.
The anthology is published by A Wave Blue World, the company I co-founded (with my wife) and continue to run while also being a senior writer for Broken Frontier. This puts me in the unique position of being able to offer you an inside peek at the creation of this project.
I figure the best place to start would naturally be the cover. I’m still blown away by how great it turned out, and we have two different versions! When I first got together with my fellow editors, Matt Miner and Eric Palicki, we knew we needed a cover image that would perfectly capture the theme, so we turned Ariela Kristantina (InseXts, Mata Hari). She delivered a spectacular concept, but we weren’t sure which direction to go in with the colors. Ariela did a really nice watercolor version that had a “vintage” feel to it, hearkening back to the covers of old sci-fi paperback novels. But in addition to that, we had Michael Wiggam try his had with digital colors and he came up with a really strong version that had a more modern, cosmic feel.
The end result is that we got the best of both worlds. We were able to use the vintage cover as an exclusive for our Kickstarter backers (funded back in June ‘18) and save the cosmic cover for the direct market release out now!
As for the interior pages, while it may have kept us quite busy staying on top of 24 stories, we couldn’t have been happier with the work that was turned in. Every creator really poured their heart into what they were doing and we think this collection contains some of their best work.
The great thing about anthologies is that it allows you to present the work of talented, up-and-coming artists to an audience who may not be aware of them yet. And while choosing our favorite stories is a bit like choosing between children, here are some process shots from five of the stories, showing rough layouts, to finished linework and then colors.
We hope you like what you see and remember to pick up a copy here of the All We Ever Wanted anthology out now!
Bombs Away: Written by Howard Mackie, Art by Ryan Lee
The Inventor’s Daughter: Written by Lucia Fasano, Art by Tess Fowler, Colors by Gab Contreras
Gaea: Written by Rich Douek, Art by David Stoll
Life is a Devil’s Bargain: Written by Justin Zimmerman, Art by Ethan Claunch, Colors by Fran Gamboa
Choice: Written by Kay Honda, Art by Liana Kangas, Colors by Gab Contreras
