I always listen to my readers. One of them put up a couple reviews of my work just today. She liked the books - five stars - but she questioned whether I made the right choice in cover art. She thought perhaps something a little more "old school" might work better.
I don't know. I like Marc and his work. Like me, he's a big fan of Yukito Kishiro's Battle Angel Alita. Alita isn't exactly bleeding-edge, she's been around since 1990. Holy crap, if someone had been born at the same time as Alita, he'd be out of college by now. But my reader does have a point. Should I, at some point, move Marc's work completely inside the books and commission more...conventional cover art?
I don't know. Her's isn't the first criticism of the "comicbookish" appearance of the covers. Another fan mentioned the same thing. At some point after Contravallation is released, I'll either have to perform an experiment or two...or poll my readers. This isn't like Marc and I won't ever work together again, we've discussed doing a graphic novel. Even if I do change covers - big if - Marc's work will still be on the inside.
We'll see, still don't know what I'll do.