Finally invoked something that scratched the "red" itch.

For some reason covers are always a hassle - might be the fact that they only vaguely relate to the story. Might be the fact that they're not actually part of the sequential narrative - in the mythical Final Form of The Dualist, the "covers" might be in the back somewhere with a What If? sidebar, alongside some Candy or whatever.

And since it's not actually part of the story, and the only rule of thumb is "no line art", I have a tendency to be extremely indecisive, as you can see here:

   

The first and fourth instances are incomplete, unfinished, and juslty aborted. The other two represent a few hours screwing around with a Z axis, trying to get something interesting. Fourth and final title have both passed through Macromedia Freehand, which has a lovely little Trace tool that I played with for the first time today- an experiment that grew out of a half-remembered bit about Flash "trace bitmap"ping kicked loose in the backbrain by a Penny Arcade newspost.

I wouldn't be surprised if this changes again before I start actual production. Until {then|I actually start the chapter}, this beats looking at the end of Chapter Three. :-)