I came across a copy of Vault of Shadows this week, the second in The Nightsiders book series that I illustrated for Simon & Schuster, with Art Director Krista Vossen.

Author Jonathan Maberry's second book in the series picks up where The Orphan Army leaves off with young Milo Silk and his friends defending their Louisiana bayou camp from an alien bug invasion.

The Vault of Shadows book dives further into the malevolent Huntsman, so we played with a few different designs and compositions emphasizing him in different panes, though ultimately the dark worked best as an anchor and we kept the darker block beneath the title.

Below is the illustration for The Orphan Army (The Nightsiders Book 1) and a few sketches, which include some of the design elements that became part of the type template for the set.

Thanks again to Krista for the excellent design and spot varnish on the final covers. Both are available now from Simon & Schuster.