 Chris Enterline lives and creates in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He has been an artist ever since the age of 3 when he found out that crayon colors look wonderful plastered on white walls. When he isn’t hunched over his drawing tablet expressing himself through his art, he spends his time cultivating an unhealthy obsession with Magic the Gathering and Star Trek. Chris takes great pride in his work, which can be found in and on many books, such as the Thunderstorm Edition of Exponential by Adam Cesare, and Spungunion by John Boden. His most recent work- special author signature sheets, can be found in the back of Clickers Forever: A Tribute to J.F Gonzalez. His inspirations include: Bernie Wrightson, John Moebius Girard, Michael Whelan and Mike Mignola. If you’d like to see more of Chris’s work, visit his website: www.chrisenterline.com, or find him on instagram @enterlinedraws.
How did you first get into book design? I sort of fell into the industry. I’ve been an artist for as long as I can remember, and I originally wanted to draw for Marvel Comics. . Author Adam Cesare was one of the first folks to draw me into the cover artist profession. See what I did there? Draw? Anyway, he approached me online after I had drawn a poster for fun for a then new facebook friend whom he was also friends with. Going to the annual Scares that Care convention is what cemented the idea of being a cover designer for me. I got to meet a ton of fantastic authors, some who I had read, others that were completely undiscovered to me, and became good friends with them over the years. In my first year, I saw that many small press horror books were lacking a unique touch. I felt that they weren’t doing a good enough job at representing the fantastic works found within them. So, I set about changing that, and business has been good. Would you say you have particular style or does it vary between projects? I’m told my style is recognizable, but I like to offer varying styles dependent on what the author or publisher is looking for to draw attention to their book. I’ve done cartoonish looking work, gritty realism, and heavy photoshopped images. For the “Kaiju Revisited” series I did for Jacob Haddon and Apokrupha Books, I kept to an animated theme that I wanted to invoke 80’s Saturday Morning Cartoons in the style. I particularly enjoyed drawing the big monster on Author Jessica Mchugh’s book, “Home Birth” I absolutely enjoy doing heavily inked black and white illustration, and that’s what people recognize the most of my work Mostly that ends up in interior art, like my signature pages for the “Clicker Forever: A tribute to J.F Gonzalez” Collector’s Edition from Thunderstorm Books and “T.V Dinners from Hell”, by Author Amber Fallon. What’s your preferred medium to work with? I mostly work digitally. It’s a more affordable medium for folks, and it's much easier to communicate back and forth with authors and publishers as I design. It also saves on shipping. And what’s your process from initial concept to final proof? The first thing I like to do is speak with the author and see what they’re visualizing in their head for a cover. Some folks know what they want, and I want to make sure I visually communicate that in the best way for them. I like to send progress reports as I work to show the author or publisher how I’m progressing. I usually sketch out a mess of an image and send it, and I’m not entirely sure people can make sense of it right away, but it works for me. Once I get the green light on the design, I begin doing line work to build form and make sense of the mess I doodled. Depending on the style called for, I may then fill the lines with color and do shading, or start blocking out colors and do a painter-style. I tend to use reference images if something needs to look a specific way, but for the most part, I draw everything from off the top of my head. What specific challenges or constraints do you face in designing a book cover, as opposed to a poster, an album cover, or other print design platforms? The biggest challenge I face with book covers is conveying what the author is trying to tell you in his or her book all in one little image. Someone might be writing a book about killer slugs that take over your brain and make you feel intense pain whenever any part of you is touched. How do you make that into a cover, at least, a cover that makes you want to read the book? My job is to grab your attention when you’re perusing the book aisle, or browsing online. I need you to want to find out more about “Slug Touch". I’m going to use this as the title. Sorry. The go-to obviously would be to draw a nasty slug beast crawling on the ground. But, you’ve probably seen that already. Probably more than once. So I’m not going to go that route with my design. I instead focus on something simple or abstract. I might try to use nerve clusters from the human body in a unique way. There are lots of possibilities.
Is working with an independent author different than working for a publisher? I think so. When I’ve worked with publishers, they tend to be very open to letting me create the concept from scratch and I don’t really ever have interactions with the author themselves. With self-publishing authors, they often already know what they want, they just need help bringing their ideas to light. The independent authors are very passionate about their ideas, and I spend a lot of time bouncing ideas back and forth with them. What do authors need to know to have the best outcome when working with a professional cover designer? Don’t be afraid to tell me if you don’t like what I’m doing. It’s as simple as that. I want you to be happy with the final result. I do my best to explain why something may or may not work aesthetically, but in the end, you are the client and you are the one who decides what goes on your book. Do you usually read the book before designing the cover? At first I read every book I drew for. Of course, that was when I would get one or two covers a month. As I started to take on more work, reading them all became increasingly difficult. I am incredibly honored to get the chance to read stories by the very talented people I work for before their book goes to print. I wish I had the time to read them all. If one has my particular interest, I will read it when I find the time to. For the most part, I ask for a summary, or skim chapters to get a feel for what I should put on the cover. Your job can sometimes be frustrating, when the publisher pursues a direction that you’re not 100% in agreement with, and you still have to comply. Do you think that designers should have more creative freedom? I think every artist dreams of a job where they can do whatever they want. It can be frustrating doing a cover you yourself are not into. I know when I was just starting out that I had to earn the trust of publishers to be able to have the creative freedoms I enjoy. My work felt forced because I was trying to make something that to me, visually, didn’t work. What in your opinion is your favorite book cover? And why is it your favorite? This is a tough one. I have a few favorites. If I had to choose from what is out now- I would say the Thunderstorm Books Edition of “Exponential” by Adam Cesare. He and publisher Paul Goblirsch gave me a lot of freedom on that, and I just went crazy with it. I don’t want to spoil the book for anyone that hasn’t read it-if you haven’t, go check it out, but the premise of the story involves a blob-like creature. I didn’t want to do a cover with a gel or blob thing, because it’s been done to death. I wanted to make it bright and trippy. Needless to say, it turned out pretty great. Toot toot. And what is the one cover from another artist that you wish you had designed? Narrowing it down to one specific cover is tough because there are a lot of iconic covers out there. Going with my love for the bronze age of comic books, I would have to say “Giant Size X-Men #1” by Dave Cockrum and Gil Kane. It’s just so recognizable and it’s been redrawn and used for so many things to say, “Look at this! It’s something you remember, but better!”. Just the other day I saw it used for a horror poster. I think the Universal Classic monsters were in the background, and the “new” monsters like Freddy were bursting forth from the pages. What’s the one design feature that annoys you the most on book covers? One design feature? I have a few that annoy me, but if I have to pick I would say bad font placement. That’s almost as important as the art. Also related to that, I don’t like it when a cover has too much text on it. A good cover should sell itself with the art, in my opinion. Do you have any tips for authors who are self-publishing when it comes time for them to start thinking about their book covers, hiring designers, or any other part of the process? First, as in any industry, you get what you pay for. Save up for that cover artist that you really want. Also a lot of artists will do payment plans, or work with you. You may balk at the artist’s price, but remember that it is an investment. A bad cover will turn a lot of people off before they even bother to see what your book is about. Second, try to find an artist that has a style that you think represents the story you want to tell. Third, and this is one that I enjoy seeing, CREDIT your artist when promoting your book. They take as much pride in it as you do. You and your cover artist are a team working together to put out something you can both be proud of. What is the best way for any prospective clients get in contact with you? You can find my portfolio on the internet at www.chrisenterline.com, or email me directly at christopherenterline@gmail.com. My website has all of my contact information as well.  FICTION REVIEW: SHILOH BY PHILIP FRACASSI
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