Over the years, I’ve chronicled my affection for and work within the worlds created by Jim Henson and Brian Froud here on Muddy Colors. From the official prequel novels for The Dark Crystal (which became the foundation for the Netflix series) to original works set within Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal, to creating the 40th anniversary poster, and more, I’ve had the opportunity over the last 15 years to work on some amazing projects with wonderful folks.

And any chance I get to contribute a little something to those worlds is an opportunity for which I’m tremendously grateful. 

When the offer to work on a series of four interlocking covers for the Jim Henson Presents series of comics rolled along, well, nobody had to ask me twice.

BOOM! Studios, in partnership with The Jim Henson Company, is proud to bring JIM HENSON PRESENTS to life! An exciting new anthology filled to the brim with new tales set in the many worlds of Jim Henson.

Explore the far reaches of Farscape, the dangerous streets of The Goblin City, and the wacky world of Fraggle Rock with a lineup of all-star creators including Brennan Lee Mulligan, Kelly & Nicole Matthews, Aabria Iyengar, Jared Cullum, Kyla Vanderklugt, Shannon Watters, Max Sarin, Jill Tew, Daniel Bayliss, Darcie Little Badger, Danny Luckert, Christine Larsen, J.M. Lee, Nori Retherford, Corinna Bechko, Carlotta Dicataldo, Shobo, V.V Glass, Cameron Chittock, Cory Godbey, Seanan McGuire, and Countandra.

As the comics have been published (issue number four is on the shelf at your local comic shop right now!) I thought it’d be fun to take a look at the creation of this four piece set over these next few months, continuing with a look at the third cover here.

Once again let’s take a quick look at the rough for this four piece set! The real takeaway here is how long-suffering and generous my editor was in approving a rough that rough.

We’ve reached the third cover in this series of Jim Henson Presents and this time we are going down to Fraggle Rock.

This one has a special place in my heart and felt like going back to where it all began. The very first Henson project I was ever commissioned to do was 15 years ago, 2010, and it was a Fraggle Rock comic.

I’d been invited to contribute a story to Kazu Kibuishi’s FLIGHT comics anthology, an incredible collection of writers and artists. I poured everything I had into that story and when the book released, a writer at Henson picked it up and liked my story enough to invite me on a new series of Fraggle comics.

It felt like a big deal at the time and it still does! This was the first time I’d had the opportunity to work with something like this (and with a little luck, it wasn’t the last time, either.)

I remain equal parts proud and grateful for these little Fraggles and that first project. 

Because after I’d finished this story, of course, it wasn’t too long after I was commissioned to write an illustrate a number of Labyrinth short comics which were ultimately collected in the Diamond Trade Book of the Year award-winning Labyrinth Tales. From there, it’s been my immense good fortune to have worked on a number of Dark Crystal books and other Henson covers and comics. Some of my very favorite client projects over the years and I have those good-natured, brave little Fraggle to thank.

And so when the time rolled around for cover three, I knew I had to go back to where it all started and see how I’d draw some Fraggles after all these intervening years.

I first went back to my main working file and made sure that I had something appropriately cave-like for the background. This is mostly watercolor with a bit of adjustment in Photoshop.

Since the sketch was already approved from the initial for cover rough thumbnail, I set about drawing the Fraggles themselves. It would’ve been really nice to have all five of the main group on the cover but time was against me. I was already looking down the line at the fourth cover coming up quickly and decided to go with Wembley (the star of that first comic) Gobo (my favorite) and Red. It was coin toss between her and Mokey. Somehow, Red seemed like the better choice, though it probably could have just as easily been Mokey.

Once I was finished with the drawings, it was pretty much all downhill. However, something felt off.

The first cover had a variety of shapes and character sizes. The second cover did as well and kept that rhythm going. But with just the three Fraggles, something didn’t feel right.

I decided that if I could do it in just a few hours, it was worth the effort to add in a few Doozers.

And once I got them drawn, colored, and placed, the whole thing clicked for me.

But! There really wasn’t any time to sing or dance because as soon as I finished this one, I went directly into the fourth cover. 

That’s a tale for next time. We’re going to need to gather some fresh firewood and make sure we’ve got a mug of something to drink ready to go. I’ll save you a seat by the fire.

Til next time!