On the Cover: August 2022

This month, Motif is happy to welcome back Bob Eggleton as the cover artist for our Necronomicon-themed issue. Eggleton is well known for his work on several Godzilla comic books as well as for doing concept art for the films “Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius” and “The Ant Bully.” As a lifelong fan of science fiction, Eggleton has been inspired by the works of Isaac Asimov, “Star Trek” and 2001: A Space Odyssey (which just happens to be his favorite film).

Early in his career, Eggelton contributed artwork to The Providence Phoenix. In the ‘90s, Eggleton began working on Godzilla with Dark Horse Comics and later into doing cover art for those comics when IDW Comics began publishing them. He was also an ill-fated extra in the film “Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla.” He has won 9 coveted international Hugo awards for his science fiction, fantasy and horror art and the Chesley award for artistic achievement.

Motif turned to Eggleton to capture the unique, weird vibe that goes with the NecronomiCon experience, and he jumped right into the deep end to create something deeply Providence.

Recently, Eggleton has taken an interest in fine arts with landscape and seascape artwork, and has worked on an illustrated version of the 1933 King Kong novelization.

This issue’s cover artwork shows an Eldritchmonster rising from the water and looming over the RI State House, which Eggleton uses to represent the COVID-19 virus threatening the state. Appropriately named Covidius Necronomicus, the creature’s design has protrusions coming out of its head to allude to the virus. The decision to illustrate such a monster comes from Eggleton’s love of dark fantasy, monster and kaiju stories, and he considers this cover to be one of his favorites that he has done for Motif.