Your own covers for the manga

[Cold Skin]

Here is a thread to see and/or post new covers for the manga volumes, whether they are Tankobon, Kanzenban, or even a new way to divide the volumes.
You don't have to create covers for each and every volume, you are free to post covers for only the volumes you are interested in.

As far as I'm concerned, I created new covers for all Tankobons a while ago, and since I don't want to see them wasted...
I'm only posting the "Dragon Ball" part of the manga because it takes a little time to upload, but I'll edit the post and add the "Dragon Ball Z/Kai" part tomorrow.

If you want to create (or already created) covers of your own, feel free to share!

[Michelle91]

I like them but why is Piccolo red? It seems like a odd color choice.

[Cold Skin]

I like them but why is Piccolo red? It seems like a odd color choice.

Yeah, I was a little scared that people might react like you on the "red Piccolo".
It's actually supposed to be a special "other color cause something dramatic is happening" effect, like when Raditz tells Piccolo and Goku that the two other Saiyans are stronger than him, and when you see their shock reaction, it all goes to "wrongly colored" picture effect to transfer the feeling of "something evil and horrifying is happening".
That's why the sky is red too, to have that apocalyptic situation feel.
But I knew that there was a big chance nobody but me would perceive that as being an "the situation's so bad that it's like everything goes red" effect, I didn't find a good way to properly convey that aspect!

[Pokewhiz7]

I really like your hyperrealistic backgrounds. Nice job!

[JulieYBM]

Damn, those are awesome. O.o

[Rukura]

Honestly, not a fan of seeing anime representations as covers for manga. Not a fan of the clash with the realistic backgrounds either. The only good one out of those is 14, only because the illustration is closer to the manga style (and even there, it has the anime-style grown-up Goku for no reason).

Also, lol at Super Saiyan 2 Goku on 34 and Movie 4's Fake Super Saiyan Goku on 26.

Personally, I feel like those would only really work for game, DVD or BD covers. (Which is actually where some of those come from)

[Kingdom Heartless]

Yeah, I was a little interested to see that you used pictures with anime colours, especially since you created that brilliant colour correction thread.

[Cold Skin]

Damn, those are awesome. O.o

I really like your hyperrealistic backgrounds. Nice job!

Thanks, guys! I owe the backgrounds to many DeviantArt users. The "character render project" made me think that it was now easy to build many images by just taking a setting, taking a character, and adding them together, allowing for anyone to make easy covers.

The hyperrealistic backgrounds are a refreshing idea, but it's honestly because I was too lazy to rework them into a more anime feel, and it was sometimes hard enough to find a proper background from the many realistic images available, so it would have been even worse if I had to search for "anime style" backgrounds that were exactly the kind of landscape I wanted.

Honestly, not a fan of seeing anime representations as covers for manga. Not a fan of the clash with the realistic backgrounds either. The only good one out of those is 14, only because the illustration is closer to the manga style (and even there, it has the anime-style grown-up Goku for no reason).

Also, lol at Super Saiyan 2 Goku on 34 and Movie 4's Fake Super Saiyan Goku on 26.

Personally, I feel like those would only really work for game, DVD or BD covers. (Which is actually where some of those come from)

Yeah, I can perfectly understand why you don't like them.
Honestly, I didn't put too much time and effort into it, and when you don't put too much time and effort into something, anybody can tell.

Like you said, I didn't care about if Goku's hair were in Super Saiyan 1 or 2 variations, since apart from teen Gohan, the hair difference never mattered much for me and can be hard to distinguish on specific drawings, on the contrary of lightnings. So it's something I've never, and I'll never, take into account, although I know the difference does exist and is clearly officially stated.
And Fake Super Saiyan Goku was supposed to be an alternative representation of the super-mad "Kaioken Goku" more than the Super Saiyan, but of course, it was a cheap way of doing this, and an utter failure.

Yeah, I was a little interested to see that you used pictures with anime colours, especially since you created that brilliant colour correction thread.

I made those covers a while back, when I hadn't seriously thought of that idea of color correction yet.

[Insertclevername]

I think the use of False Super Saiyan is fine, it sorta hints at the transformation rather than giving it away. Also, the use of Super Saiyan 2 can be justified by the fact that he is flying, so his hair is being pushed back.

[Cold Skin]

I think the use of False Super Saiyan is fine, it sorta hints at the transformation rather than giving it away. Also, the use of Super Saiyan 2 can be justified by the fact that he is flying, so his hair is being pushed back.

I should hire you as my lawyer, I like having someone defending my debatable choices!
More seriously, I guess that's what will happen when you take risks in your artistic choices: some will watch every single detail and say that it is not like it should be, while others will go "well, why not, after all? One can assume that there is this and that to justify it all".

I'm afraid I'm pretty much carefree, I suffer from the Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children syndrom, for which the makers clearly said something along the lines of "as long as it looked good to us and could fit with our ideas and themes and emotions, we wouldn't care about logic, coherence and expectations". That's exactly what I did with that cover of Goku and Gohan: I saw the opportunity to make a father-son cover with a similar position for both, symbolizing how they are in continuity with each other since their training, and the fact that Gohan will take Goku's role at that time. In a nutshell, symbolizing where their relationship had led. And I wouldn't let a detail in Goku's hair ruin the whole concept.

[Jackal puFF]

15 and 33 look great. That red piccolo though is kind of out there though.

[Cold Skin]

15 and 33 look great. That red piccolo though is kind of out there though.

They are both among my favourites. 33 is actually my favorite from them all.

And red Piccolo was a failure, I was hoping that the miscolored sky would actually inspire that it's not Piccolo that's red, but the entire image that turns to twisted colors as a dramatic, apocalyptic special effect. Big mistake!
However, it does make me think of a thread where members could reinvent the colors for each character, no matter if they take it very seriously or more like a delirious attempt...
I guess I'll think about it.

[Tanooki Kuribo]

Ah, I reconize those vectors!

[TheDevilsCorpse]

My only complaints are that I dislike most of the backgrounds, especially the more realistic ones. They tend to clash with the character vectors IMO.

I also don't like how they are "full" covers. They either need some sort of border, like the original tanks, or just a large footer of "Written and Drawn by Akira Toriyama" or whatever across the bottom to serve as a counter balance to the extra weight that the logo at the top gives them. Help frame the covers to have a definite top and bottom, if you know what I mean...

[Cold Skin]

Ah, I reconize those vectors!

Yeah, I chose the easy (or one might say cheap) way, it wasn't too hard or too time-consuming to just take pre-existing works and match them together!
It was just for fun, so I must confess I didn't want to get too frustrated with it and just rushed through the job!

My only complaints are that I dislike most of the backgrounds, especially the more realistic ones. They tend to clash with the character vectors IMO.

I also don't like how they are "full" covers. They either need some sort of border, like the original tanks, or just a large footer of "Written and Drawn by Akira Toriyama" or whatever across the bottom to serve as a counter balance to the extra weight that the logo at the top gives them. Help frame the covers to have a definite top and bottom, if you know what I mean...

Yeah, it's something I've been completely oblivious to until you mentionned it: it didn't even came to my mind to put the author's name on the front cover!! Unbelievable!

Between those two solutions you proposed, I'm not sure what I would have chosen. Probably the footer option, because I feel like having the picture "squared" like the original makes it too small (especially since the Tankobon are already too small themselves).
If I had taken this more seriously, I would also have bothered to transform the colors into their manga equivalents too, but that wasn't an option even for a second in my mind back then!

The realistic backgrounds were a lazy option, and a refreshing way of having some "never-seen-before" feel. But obviously (and luckily), it's not something a professional would do.

[Cold Skin]

I made these covers back then, originally supposed to be manga boxsets before I turned them into Kai boxsets. That's why there was supposed to be some sort of continuity between some of these covers and the manga covers you've seen in my first post.

[eledoremassis02]

I love custom covers! These are so awesome!!!!!

[Cold Skin]

I love custom covers! These are so awesome!!!!!

Thanks!
Wouldn't have been possible without the character render project!

[Cold Skin]

Since my covers back then were based on the Tankobon, I thought I might show a new Kanzenban cover as well.
Once again, I just assembled the elements, tweaking placements, colors and special effects, but I did not conceive the pictures myself (neither the character nor all the background images).

[Insertclevername]

I love the new font!