January’s issue of Jersey Devil Press marks my first public outing as their production editor, in charge of the layout and design of the pdf “print” issue and the web version of the issue. And while I’m mostly just adding personal touches to the excellent work Eirik Gumeny did setting this whole thing up, I’m still pretty damned pleased with the work!
It helps that our new content editor, Mike Sweeney, has such awesome taste in fiction, too — just this afternoon I was telling him how much better the stories look each time I read them while designing the issue.
The one thing I did want to bring to Jersey Devil Press with my first issue was some outside cover art. A lot of Eirik’s covers are fantastic, but I love meeting and talking to and working with visual artists and photographers, so I was looking forward to finding some good outside cover art for the magazine. And my first cover artist, Patrick Breeden, has contributed a simply killer abstract piece. Which is why I’m skipping my own Photo blog post today and just putting up the cover of Jersey Devil Press.
Now, go read some fiction. You can thank me later.
Samuel Snoek-Brown 
Congratulations on your debut.
Thanks! I’d almost forgotten how much fun (and work) producing a lit magazine can be. It feels good to be getting back to this. 🙂
Good work Sam. I really like the cover art. Seems like Breeden has captured some of Joan Miiro’s essence. Does this offer a hint of the issues contents?
Thanks, Stephen! I love that cover art, too, and I did use it with this issue’s contents in mind. We don’t run on formal themes, but during the natural editorial process, certain trends or tonal similarities do crop up. Our February issue, for example, is going to be full of stories related to relationships, for obvious reasons but in very non-obvious ways. (It’s a twisted little issue!) This one, however, seemed to have no definite “theme” emerging as it came together, but tonally the stories are all a bit warped and unsettling without ever quite getting dark and monochromatic (even the very dark final story has plenty of “color” to it), and I felt Breeden’s image fit well with that tone. I especially love that the dominant hue in that image reminds me of bone; and the apparent contrast of that with the vibrant warmth of the “sun” image in the corner — bright but with a dark center! — appeals to me.