So you want to make a magazine cover?
Warning: Some of the linked to images may have been tagged as NSFW by the automod. And even if they haven’t the thematic is a sword-and-sorcery Sorceress, meaning scantily-clad. So if you do not have NSFW toggled on you may not see all the test samples.
That said the basic formula used in nearly all the prompts linked to created specifically for this article begin with: “Cover of pulp cinema magazine " [YOUR TITLE HERE] ", cover title: "[YOUR TITLE HERE]", sub title: "[your info here]", depicting [insert your prompt info here]”
That said I just have one question...
Have you ever wanted to make your own cover of a comic or magazine but worried you lacked the skills to do your idea justice?
Well, friend, fret no more because with AI you can do a lot more than even photoshop can achieve! Why. Yes-sir-ee, this here AI can make your wildest fanzine fantasies all but come to life!
How?
It’s actually easy, once you get the hang if it, the gist, the general idea, the… Well, a good base prompt to work with. You don’t have to use the ine in this article, though it’s a good starting point. Myself, I began with remixing prompts here on Tensor. You can learn a lot by reading and editing (whether you hit the remix button or copy and paste) prompts. As with most AI art you want to start with at least the outline of an idea.
What do YOU want to create?
Maybe you've always wanted to see an issue of Savage Sword of Conan where Conan wrestled in mud with Red Sonja, a comic cover of The X-Men where Harley Quinn teamed up with Wolverine, or maybe you want your own magazine... A fun faux fanzine (or mock-up for a digital fanzine) something like one of these:
[Warning: The theme for many of these was “Exploitation Cinema”, thus many will probably be tagged NSFW.]
[More in my gallery. Remix and twerk, er, tweak away!]
While those may be great examples what you really want to know is where to begin. For me, I have split my prompts into two parts. First, the description of what type of magazine I want to create. Second, the type of illustration I want on the cover. With a good solid first part you can actually generate decent concept cover art. And a good second part will generate a solid image as is. As I will now demonstrate.
Prompt 1: Cover of pulp cinema magazine " SAVAGE LENS ", cover title: "SAVAGE LENS", sub title: "Exploitation Cinema", depicting Hyper-realistic, cinematic film still of a 1980s Barbarian fantasy movie, epic fantasy action scene in vivid Technicolor, well-defined hands, beautiful face and eyes, realism pushed to extreme, whimsical gothic fantasy Eroticism, perfect body, beautiful, realistic, masterpiece, dynamic movement, volumetric lighting, realism pushed to extreme, vintage cinema magazine cover.
Prompt 2a : The image shows an beautiful young provocatively posed 21-year-old Arabian girl as a sensual insufficiently attired sexy barefoot Sorceress, skyclad with a sheer see-through, off-the-shoulder sheer sky blue chiton cape draped over her nude body, athletic young body shown in intimate anatomically correct detail, mystical runes painted upon her bare skin, long lustrous windswept hair, toned body, intricately detailed nubile young athletic figure, legs spread in dramatic stance as she leans back in a forest pool, wet, posed in a tantalizing tableau that accentuates the sensual intensity and elegance of a young Arabian girl's feminine presence and mysterious mystical power. A flimsy transluscent emerald cloak billows around her, rippling like shadows in the oppressive gloom of a grimdark forest, where the columns of ancient Greek ruins rise up like skeletal fingers. With her right hand, she holds a stick, poking into a vine covered altar where a pulsating otherworldly light shines from a small statue. With an intense expression, her piercing eyes spark with power as she conjures swirling orbs of vibrant magic above the open palm of her legt hand, casting ethereal wisps of defensive energy into the blackened air. The forest is alive with a sense of foreboding, gnarled roots, detritus, and a thick fog clinging ominously to the ruins. This Lovecraftian nightmare setting is a tableau of dark danger and adventurous allure designed to captivate the viewer with sensual intensity and a gratuitously insufficiently attired beautiful barefoot young Sorceress, well proportioned limbs, Perfect hands, museum-quality nude, intricately detailed background, uncensored creative flourishes reminiscent of classic Greco-Roman nudes, Occidental Eroticism, Arabian Fantasy, beautiful bald pussy, perky nipples, ultra-realistic labia, well proportioned limbs, well-defined features, beautiful barefeet, beautiful pussy, ultra-realistic, 4k, 8k, 16k, UHD, realism pushed to extreme, 5 fingers, trending on Artstation, DeviantArt, Rule34
Wowzers! What a lot to read, right?
That prompt can be edited down quite a bit. I put in extra description specifically for you to play with. (Actually I based a lot of it on the extraneous descriptors in prompts read here then copy-pasted into the prompt. Not complaining. Just saying.) In fact, if you read carefully, there are utterly pointless descriptors included. Some that will no doubt leave you scratching your head. Trust me, there’s a lot to work with. To begin you can take the above and trim it like this:
Prompt 2b: The image shows an beautiful young provocatively posed 21-year-old Arabian girl as a sensual insufficiently attired barefoot Sorceress in a sheer, off-the-shoulder, sky blue chiton cape draped over her athletic young body, mystical runes painted upon her bare skin, long lustrous windswept hair, legs spread in dramatic stance as she leans back in a forest pool, posed in a tantalizing tableau that accentuates the intensity and elegance of her mysterious mystical power. A flimsy transluscent emerald aura billows around her, rippling like shadows in the oppressive gloom of a grimdark forest, where the columns of ancient Greek ruins rise up like skeletal fingers. With her right hand, she holds a stick, poking into a vine covered altar where a pulsating otherworldly light shines from a small statue. With an intense expression, her piercing eyes spark with power as she conjures swirling orbs of vibrant magic above the open palm of her legt hand, casting ethereal wisps of defensive energy into the blackened air. The forest is alive with a sense of foreboding, gnarled roots, detritus, and a thick fog clinging ominously to the ruins.
Not bad. So, there you have it, two separate prompts. Now let’s combine prompts. I, of course, chose Prompt 1 and 2b and here is the result:
Granted that took four tries. The first three:
So, what happened?
As you can see, no text. Oh no! 😉
Do Not Panic.
At the same time I generated three images offsite. Each generated, in that Flux model version, near perfect title text.
The point?
Sometimes you may need to make tweaks so a prompt will work, or at least output an image you want. In such cases it’s always a good idea, if you can, to test your prompt on multiple platforms. (Or at least a separate platform.) Even when technically using the same model you may discover very different results. In this case it only required minor prompt tweaking and a few additional descriptors added to the end of the prompt. And, just to be sure it really works, one last image:
While it is customary to point out how your mileage may vary, instead I would like to point out that, by using various LORAs, you can generate some truly amazing custom results.
In conclusion I would like to thank @Snowflake (amazing work with Weird Tales cover art), @juiwaters, @NickEden (great Sorceresses), @Jozz, @PEPA_AI (inspired my Weird Tales covers) and all those other posters of fantasy art and magazine cover mock-ups whose art inspired my recent foray into creating magazine cover art. Than you for your wonderful art and…
Thanks for reading.
I hope this has been helpful.
