X-23 by Brian Lopez-Santos

All the animals come out at night

Laura Kinney/X-23 on All-New Wolverine blank cover by B2rianLS. My latest commission is, as you can probably tell, referencing NYX and Laura’s history as a prostitute. You may also recognize that Laura bears the likeness of Sasha Grey (if you don’t and the name isn’t familiar to you, I should warn you about Googling the name with safe search off). Because of this, I once again think this commission deserves a bit of a director’s commentary track to explain its genesis.

Let’s look at the comic book title NYX first. It should be read as NY:X because it refers to District X of New York City, a fictional area of New York also known as Mutant Town. It’s worth noting that Nyx is also the Greek goddess of the night. So here we have Laura on the streets of Mutant Town, a goddess of the night. She’s looking at us, an unspoken invitation hanging in the air, but at the same time her claws are out. She’s dangerous. Is she working, selling her services on the street corner? Or is she undercover, on the prowl for pimps and human traffickers, looking to take out the people pulling the strings in order to liberate other girls from a situation she only knows too well? I’ll leave the story up to your imagination.

Now, a few words about the environment. I showed Brian pages from NYX for inspiration and he came up with this vision of New York City. All I added was a suggestion to include the word NYX and a zebra on signage or as street art as a sort of easter egg detail, and a suggestion for a second girl to be leaning into an open car window, talking to a potential customer. It’s a gritty and grimy urban scene, and when I first saw the completed piece, I told Brian I could practically hear the Taxi Driver music. He told me that sort of 1970s New York was exactly what he had in mind when he drew it. He even kept the cars old and boxy to give it that atmosphere. It’s also what made me come up with the title. All the animals come out at night. Is Laura and the other girl the animals? The printed title graphic on the book does call her the Wolverine. Or maybe the animals are the people she’s hunting? Again, I’ll let you choose how to interpret things.

Finally, let me talk about the Sasha Grey likeness. That came about from Brian asking me about “celebrity crushes” of mine to give him an idea of what kind of attitude and types I like so he could use that to inform his depiction of Laura. Now, I wouldn’t call Sasha Grey a crush of mine, but I’ve always felt she would be an interesting “casting choice”. First of all, she obviously looks a lot like Laura and could easily take on the role in that regard. More compelling than that, though, is the fact that like Laura she also has a past as a teenage sex worker. That is a very interesting commonality and I think casting her for a cover with this exact theme adds an extra layer of meaning to it.

I’m really happy with how this cover turned out, and I hope you think as highly of it as I do. I also included some sketches from different stages. And if you read all of this then I hope you found my notes at least a little bit interesting as well.