Judging (DC's September) Books By Their Covers
DC's September Solicitations are up, so now is as good a time as any for us to make prejudgements based just on the covers (as we all love to make prejudgements, don't we?).
Let's begin!
Just last month, I commented that I thought that the JLA Classified covers may actually fit together nicely...
Well, I was obviously wrong.
How did this cover sneak by an editor?
Remember Batman:Digital Justice?
THAT computer art looks better, and that was done fifteen years ago!!
________________________________________________________
Maybe you could help me out here...
Is Lady Blackhawk pulling a gun out on an earthquake?!?!
________________________________________________________
I have waited long enough!
The Legion of Substitute Super Villains finally strikes!!!
What?
This group of bad guys are supposed to be taken seriously?
Oops.
Never mind, then.
________________________________________________________
Wait a second...
Robin appearing to go on a military mission?
And Chuck Dixon ISN'T writing the book!?!?!?
________________________________________________________
Two striking covers by Patrick Gleason this month...
First we have Green Lantern Corps: Recharge, which is written by Dave Gibbons so I hope it will be good, and...
Aquaman #34, which I am pretty darn sure WON'T be good...but that's a cool cover!
________________________________________________________
Just when you thought all Alex Ross was good for was drawing Justice Society members looking somber and dark...
He pulls off a good looking Astro City cover.
At least it is still dark! Don't want to worry people TOO much!
________________________________________________________
This is a funny Authority: Kev cover...
but I think this one is even FUNNIER!
________________________________________________________
Wouldn't it be neat if the Justice League was like this?
________________________________________________________
Man, even the magic shows in the DC Universe are depressing and tied into Identity Crisis!!
I promise that is my lone "The DCU is like the Titanic and Johns/Rucka/Winick are the Co-Captains" reference for the month.
Promise.
________________________________________________________
Gotta give it up to Terry Dodson - this is a strong cover.
________________________________________________________
I think the Day of Vengeance has been pretty lame so far, but it at least gives us two strong covers this month...one by Byrne...
and one by Simonson...
________________________________________________________
What, is DC now selling product placement space on their covers?!!?
Where does it end!?!? Where does it end!?!?
________________________________________________________
Two strong Ladronn covers this month, particularly the Flash one...
________________________________________________________
I just love that Christopher Moeller has been working on JLA: Cold Steel since 2002.
That is so amazing to me.
Cool Hawkman cover.
________________________________________________________
I do not like this cover.
At all.
________________________________________________________
Showcase Presents, baby!!
SWEET!
________________________________________________________
I have to say, I have given him a lot of grief in the past, but I have to give Ian Churchill credit, this cover is a well laid out cover.
________________________________________________________
This looks like it will be a fun Gotham Central storyline...
Sean Phillips is awesome.
Why can't HE be the new ongoing Gotham Central artist?
________________________________________________________
Hehe...Woozy.
________________________________________________________
DUDES!!
Did she just blast him in the robot privates!?!?!?
________________________________________________________
Other artists - take note!
When drawing Supergirl, if you must emulate someone, emulate Ed McGuinness instead of Michael Turner.
Thank you.
________________________________________________________
I gave Pat Lee grief over the cover of #1, so it is only fair to note that I think that the cover of #2 is a good deal better.
________________________________________________________
It's funny...James Jean can make anything look awesome...
So it is still good to see that even Jean seems to give MORE effort to the projects that are a little more worthy of his prodigious talents, as seen in the fact that the above two covers, while good, are standard fare, while the Fables cover below shows much more effort put into the design...
________________________________________________________
Strong cover by JG Jones
________________________________________________________
And Rags Morales continues to do good covers for this current JLA arc...
________________________________________________________
This is a good month for covers! Even Van Sciver gets in on the act, with a strong Green Lantern cover!
________________________________________________________
While she is still drawing Power Girl to look just like The Pro, Amanda Conner is still doing a fun job with the JSA Classified covers...
And credit is due to Johns, teaming up two pre-Crisis JSA teammates is interesting.
________________________________________________________
You can always depend on Jock for a strong cover...
________________________________________________________
Pardon the pun, but Seth Fisher's art is really cool.
________________________________________________________
Shouldn't someone have said, "Hey, the covers of Y The Last Man #37 and Vigilante #1 are pretty damn similar in lay out."
Just a thought.
________________________________________________________
Not the most original of cover ideas, but sometimes, cliches are cliches because they work so well...
...like the "chesspiece" cover motif.
________________________________________________________
Only one Seven Soldiers cover in the solicitations this month - luckily, it is the one I am looking forward to the most!
Ferry is going to ROCK on this book! Great cover to start the series off!
________________________________________________________
An attractive cover from Chaykin...
________________________________________________________
And a well illustrated one by Tony Harris.
________________________________________________________
Another great cover by Marcos Martin...
I notice he didn't draw the interiors. Could DC have heard my "Free Marcos!" chant?!!?
One can only hope.
________________________________________________________
What an odd layout by Matt Haley.
He had to work pretty hard at making this cover look this dorky.
________________________________________________________
Chalk up another odd layout, this time by Ed Benes...
________________________________________________________
My pick for cover of the month!!!!
Now THIS is why you sign artists to exclusive contracts!
WOW.
Joshua Middleton is a great young artist.
________________________________________________________
Okay, that's it for me, folks!
Feel free to share YOUR prejudices!!
Let's begin!
Just last month, I commented that I thought that the JLA Classified covers may actually fit together nicely...
Well, I was obviously wrong.
How did this cover sneak by an editor?
Remember Batman:Digital Justice?
THAT computer art looks better, and that was done fifteen years ago!!
________________________________________________________
Maybe you could help me out here...
Is Lady Blackhawk pulling a gun out on an earthquake?!?!
________________________________________________________
I have waited long enough!
The Legion of Substitute Super Villains finally strikes!!!
What?
This group of bad guys are supposed to be taken seriously?
Oops.
Never mind, then.
________________________________________________________
Wait a second...
Robin appearing to go on a military mission?
And Chuck Dixon ISN'T writing the book!?!?!?
________________________________________________________
Two striking covers by Patrick Gleason this month...
First we have Green Lantern Corps: Recharge, which is written by Dave Gibbons so I hope it will be good, and...
Aquaman #34, which I am pretty darn sure WON'T be good...but that's a cool cover!
________________________________________________________
Just when you thought all Alex Ross was good for was drawing Justice Society members looking somber and dark...
He pulls off a good looking Astro City cover.
At least it is still dark! Don't want to worry people TOO much!
________________________________________________________
This is a funny Authority: Kev cover...
but I think this one is even FUNNIER!
________________________________________________________
Wouldn't it be neat if the Justice League was like this?
________________________________________________________
Man, even the magic shows in the DC Universe are depressing and tied into Identity Crisis!!
I promise that is my lone "The DCU is like the Titanic and Johns/Rucka/Winick are the Co-Captains" reference for the month.
Promise.
________________________________________________________
Gotta give it up to Terry Dodson - this is a strong cover.
________________________________________________________
I think the Day of Vengeance has been pretty lame so far, but it at least gives us two strong covers this month...one by Byrne...
and one by Simonson...
________________________________________________________
What, is DC now selling product placement space on their covers?!!?
Where does it end!?!? Where does it end!?!?
________________________________________________________
Two strong Ladronn covers this month, particularly the Flash one...
________________________________________________________
I just love that Christopher Moeller has been working on JLA: Cold Steel since 2002.
That is so amazing to me.
Cool Hawkman cover.
________________________________________________________
I do not like this cover.
At all.
________________________________________________________
Showcase Presents, baby!!
SWEET!
________________________________________________________
I have to say, I have given him a lot of grief in the past, but I have to give Ian Churchill credit, this cover is a well laid out cover.
________________________________________________________
This looks like it will be a fun Gotham Central storyline...
Sean Phillips is awesome.
Why can't HE be the new ongoing Gotham Central artist?
________________________________________________________
Hehe...Woozy.
________________________________________________________
DUDES!!
Did she just blast him in the robot privates!?!?!?
________________________________________________________
Other artists - take note!
When drawing Supergirl, if you must emulate someone, emulate Ed McGuinness instead of Michael Turner.
Thank you.
________________________________________________________
I gave Pat Lee grief over the cover of #1, so it is only fair to note that I think that the cover of #2 is a good deal better.
________________________________________________________
It's funny...James Jean can make anything look awesome...
So it is still good to see that even Jean seems to give MORE effort to the projects that are a little more worthy of his prodigious talents, as seen in the fact that the above two covers, while good, are standard fare, while the Fables cover below shows much more effort put into the design...
________________________________________________________
Strong cover by JG Jones
________________________________________________________
And Rags Morales continues to do good covers for this current JLA arc...
________________________________________________________
This is a good month for covers! Even Van Sciver gets in on the act, with a strong Green Lantern cover!
________________________________________________________
While she is still drawing Power Girl to look just like The Pro, Amanda Conner is still doing a fun job with the JSA Classified covers...
And credit is due to Johns, teaming up two pre-Crisis JSA teammates is interesting.
________________________________________________________
You can always depend on Jock for a strong cover...
________________________________________________________
Pardon the pun, but Seth Fisher's art is really cool.
________________________________________________________
Shouldn't someone have said, "Hey, the covers of Y The Last Man #37 and Vigilante #1 are pretty damn similar in lay out."
Just a thought.
________________________________________________________
Not the most original of cover ideas, but sometimes, cliches are cliches because they work so well...
...like the "chesspiece" cover motif.
________________________________________________________
Only one Seven Soldiers cover in the solicitations this month - luckily, it is the one I am looking forward to the most!
Ferry is going to ROCK on this book! Great cover to start the series off!
________________________________________________________
An attractive cover from Chaykin...
________________________________________________________
And a well illustrated one by Tony Harris.
________________________________________________________
Another great cover by Marcos Martin...
I notice he didn't draw the interiors. Could DC have heard my "Free Marcos!" chant?!!?
One can only hope.
________________________________________________________
What an odd layout by Matt Haley.
He had to work pretty hard at making this cover look this dorky.
________________________________________________________
Chalk up another odd layout, this time by Ed Benes...
________________________________________________________
My pick for cover of the month!!!!
Now THIS is why you sign artists to exclusive contracts!
WOW.
Joshua Middleton is a great young artist.
________________________________________________________
Okay, that's it for me, folks!
Feel free to share YOUR prejudices!!
posted by Brian Cronin at 6/21/2005 03:30:00 AM
15 Comments:
On the BoP cover:
I *think* that Lady Blackhawk pulled the gun on Huntress for some reason, which caused her to fall off the ladder, which whacked Black Canary in the butt, causing her to drop the box of delicate china.
And Babs is just rubbing her forehead and hoping that she's the one who gets to stay in Metropolis after this issue.
I do not understand how you can find that Supergirl cover acceptable. Look at those faces. And those bodies. And those poses. And everything. That's a terrible cover, Brian.
enjoyed your comments on dc covers--nice format. in general i'm more of a marvel man myself, but i have been annoyed recently that most of the marvel covers as of late have simply been closeups of the hero rather than anything thematic that ties into the story! weak...
best comics out there right now in my opinion: ex machina, y the last man, daredevil, powers, conan...
Can't believe you have a problem with the Firestorm layout, yet the Supergirl Churchill cover has no flaws? Oy...
Wonder Girl's giraffe neck is enough to sink that Churchill cover.
While I'm not generally a fan of Benes' work, I don't see a problem with that Bizarro/Reverse Flash(?) cover.
Actually, it's kind of funny because, I presume, they're crossing the finish line from opposite directions.
If you want to knock Churchill's character designs, that's totally fine by me.
But after months and months of seeing Churchill layout covers that just made no sense and at ALL, I had to give it up for him making a cover that, well, made sense.
You could tell what everyone was doing and it all fit together into one image, as compared to some of his recent work, where it looks like he just took two separate images and stuck them together onto a drawing.
This time, it looks like he actually took the lay out seriously.
Again, if you want to knock the way he draws each character - that's fine by me.
I just have no problem with the layout (the opposite is true with Haley's Firestorm cover - I don't think there is anything wrong with how he drew the characters, just how he laid them out on the cover).
"in general i'm more of a marvel man myself, but i have been annoyed recently that most of the marvel covers as of late have simply been closeups of the hero rather than anything thematic that ties into the story! weak.."
Yeah, I started to do one of these once with Marvel covers...I got about one cover in before I had to say, "Wait...these are all just pin-ups that have nothing to do with the story inside."
Lady Blackhawk is aiming her gun at a rat.
The "earthquake" seems to be more in the line of stuff being knocked over due to clumsiness.
Wow!
She really IS pointing the gun at the rat!
Not too impressive with the perspective, Melo!!!
That "Legion of Substitute Super-Villains" crack will have me laughing all night, Brian.
Thanks a lot. ;)
The covers are very nice, but the solicitations themselves do nothing to inspire me. I think I've been spoiled by all the Infinite Crisis/Seven Soldiers hype over the last few months.
That said, I'll be picking up my regular titles: The Flash, Teen Titans, and Aquaman, along with Rann/Thanagar War and OMAC Project.
...You could tell what everyone was doing and it all fit together into one image...
That's sarcasm, right? A joke? Okay, fun's over, you can say what you think about it now.
I've been looking at that cover for ten minutes now and I still can't figure out what the hell is supposed to be happening there. It's visual gibberish. Complete nonsense. Starfire shoots at... Wonder Girl for some reason, Kid Flash runs off the roof to his death while Raven just stands and watches, and Supergirl's screaming at Beast Boy, who has morphed into a tiny, chicken-sized flying dinosaur for some reason?
Now that I think about it, they might - might - be supposed to be fighting Supergirl there, but it's just a blind guess. There's no way to tell that from that cover.
Seriously, man, you have got to be joking. That's the worst layout of all of those.
Nope, I think the layout was nifty.
Especially for Churchill, who usually does a poor job with his layouts.
You fucking suck, Turner hater!
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