Monday, September 19, 2005

Judging (DC's December) Books By Their Covers

DC's December 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? And DC's covers are at least detailed enough that we CAN make prejudgements based on them!).

Let's begin!

Jock makes it so simple to describe his covers. I just have to say, "Will Jock ever NOT draw a cool looking cover?"

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Of course, it tells us nothing about the plot of Batman #648...but still. Nice cover.
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Now THIS it the kind of cover you end a year-long storyline with!

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It just screams, "CONCLUSION!"
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Chris Weston is such a pro.

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Look at the level of craftmanship involved in this Legends of Dark Knight drawing. Top rate.
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This cover annoyed me.

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Because it is obvioust that Alfred is not a bad guy!!!

You just got finished lecturing about how there is a new Clayface, and then you believe that Alfred really is a bad guy?! Batman, how dumb ARE you?!?!
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This is a very strong cover. Is this by Hampton?

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Very striking visual.
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ANOTHER in a line of Pat Lee covers...

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where it looks like he put JUST enough ass into it to make it look like something, but not enough to make it look really good.
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A small does of Tim Sale goes a long way...

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I think it works here on this Batgirl cover.
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This is what I would term a "good drawing"

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but not a "Good cover." Sean Phillips should draw the interiors of Gotham Central.
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Woah!

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Adam Hughes drawing a very nice cover here. Too bad it has Zatanna in it, which means it is an Infinite Crisis tie-in.
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YES! The Shadowpact guest-starring! SWEET!

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That was sarcasm.
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I'd understand not having Byrne do the covers if Jurgens was, like, knocking these otu of the park...

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...but this cover is basically just "okay."
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Thank GOODness that Lupe gets her revenge!

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Question: Anyone reading Adventures of Superman LIKE Lupe?
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The idea of Aquaman having a Day of Vengeance tie-in is unsettling to me.

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However, that cover is awesome.
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This cover is as good as this title has been...

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Which is bad.
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Another entry in "good drawing"...

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..but not "good cover."
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Playing to strengths!

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George Perez likes drawing lots of things!

Also, what is up with DC and the Amazons? Every chance they get, the Amazons get screwed over!
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COVER THEME MONTH!

Split decision!

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I missed Hard Time.
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FINALLY!

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Someone got my "bring Hellhound back" letters!
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Seriously, any time I see a character I like show up, I get worried.

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But they wouldn't mess with Buddy, would they?

WOULD THEY?!?!
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This is a really good cover by Thibert.

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He should pencil more.
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What were the odds...

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that Fatality, of all Green Lantern villains, would last this long?
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Once again, James Jean saddens me with his great work on such unworthy comics..

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Yikes.
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Daniel Acuña is such a nice find by DC.

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I like the JLA cover better than the Outsiders one.
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I wonder if Murphy Anderson...

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...wonders about the ethics of mind-wiping villains?

Showcase rules!
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Hehe...seriously, what is he doing?

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Why is he doing this to me? It is TOO funny!
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I wish Joe Bennett would draw like this on Birds of Prey.

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Nice piece. JSA Classified has done well by artists so far.
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He's been working on this for YEARS...

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So I hope it ends up looking good. The cover is nice. I like how it is being solicited as JLA Classified. I guess "Classified" is the new "Unlimited"...hehe.
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FINALLY! They started to draw the Thunderbolt as menacing as he SHOULD look!

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FINALLY! Thank the lord for Alex Ross' JSA covers!
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Clever move by Kitson...

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No one can mock his character drawings if he does them in silhouette. Nicely turned.
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I like Saiz.

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This IS a Saiz cover, right?
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"Johns, NOOO!! PLEASE, leave us be!!!"

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Another example of "Good drawing"...

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...not a "good cover."
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Man, DC will miss Yu.

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I hope they won't have to miss Diggle, too.
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Glenn Fabry has been amusing the heck out of me with these covers.

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He continues the streak this month.
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Is it just me, or does this look like Deathblow?

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Still, a Dixon/Manhke war comic sounds good to me.
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SEVEN SOLDIERS COVERS!!

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Nice portrait-easue covers.

Too bad that Ferry art is ONLY the cover.
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John-Paul Leon is good.

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Fine cover by Jean, but a little too laid back, I think.

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He can do such amazing things with his art, I'd like to see it.
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Heh.

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Now THAT's a nice way to end a run...hehe.
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They sure know how to draw a reader in, eh?

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Nice cover. DMZ is shaping up to be a hot book.
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I would love to see all the Solo covers lined up.

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I bet it would look awesome.

Teddy Kristiansen is a nice choice.
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It took Captain Atom to bring the gang back together!

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Should we thank him or hate him?
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Loeb is at least good at picking good artist to work with...

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Nice cover for his last issue.
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MY TOP FIVE COVERS OF THE MONTH!!!

#5 Call me sentimental, but I just love this cover.

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#4 I'm no big Alex Ross fan, but this cover is quite good.

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It really captures the moment, and the use of the Legion of Doom in the background is quite good.
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#3 They're not making it easy on Luke Ross, are they?

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First the Quitely cover, now this awesome Manco one. Poor Ross.
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#2

Matt Wagner is good.

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That is a very strong cover.
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#1 Ordway is SO good at drawing classic heroes.

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What a nice piece.
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Okay, that's it for me, folks!

Feel free to share YOUR prejudices!!

AND your top five choices!

Read More

19 Comments:

Blogger T. said...

What's so great about the Matt Wagner Batman cover? I thought there were definitely better picks for the top 5 than that one. Wagner's Batman paintings always look pretty stiff and dull to me, even though I like his work when he sticks to just pencils.

9/19/2005 10:58:00 PM  
Blogger Marionette said...

The thing with the Wagner cover is that you know exactly what is going to happen next and you get a sense of tension missing in a lot of the other active pose covers because they are so much less directed.

I love the christmas themed cover which I'm guessing in JLU Adventures or whatever it's called because there is so much character in it. Shots of heroes hitting villains are so generic that it's hard to even focus on them. The Captain Marvel one is exceptional because the expressions and body language give it so much more depth. Similarly action poses send me to sleep. Particularly when it's characters that I don't know - they give me no incentive to find out. And who cares if that Supes/Bats cover is well drawn? It's as formulaic as the writing behind it will be.

Yes, the Chris Weston cover is very detailed but it doesn't really work. So this guy is sniping at Batman. Okay, but it's hard to work up a great deal of interest since we know he's going to fail. And what's with the crowd in the background? Are we to assume that they are what the sniper is aiming at and Batman is perhaps disguised in amongst them? It seems unlikely they are actually behind the shooter at that angle. It's clever and symbolic but an overly complicated mess that would have worked so much better if it wasn't so obviously Bats he was aiming at. Then we'd have the shooter and the crowd with the implication that anyone could die.

9/20/2005 12:19:00 AM  
Blogger T. said...

Problem with that Christmas cover if it's JLU...isn't Power Girl a bad guy in that continuity?

9/20/2005 01:20:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b236/Resources80/JLAClassifiedCv15.jpg

Christ, who did this? It looks like it's from one of those Geocities sites where some nerd has photoshopped a bunch of porn models into Power Girl. Fucking awful.

9/20/2005 04:08:00 AM  
Blogger Brian Cronin said...

My guess, T, is that by the time this comic comes out, Power Girl will no longer be a bad guy.

9/20/2005 05:35:00 AM  
Blogger Brian Cronin said...

Doesn't it, anonymous?

It astonishes me that that dreck is being used as a SELLING point of these issues.

You got Butch Guice art inside, and you're using THAT as the cover?!?!

9/20/2005 05:36:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Nice looking cover, but there's something "off" about the Justice League Unlimited cover any way you look at it. If Power Girl's a good guy now, that's cool, but Shayera hasn't been wearing the actual Hawkgirl costume lately.

9/20/2005 06:14:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thank you Mister Grant Morrison for using Zatanna so well I do not feel the need to buy any of this other new crossover crapola!

9/20/2005 06:58:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The "smooth circle of flesh" is Supergirl's elbow, i believe.

9/20/2005 09:40:00 AM  
Blogger Michael said...

Would it be too geeky to note that three of the zombie Titans (Kole, Aquagirl, and Dove I) died in the original Crisis?

9/20/2005 11:19:00 AM  
Blogger Brian Cronin said...

A better question, Michael, would be whether Johns gets through the issue without pointing that out himself...hehe.

9/20/2005 12:56:00 PM  
Blogger thekelvingreen said...

"So we've got Firestorm up in space fighting some giant space robot bats. Who are we going to team him up with?"

"Giant space bats? There's only one contender. Animal Man!"

"OF COURSE!"

...

Is Superman being played by Rob Lowe in that Classified cover? It looks a lot like him.

9/20/2005 01:07:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Love McDaniel on Robin, but why is Blue Devil...um, RED???

ooh, maybe it's a new team, the Rainbow Devils!

Blue Devil, Red Devil, Green Devil, Yellow Devil, er, Infrared Devil...

9/20/2005 02:36:00 PM  
Blogger thekelvingreen said...

Jackanapes, I had the same question, but I stayed quiet because my knowledge of the DCU is limited, and I wasn't sure that it [i]was[/i] Blue Devil, even though it looked like it to me.


I expect that the Rainbow Devils have the power to actually combine into one giant Rainbow Devil in order to smash evildoers in a crazy anime style. And their origin involves the Rainbow Batman at some point too, I'd wager.

9/20/2005 07:11:00 PM  
Blogger Brian Cronin said...

My guess was that the end of Day of Vengeance would explain the color difference of "Blue" Devil.

9/21/2005 02:11:00 PM  
Blogger Brian Cronin said...

The Nightwing cover (and the Green Lantern cover) were both resolicited, so I covered them in last month's edition of "Judging Books By Their Covers"

9/25/2005 10:03:00 PM  
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