Then Vs. Now

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http://www.comics.org/coverview.lasso?id=19070&zoom=4 vs http://www.dccomics.com/comics/?cm=6795

I mean, has the art of cover design been COMPLETELY lost?

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 23:24 (nineteen years ago)

Dude, I was just thinking about this this morning, when looking at a .CBR of The Creeper. I hardly ever notice covers anymore -- whether I'm going to buy the comic has probably been predetermined by other factors, so I'm just looking at titles, really. But I'd notice them if they were AWESOME.

― Tep (ktepi), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 23:31 (nineteen years ago)

You certainly have a point, though the 'then' cover you've chosen is particularly beautiful, and the 'now' cover is particularly generic. There must be SOME good covers now...right?

― chap (chap), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 23:36 (nineteen years ago)

The 52 ones have been good quite often. But then there's an advantage in that they do tend to reflect stuff that's actually in the script.

― Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 31 January 2007 23:42 (nineteen years ago)

blah blah blah direct market blah blah blah pull lists blah blah blah inconsequential blah blah blah Greg Horn

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Thursday, 1 February 2007 00:14 (nineteen years ago)

That OG B&B cover REALLY amazed me in black & white in Showcase Presents, and I mean, obv. GeoPez is no Gil Kane, but there's just so much wonderful going on in that Kane cover, it's really, y'know, an artist in love with his craft, while the Perez is like, here's Batman and Green Lantern!

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Thursday, 1 February 2007 00:16 (nineteen years ago)

I miss dialogue on covers, though it always seems cheesy on the rare occasion someone does it now.

― Tep (ktepi), Thursday, 1 February 2007 00:22 (nineteen years ago)

Dialogue on the cover has always been cheesy, I thought, part of that exclamatory, hypernarrated style of years past.

― c(,,c) (Leee), Thursday, 1 February 2007 00:25 (nineteen years ago)

DC (or Marvel) should have a month (or a week) where every comic ships with a "NO...NOT YOU!" cover.

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Thursday, 1 February 2007 00:26 (nineteen years ago)

i love cover dialogue, most recently enjoyed on the ASS with jimmy doomsday. they did it all the time on fucking hourman. remember big head month?

― A B C (sparklecock), Thursday, 1 February 2007 00:51 (nineteen years ago)

2000 AD still have some pretty good ones:
http://www.2000adonline.com/functions/cover.php?choice=1496&Comic=2000ad
http://www.2000adonline.com/functions/cover.php?choice=1492&Comic=2000ad
http://www.2000adonline.com/functions/cover.php?choice=1468&Comic=2000ad
http://www.2000adonline.com/functions/cover.php?choice=1412&Comic=2000ad

― chap (chap), Thursday, 1 February 2007 01:01 (nineteen years ago)

Who can we point The Finger at on this? a/the Kuberts? Brian Bolland?

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Thursday, 1 February 2007 09:26 (nineteen years ago)

It's not a 'who' though is it - it's just readers responding better to poster-style cover art. And it's true that a really striking poster-style cover is pretty great, but a generic one is about as dull as it gets. Bolland's stuff was actually really good at taking a memorable image from the script and turning it into a posterised cover visual.

― Tom (Groke), Thursday, 1 February 2007 13:14 (nineteen years ago)

Oh please, Brian Bolland is an example of one of the people doing really good, imaginative covers in this era!

― Matthew Perpetua!!! (fluxblogperpetua), Thursday, 1 February 2007 14:16 (nineteen years ago)

Um, Tom's not saying otherwise.

― David R. (popshots75`), Thursday, 1 February 2007 14:17 (nineteen years ago)

No one's really tried to imitate Bolland, so you can't really blame him for that. You can, however, blame Dave McKean for this:

ihttp://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/3567/400/3567_4_88.jpg

― Chuck_Tatum (Chuck_Tatum), Thursday, 1 February 2007 14:18 (nineteen years ago)

Yes, I'm saying Brian B had a great 'best of both worlds' approach, much like Jones on 52 now.

― Tom (Groke), Thursday, 1 February 2007 14:19 (nineteen years ago)

Haha, 'Placenta of the Earth'. Most Vertigo issue title ever?

― chap (chap), Thursday, 1 February 2007 14:27 (nineteen years ago)

I've taken against Bolland because my favourite covers ever were Sean Phillips' ones for The Invisibles vol.1, and vol 2&3 had Bolland's "And now, a scene from the book".

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Thursday, 1 February 2007 14:35 (nineteen years ago)

I've probably told this story before, but I'll always have a soft spot for Bolland, as I wrote to him for a school art project, and he wrote back with very gracious and patient replies to my inane questions and a drawing of Judge Dredd (which I've lost, frowny face).

― chap (chap), Thursday, 1 February 2007 14:48 (nineteen years ago)

God, that fucking era of Animal Man. Yeah, that's about as Vertigo as you could get!

― Tep (ktepi), Thursday, 1 February 2007 15:00 (nineteen years ago)

Same here. He drew a nice Animal Man for me at Waterstones once. (Also at the signing: megastars Dave Gibbons and Rian Hughes, launching "Science Service.")

― Chuck_Tatum (Chuck_Tatum), Thursday, 1 February 2007 15:00 (nineteen years ago)

And Hourman had some great covers, which I tried to find with google but can't seem to link to except in not-big-enough-to-bother thumbnail form. They're out there, though, both with and without dialogue.

― Tep (ktepi), Thursday, 1 February 2007 15:00 (nineteen years ago)

Well I was responding to Andrew and not Tom...

― Matthew Perpetua!!! (fluxblogperpetua), Thursday, 1 February 2007 15:17 (nineteen years ago)

Up until a year or so ago, the Spider-Man covers were the entire opposite of the "here's a scene" thing - just generic scenes of, for instance, Spidey busting muggers, or Spidey swinging through NY, or Spidey giving Mary Jane a peck on the cheek. She-Hulk did the same thing @ the start of Horngro's shitastic run.

One guy that did the damn thing right: Kaare Andrews

― David R. (popshots75`), Thursday, 1 February 2007 15:31 (nineteen years ago)

That's the guy doing Reign, right? If I get a chance, I have some stuff to bring up on the Spidey thread. (I'm just reminding myself.)

― Tep (ktepi), Thursday, 1 February 2007 15:42 (nineteen years ago)

Yay for the good old days!

http://www.comixdepot.com/catalog/images/avengersann10.jpg

― do i have to draw you a diaphragm (Rock Hardy), Thursday, 1 February 2007 15:46 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, that's him - he was doing covers for Incredible Hulk during the highpoint of Bruce Jones' run, and they were fantastic. See here, from #34 to #54.

― David R. (popshots75`), Thursday, 1 February 2007 15:47 (nineteen years ago)

[xpost]

― David R. (popshots75`), Thursday, 1 February 2007 15:47 (nineteen years ago)

I bought that annual because of the cover!

― Tep (ktepi), Thursday, 1 February 2007 15:49 (nineteen years ago)

post good Bolland, please.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Thursday, 1 February 2007 15:54 (nineteen years ago)

He cries covers:

ihttp://www.photontorpedoes.com/gallery_photon/d/50-2/Animal+Man+24.jpg

― Chuck_Tatum (Chuck_Tatum), Thursday, 1 February 2007 16:06 (nineteen years ago)

http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/d/d7/250px-Judgedeath.jpg
http://www.jensantarelli.com/forbidden/bollandgallery/invisibles/invisibles-v2-8.jpg
http://www.moviepoopshoot.com/comics101/images/2003/oct15/animalman5.jpg
http://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/3567/200/3567_2_39.jpg

― chap (chap), Thursday, 1 February 2007 16:12 (nineteen years ago)

I'm (heir) gonging you for that Greg hr0n comment, Dave.

― c(,,c) (Leee), Thursday, 1 February 2007 17:10 (nineteen years ago)

Animal Man #24 is probably my favourite Bolland cover.

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Thursday, 1 February 2007 17:27 (nineteen years ago)

Up until a year or so ago, the Spider-Man covers were the entire opposite of the "here's a scene" thing

Marvel brought in a line-wide policy a few years ago of having completely generic covers on all their titles. Perhaps so they didn't have to worry about delays meaning plans changing between solicitation and shipping (maybe in the wake of the class action), perhaps just because they decided that no kids are ever looking at shelves now so why bother, possibly just s they could order a year's worth of shit from the same artist in one go and not have to worry about getting them in-house every month.

― cave it for the sake list (kit brash), Thursday, 1 February 2007 22:43 (nineteen years ago)

I think both of the covers highlighted in this thread are boring.

― The Android Cat (Dan Perry), Thursday, 1 February 2007 23:02 (nineteen years ago)

I hate generic poster covers. If there's any point at all to the monthly format it's got to be the idea that you make issue something exciting and interesting and hopefully grab some readers that weren't previously all that involved. A whole shelf of "character portrait" covers just turns me off, as does flipping through the back issues and being unable to conceive of what's different about any of the, say, last eighty issues of Daredevil - a book which actually is exciting and interesting every month! Talk bubbles should probably be used sparingly, but I'd like to see something that hooks me on the story, not the general tone.

That cover for Avengers Annual 10, while cluttered, does point out how the cover can really sell you on a non-decompressed comic. ALL KINDS OF STUFF is going to happen in this thing!

― Doctor Casino (Doctor Casino), Saturday, 3 February 2007 21:37 (nineteen years ago)

Dan: out of interest, what would you consider an unboring cover?

― chap (chap), Sunday, 4 February 2007 05:09 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, aesthetically, the Avengers Annual cover is a mess, but when I was a kid, those covers stood out to me, because I knew I would get LOTSA action.

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Sunday, 4 February 2007 06:07 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.newsarama.com/dcnew/Action/AC_ANN_Cv10_R1_t.jpg

Forgot about this. Cute cover. The insides, I'm suspecting, not so good.

― Chuck_Tatum (Chuck_Tatum), Sunday, 4 February 2007 18:48 (nineteen years ago)

In general, the recent X-Factor covers have been awesome. Ditto also Nextwave.

― The Android Cat (Dan Perry), Sunday, 4 February 2007 18:52 (nineteen years ago)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v485/Suedey/spideycovcolouringflatssaturate.jpg?t=1164548739

wheeeeeee!

― Suedey (John Cei Douglas), Sunday, 4 February 2007 19:19 (nineteen years ago)

lolz that is also awesome

― The Android Cat (Dan Perry), Monday, 5 February 2007 03:55 (nineteen years ago)

That's the Spider-Man comic I'd make given the chance, anyway! I mocked up the cover and then, um, sort of wrote it as well.

Just in case!

― Suedey (John Cei Douglas), Tuesday, 6 February 2007 15:37 (eighteen years ago)

DUDE! I genuflect & shit!

― David R. (popshots75`), Tuesday, 6 February 2007 16:15 (eighteen years ago)

i may have posted this on ilc before but it is still my favourite cover - partly because it really demonstrates how important colouring is:

http://www.samcci.comics.org/x-men/uxmen050.jpg

― Ward Fowler (Ward Fowler), Tuesday, 6 February 2007 23:37 (eighteen years ago)

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