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Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Art Attack: June 2012's Coolest Covers

-Remember how we all spent years thinking Black Manta looked kind of ridiculous? Like how we all thought Aquaman was lame? The reward for our callous behavior is that Geoff Johns goes out of his way to write Aquaman bad ass and now Ivan Reis puts equal effort into making Manta look kick ass. Snark triumphs again!

-Loosely continuing the "back in the day" theme I've got going here, back in the day when the Phoenix Force was first introduced, guys like Dave Cockrum and John Byrne made it look cool enough, but they only had so many tools at their disposal. Today, with state of the art rendering and coloring techniques, the folks drawing and coloring variations of the Phoenix across AvX get to go all out and ramp this cosmic bad boy up to 11. Alan Davis uses great perspective and shading on Secret Avengers while Jim Cheung just brings the intensity on Avengers Vs. X-Men. Man, I never knew I needed a Phoenix bursting out of Captain America's chest until I saw it, but yeah, needed it.

-I like a lot about that Batman, Inc. cover by Chris Burnham, can't narrow it down. Is that Halo and Looker?

-Words on a cover can easily make things too busy, but Phil Noto really nailed their use on his Buffy cover this month. The placement and the juxtaposition against the image draws me in rather than scaring me away; skills.

-Good month for Buffy covers. That Drusilla one by Georges Jeanty is striking. Great use of white space and moving the action to the bottom of the page.

-Great layers to DC Universe Presents by Ryan Sook. Each bleeds into the next.

-Deadpool #56 by Dave Johnson is my current computer desktop background at work.

-Terry Dodson draws a fantastic Black Cat. I mean, he draws many characters well, but something about this one in particular really brings out his A-game. It's that mischievous smile and the glimmer in her eyes. Glad to see him taking her on again.

-Adam Hughes can draw dudes too.

-That's one crazy wolf by Simon Bisley on the Hellblazer cover.

-Dale Eaglesham doing something very different on Hulk, very outside the box. Cool to see since he's dynamite as a classic super hero artist, but he's a clever designer as well.

-I don't talk enough about Stephanie Hans' Journey Into Mystery covers (tremendous book, by the by). The more characters she puts on, the better. Beautiful colors.

-Jerome Opena and Dean White on Uncanny X-Force are simply a dream team. Rad to see them getting cover duty.

-Chris Samnee, what are you doing on these Wolverine covers? I love it.

ACTION COMICS #10 by Rags Morales

ALABASTER #3 by Greg Ruth

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #687 by Stefano Caselli

AQUAMAN #10 by Ivan Reis

AVENGERS VS. X-MEN #5 by Jim Cheung

BATMAN, INC. #2 by Chris Burnham

BATWOMAN #10 by J.H. Williams III

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER SEASON 9 #10 by Phil Noto

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER SEASON 9 #10 variant by Georges Jeanty

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER: DRUSILLA #1 by Georges Jeanty

DAREDEVIL #14 by Paolo Rivera

DC UNIVERSE PRESENTS #10 by Ryan Sook

DEADPOOL #56 by Dave Johnson

DEFENDERS #7 by Terry Dodson

DIAL H #2 by Brian Bolland

DOROTHY & THE WIZARD IN OZ #8 by Skottie Young

FAIREST #4 by Adam Hughes

FURY MAX #3 by Dave Johnson

HELLBLAZER #292 by Simon Bisley

HULK #53 by Dale Eaglesham

I, VAMPIRE #10 by Clayton Crain

INCREDIBLE HULK #9 by Michael Komarck

JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #639 by Stephanie Hans

MORNING GLORIES #21 by Rodin Esquejo

NEW DEADWARDIANS #4 by Ian Culbard

THE PUNISHER #12 by Marco Checchetto

SAGA #4 by Fiona Staples

SCARLET SPIDER #6 by Ryan Stegman

SECRET AVENGERS #28 by Alan Davis

THE SHADE #9 by Tony Harris

SMALLVILLE SEASON 11 #2 by Cat Staggs

STAR WARS: DARTH VADER & THE GHOST PRISON by Dave Wilkins

ULTIMATE COMICS ULTIMATES #12 by Kaare Andrews

UNCANNY X-FORCE #26 by Jerome Opena

UNTOLD TALES OF THE PUNISHER MAX #1 by Roland Boschi

WINTER SOLDIER #6 by Steve Epting

WOLVERINE #308 by Chris Samnee

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Art Attack: May 2012's Coolest Covers

-On Animal Man Annual #1 and Avengers Academy #30, Travel Foreman and Giuseppe Camuncoli both do something that makes their covers stand out in a perfectly logical and yet unexpected way, that being taking characters whose chief physical characteristics are physical deformities and actually making them visually a bit gross. Swamp Thing is a shambling swamp monster and Mettle is basically an accident victim with no skin, but the tendency for artists will often just be to make them look super heroic and bad ass; Foreman's Swamp Thing is a creeping mass of gelatin while Camuncoli's Mettle appears horribly uncomfortable in his own proportions. It solidifies what makes these characters unique when artists go for it like this, and it makes their work stand out in the process.

-On his variant to Avengers Vs. X-Men #4, Jerome Opena demonstrates how to make a simple concept very powerful. And dig those Dean White colors.

-Captain America dinosaur! Captain America dinosaur!

-There is seemingly not only nothing Paolo Rivera can't do, but nothing he can't do with his own spin. This month, he does sexy like you've never seen before on the cover of Daredevil.

-Dave Johnson is a genius with composition. I'm loving seeing the techniques he's been using to make his Deadpool covers break from the pack and am anxious to see how that black space is ultimately utilized. His Fury MAX stuff is pretty damn hot too.

-Breaking: Adam Hughes draws gorgeous ladies.

-It's always fun to see Ethan Van Sciver apply his detailed style to new designs, in this case Batwing and OMAC at the least.

-Hey, remember how I said a couple months back I was intrigued to pick up Glory based just on the cover? I did and I liked it!

-That Grim Leaper cover unsettles me and I can't put my finger on exactly why.

-Incredible Hulk #7.1's cover is currently the background on my work computer.

-What in the blue hell is happening on that Wolverine cover by Chris Samnee? I must know.

-Young Justice #16 feels a bit like an homage to the original Young Justice #22, itself a bit of an homage to New Teen Titans #8. Cool stuff.

AMERICAN VAMPIRE #27 by Rafael Albuquerque