Welcome to the thirtieth installment of Comic Book Cover-Up! Every week, We the Nerdy assistant editor Henry Varona weighs in on his choices for the best comic book covers coming out, along with some great honorable mentions worth checking out! Looking at the layout, artistic talent, and the overall craftsmanship, the covers are analyzed and ranked accordingly. At the end, each book will be given points based on their ranking. Then Henry adds up points for the various series, which will work towards earning further accolades in the future! Here’s a point breakdown for what every ranking will earn:
- First-10 Points
- Second-7 Points
- Third- 5 Points
- Fourth and Fifth- 3 Points Each
- Still Gorgeous- 1 Point Each
So without further ado, here’s the week’s best!
5. Avengers 34.1 by Chris Bachalo (Featured Image)
Chris Bachalo draws bombastic, high concept images. Because of this, whenever he brings it down a notch and draws something more down to Earth, it immediately grabs my attention. His cover to Avengers 34.1 shows the powerful being flying through a scene of pure destruction, reaching out to save a young boy. It’s striking, a moment ripped from time. Where many other artists highlight the power and toughness of Hyperion, Bachalo makes him look graceful as he moves the debris around the boy in order to reach the boy. The carnage in the background is incredibly detailed. Bachalo initially won me over as an artist with his unparalleled attention to detail in his X-Men books. To see that here is just icing on the cake, which further freezes time. Where many other artists would take this concept and show brutality and speed, Bachalo slows it down and makes it personal and human, something that Hyperion dearly needs. Well done.
4. The Shadow Year One 10 by Chris Samnee
Back in the days of yesteryear, Will Eisner drew the Spirit and found a way to fit the titular characters name into many of his pages. It made his title pages iconic and unique, and it’s why we so fondly remember the creator all these decades later. Hoping to evoke this sensibility, Chris Samnee creates an image for the Shadow, another classic hero who benefits greatly from this treatment. Samnee depicts the Shadow trenching through the waters of a sewer, pistols drawn, searching for a foe who himself watches from the shadows. The use of Shadows is great here, whether it be the shadow of the Shadow or the shadows the Shadow passes in shadow. Shadow. But what really does me in is the way that the artist incorporates the title of the book into the image, with the scarf of the Shadow leading into his name. It is the type of image that is very striking from technique and color, since the bold red really pops off of the otherwise dark page. The covers on the Shadow are reason enough to be picking up this book.
I’ll admit that most of the allure is in how absolutely ugly it is. I mean that in the best possible way of course. While sometimes I like to think that my favorite cartoons are pretty and shiny, I have to remind myself of all the ugly ones out there. Ed, Edd, and Eddy, Angry Beavers, Regular Show. Shows that I completely adored by were honestly a bit ugly if I sat down and thought about it. Yet that was part of the allure. That was part of what made them so intriguing. In that same vein, Jen Lee makes Teen Dog look pretty ugly, but that’s why I love it. It has a sincerity that many other cartoonish styles lack, which makes it more endearing than it’s regular cover counterpart (Sorry Phil Noto). The book looks urban and warped, as if the world was viewed through a fish-eye lens, but it’s subtle enough that you might not even notice. Teen Dog has some great hype around it already, and when I see a cover like this, that is so carefully crafted to look so weird, I can immediately understand the market for the book and how it will succeed. Best of luck to Teen Dog!
Hawkeye just might have the best covers in comics, period. David Aja has spent two years creating one of the most iconic modern comic books, through careful effort and design choice. With the Kate Bishop story rapidly drawing to a close, David Aja chose to highlight all of what has made her time on the West Coast so special in one image. Continuing the trends of recent covers by having the hexagon pattern, Aja still manages to break from the trend by instead drawing the focus to the image within the image. Kate, Harold, and Madame Masque break the pattern we’ve had established and burst forth. In itself it is a nice image, but when you view it with the rest it is in a-whole-nother league. Beyond everything else though, what really grabs my attention and holds me in are Kate’s eyes, hiding behind some stunning sunglasses. With palm trees reflecting in them and a devil-may-care look in her eyes, Kate tells you everything you need to know about beautiful California, and her unique approach to being a hero. That is powerful to get from one image.
Leave it to Deadpool to be the perfect character to poke fun at DC Comics. While last month, Marvel accidentally poked fun at DC’s Selfie Variants with one of their own, this time Marvel is going straight for it with a Deadpool dancing 3D Variant. That sentence makes me so happy. Honestly, Mark Brooks has become one of my favorite Deadpool cover artists in a very short span of time, something I didn’t expect to happen so easily. After his incredible work on Fearless Defenders, I am glad that Marvel gave him the perfect title to just let loose with. Describing why this cover works would take away from what makes it so effortless. Mark Brooks and Marvel deserve a gold medal for their brilliant mockery of DC Comics.
Still Gorgeous:
- Coffin Hill 11 by Dave Johnson
- Lola XoXo 4 (Standard Cover) by Siya Oum
- Ms. Marvel 8 by Jamie McKelvie
- New 52: Futures End 19 by Ryan Sook
- Spongebob Comics 36 by Jerry Ordway
Thanks for checking us out! Check out the full list of past winners HERE!
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