A few of my online friends and I were discussing what some of our favorite comic book covers. If it was possible, if I was a rich man, what comic book covers would I want? Now I could have just picked my favorite comics but I wanted to pick out just the covers alone without any regard to the story themselves.
I didn't spend a lot of time brainstorming this topic or rooting through the thousands of comics that I own, I just chose the ones that came to my mind first. I was a little bit surprised that out of the five covers I picked, only one of them came from my list of favorite comic book artists. I am positive that I am forgetting some and maybe I will post my favorite covers from my favorite artists in the future.
HELLBOY: THE CORPSE
One of my favorite things about artist Mike Mignola is the way he uses the color black. His art is not soft, it has a dark and hard edge to it. I already had this short story but when I had to have this comic when it was re-released to coincide with the first Hellboy movie because of the cover art. I would love to have this hanging in my den/library.
CAPTAIN BRITAIN TPB
Here is another case where I double dipped and paid money for something that I already owned. I had the single issues of this series but I could not pass up getting the collected version with this awesome new cover by my favorite artist Alan Davis. Davis typically has a clean style, no line wasted and very precise. What makes this cover stand out to me is that it feels (and looks) a lot more sketchy, which gives it a dirty impression which does fit the story quite well.
YOUNG LIARS #1
The coloring of the covers and interiors of this woefully cut-short series is what really grabs my eye. It has a pulpy feel to it, like I am reading something out of the 70's. Each cover is unique but this one captures the energy of the series. One of the side effects of having this hanging on my wall is that it would remind me of the whack job this series was. The writer/artist certainly has a warped mind and a keen sense of style.
CAPTAIN AMERICA #321
Artist Mike Zeck ruled during the 80's as one of the best cover artists around. He draw a ton of comics from my childhood (Secret Wars, G.I. Joe, Captain America) but this one stands out. What would make Captain America so angry that he would drop the shield and pick up an Uzi? This was a close one, he did a fantastic G.I. Joe cover and a memorable Wolverine/Captain America showdown that I almost chose. But this one kept popping up in my mind.
BONE #16
Now I have to admit that I chose this particular Bone cover because of the story inside. I chose it only because it represented my favorite set of storytelling panels. The vicious Rat Creatures have surrounded Bone and his friends in the forest and you cannot see them. The artist Jeff Smith employs the solid use of black and white (the original series was published in black and white) to show how pitch black it was in the forest. When sudden flashes of lightning occurred you could see how close the Rat Creatures were creating a very spooky and tense situation.
Already by writing this blog I have remembered other covers that I would love to own and hang on a wall in my house. I just might have to share those here on the blog as well.
