Dave’s Cover of the Week
Nowhere Men #2
Dave: I don’t know what is more badass, the double helix thing going on or this chick’s badass bellow. The changing colors of the helix as it hits her body adds a dimension of connectivity that is interesting while the flat black lines on white background make everything pop beautifully. Well done.
Brendan: This cover is super cool. I would have to say my favorite part would actually have to be the diagonal pinstripe that covers the background. “What a boring part” you may reply. But that is just it! That design choice is what took a potentially boring and plain backdrop and turned it into this jarring image. Without it, I feel our character could have felt a bit flat, despite her obvious mojo. Regardless, everything about this cover is spot-on awesome.
Brendan’s Cover of the Week:
Castle: A Calm Before Storm #1
Brendan: This cover has “spy movie” written all over it. I adore the way our characters seem to flow out of one another. The colors used for the sea and sky are not your standard fare, and this slight alteration really helps this cover feel unique and interesting. The characters are incredibly well done and the overall scene bleeds concentrated cool. I have never seen an episode of ABC’s Castle, but after this cover I seriously might give it a go.
Dave: Whoa James Bond where you be?! I love how every character comes from the center. We get that “everyone and everything is in on this spy thang.” Nathan Fillion is in on this show…and this cover makes me think, is he really that sexy! He is.
Dave’s Honorable Mentions:
Avengers #2
Dave: I’m a purple fanatic so of course this one popped up on my radar. You’ve got Iron Man flying, always a thing of beauty to behold. And what’s that? Hulk? Hulk calmly flying right behind him? Yet he had to jump to do that! His strength is made more awesome cool and casual he looks. Cool cover.
Brendan: That city is gorgeous. The use of colors here is top-notch throughout. You have the cool greens and blues taking over the distant warm pinks and yellow as our scene is draped by dusk. The lighting from Iron Man’s hand jets is also gorgeous. And then, when you take the time to think about how Hulk is either keeping up with (or perhaps even passing) a rocket-propelled billionaire you are left a bit awe-struck by how awesome these characters really are.
Saga #8
Dave: Two things strike me when I look at this cover. One is the warning stickers gracing this machinery and the other striking element, Alana just chilling out, maxin’, all cool on this thing like it ain’t no thang. The juxtaposition is hard to miss and makes an otherwise ordinary scene striking.
Brendan: I think I mentioned this with the last Saga cover, but I am so happy to see this series start printing some memorable art to compliment the memorable story being formed within. This images is on one of those scenes that perfectly summarizes a character without having to try to hard. For all the reasons Dave mentioned, we have learned so much about Alana and her outlook on life.
Adventure Time #11 Cover A
Dave: The insanity that is Adventure Time is on display here. I particularly like the glowing effect coming off the titles that can be seen on the grass.
Brendan: Like Dave said, this cover perfectly embodies the fun trippy vibe that Adventure Time runs with. My only gripe would be that with such simplified characters surrounding it, the additional detail on our logo looks a bit odd. Don’t get me wrong, I still like this cover a lot.
Brendan’s Honorable Mentions:
Hell Blazer #298
Brendan: This cover is gorgeous. The detail in the coat and skeleton are amazingly realistic. I think the color transition in the background is inspired. The fiery yellow melting into a calm neutral which is then abruptly stopped by the cold blue shadow really adds to the story being told on the cover.
Dave: Damn, Hellblazer continues to impress. The detailed, gritty work continues to make us wonder if the content therein can match up. It is.
Wasteland #42
Brendan: It was the eyes that sold me. Once you get into the meat of the cover, namely that bottom half filled with sun-bleached carcases, you are hit with the true sense of fear and suspense that lives within those eyes.
Dave: Oh the rotting flesh. How could she allow it?!
Batwoman #15 (Variant)
Brendan: This cover is pretty cool when you consider it on its lonesome. The snakes, the violence and our silhouetted heroine mesh really well together and leave you with little to be desired. However, the reason I chose this cover is because of how dramatically better it is than the regular cover (pictured below). By simply switching to a greyscale and adding bat-lady they took a cover I would have quickly passed over and they crafted something that sticks out and stays with you.
Dave: The intestine snake sure is enthralling. A+.
Regular cover:
WTF? Category
Where we don’t understand, are insulted by or would rather stab our eyes with acid pops than look at these covers for various reasons.
X-Men Legacy (2012) #3
Dave: This is a bit of a sneaky WTF since it’s actually awesome. It’s at once beautiful and impressive in a WTF kind of way, but on top of all that the composition is gorgeous. The Escher ode is quite cool, as well as the black, meets white, meets red blast. The only reason I shuffled it down to the WTF is because it’s actually kind of gross at a glance. It also strangely looks like she’s got tire tracks on her.
Brendan: If I hadn’t found this cover in Dave’s WTF section it would have been my numero Uno for the week. The contrast and symmetry are straight-up masterful and those eyes somehow exist in their own little world despite living in all of that birdy chaos. I love this picture.
Witchblade #162
Dave: I don’t know what’s more insulting, this chick’s junk in the trunk, dildo baseball bat or giant cat/pussy innuendo. I like the baseball card motif going on here, but think about the little girls who will look at this and think, “I need a dildo baseball bat!”
Brendan: I’m not fully grasping this “dildo bat” concept of Dave’s. I think any phallic overtones on that bat come either from odd angling or Dave’s filthy mind. Personally I think the baseball card idea is neat and I’m really happy to see Witchy with some clothing on.
Russ: We’ll see who’s crazy when Dave’s absolutely ludicrous “dildo baseball bat” concept just straight up stymies those staggering teen pregnancy numbers in our fair country.
Lady Death #21
Brendan: Well that sure is… something. While the art here is beautiful, it simply doesn’t seem to fit into Lady Death’s normal “99% naked and a sexy pose” deal. It might just be me, but goat ladies rate pretty low on my list of turn ons.
Dave: Sometimes a hairy lady is all you need…. uh, anyways, I’m just going to keep making ellipses and hope we just move on to the next entry…
Unwritten #44
Brendan: The only reason I’m placing this cover in our WTF category is because upon first glance my exact words were “What the fuck?” Once you get over that initial shock and misunderstanding, you can see this cover for what it really is: Damned fine work. Shimizu’s artwork is like a modernized Ukiyo-e painting. Each portion of the image exists within its own layer, and only when you start to look into how these layers interact with each other do you really get a sense of the detail and workmanship that went into this image.
Dave: The hair + the boat equals genius. This series has achieved the fantasy whimsy almost every month. Great way to pull us in.
Comics Being Released This Week
This is a cleaned up list via ComicList.com. Comic availability subject to change.
- BOOM! Studios
- Adventure Time #11, $3.99
- Bravest Warriors #3 (Of 6), $3.99
- Clive Barker’s Hellraiser The Road Below #3 (Of 4), $3.99
- Freelancers #2, $3.99
- DARK HORSE COMICS
- Angel And Faith #17, $2.99
- B.P.R.D. 1948 #3 (Of 5), $3.50
- B.P.R.D. Hell On Earth #102, $3.50
- Black Beetle Night Shift #0 (One Shot), $2.99
- Empowered Special #3, $3.99
- Game Of Thrones Arryn Embroidered Patch, $4.99
- Game Of Thrones Tyrell Embroidered Patch, $4.99
- Michael Avon Oeming’s The Victories #5 (Of 5), $3.99
- Number 13 #1, $3.99
- R.I.P.D. City Of The Damned #2 (Of 4), $3.50
- Rotten Apple (One Shot), $2.99
- Star Wars Agent Of The Empire Hard Target #3 (Of 5), $2.99
- Star Wars Dawn Of The Jedi The Prisoner Of Bogan #2 (Of 5), $2.99
- DC COMICS
- Batwoman #15, $2.99
- Before Watchmen Moloch #2 (Of 2), $3.99
- Birds Of Prey #15, $2.99
- Blue Beetle #15, $2.99
- Catwoman #15, $2.99
- DC Universe Presents #15 , $2.99
- Django Unchained #1 (Of 6), $3.99
- Fables #124, $2.99
- Green Lantern #15, $2.99
- Green Lantern New Guardians #15, $2.99
- Hellblazer #298, $2.99
- He-Man And The Masters Of The Universe #5 (Of 6), $2.99
- JSA The Liberty Files The Whistling Skull #1 (Of 6), $2.99
- Legion Of Super-Heroes #15, $2.99
- Nightwing #15, $2.99
- Red Hood And The Outlaws #15, $2.99
- Suicide Squad #14, $2.99
- Supergirl #15 , $2.99
- Sword Of Sorcery #3, $3.99
- Unwritten #44, $2.99
- Wonder Woman #15, $2.99
- Young Justice #23, $2.99
- IDW PUBLISHING
- Alan Robert’s Killogy #2 (Of 4), $3.99
- Classic Popeye #5, $3.99
- Joe Palooka #1 (Of 6), $3.99
- Judge Dredd #2, $3.99
- Locke And Key Omega #2 (Of 7), $3.99
- Mars Attacks #6 (Cover A John McCrea), $3.99
- Snake Eyes And Storm Shadow #20, $3.99
- Star Trek The Next Generation Doctor Who Assimilation2 #8 (Of 8), $3.99
- Star Trek The Next Generation Hive #3 (Of 4), $3.99
- Transformers More Than Meets The Eye #12, $3.99
- Transfusion #2 (Of 3), $3.99
- IMAGE COMICS
- America’s Got Powers #4 (Of 6), $2.99
- Carbon Grey Volume 2 #2 (Of 3), $3.99
- Comeback #2 (Of 5), $3.50
- Happy #3 (Of 4), $2.99
- Haunt #28, $2.99
- MacGyver Fugitive Gauntlet #3 (Of 5), $3.50
- Multiple Warheads From Alphabet To Infinity #3 (Of 4), $2.99
- Nowhere Men #2, $2.99
- Saga #8 , $2.99
- Super Dinosaur #16, $2.99
- Supreme #67, $3.99
- Thief Of Thieves #11, $2.99
- Where Is Jake Ellis #2 (Of 5), $3.50
- Witch Doctor Mal Practice #2 (Of 6), $2.99
- Witchblade #162, $2.99
- MARVEL COMICS
- A+X #3, $3.99
- All-New X-Men #4, $3.99
- Amazing Spider-Man #698, $3.99
- Astonishing X-Men #57, $3.99
- Avengers #2, $3.99
- Avengers Arena #2, $2.99
- Cable And X-Force #2, $3.99
- Captain America #2, $3.99
- Captain America And Black Widow #640 (Last Issue), $2.99
- Captain Marvel #8, $2.99
- Castle A Calm Before The Storm #1 (Of 5), $3.99
- Daredevil #21, $2.99
- FF #2 (Michael Allred Regular Cover), $2.99
- Gambit #7, $2.99
- Hawkeye #6, $2.99
- Indestructible Hulk #2, $3.99
- Journey Into Mystery #647, $2.99
- Scarlet Spider #12.1, $2.99
- Secret Avengers #35, $3.99
- Thor God Of Thunder #3, $3.99
- Thunderbolts #2, $2.99
- Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #18, $3.99
- Ultimate Comics The Ultimates #19, $3.99
- Uncanny X-Force #35 (Julian Totino Todesco Regular Cover)(Last Issue), $3.99
- Venom #28, $2.99
- Wolverine And The X-Men #22, $3.99
- X-Factor #249, $2.99
- X-Men Legacy #3, $2.99
- X-Treme X-Men #8, $2.99
- VALIANT ENTERTAINMENT
- Harbinger #7, $3.99
X-O Manowar #8, $3.99
- ZENESCOPE ENTERTAINMENT
- Grimm Fairy Tales Presents Godstorm #3 (Of 5), $2.99
- Grimm Fairy Tales #80, $2.99
- Grimm Fairy Tales Presents Robyn Hood #4 (Of 5), $2.99
- Grimm Fairy Tales Presents Wonderland #6, $2.99
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