Most comic book fans have a pretty good idea what they’re going to buy every week when they visit their local comic shop. With that said, there’s still a lot of fun to be had just glancing at the week’s new releases and taking a chance on a book that looks promising. That’s where covers come in. A fantastic image can make the difference between trying something new or saying, “Nah, not this week.”
In that spirit, here are the covers that captured Event Coordinator JJ Travers and Manga Editor Eric Cline’s attention this week.
JJ’s Picks:
Excellence #5
Cover art by Khary Randolph
I love this cover. The lines and colors are all delightfully clean and fresh, I can almost feel the brisk cold air and smell the ozone burning off whatever it is our heroine is holding in her hand. The tribal script along the edge of the frame nicely compliments the script used for the title and the symbols built into the lines of energy racing out of the magical fork looking thing. I also really enjoyed how the wolves and block of ice are nearly indistinguishable if not for the slight use of red for the mouths and eyes.
Dead Man Logan #11
Cover art by Declan Shalvey
The color choice is simple and absolutely perfect. The white immediately grabs you and directs yours eyes to follow its path down to Logan, who’s bathed in red, the color synonymous with his legendary berserker rage. In this case red has also bathed him and his foes or allies, hard to tell which, and is dripping down his name within the title, with the last letter revealing the identity of the substance covering it. Every letter in Logan’s name is nearly covered, which has you thinking we may be approaching his end.
Savage Sword of Conan #9
Cover art by Marco Checchetto
This is exactly what I’m looking for when I pick up a Conan comic. Human skulls and bones rolling around amidst a bloody fight to the death between our favorite sword wielding scantily clad barbarian and whatever demon panther kitty monster he’s pissed off in his latest foray into some forbidden lost temple. There’s blood, monsters, and the promise of mayhem pumped up with one of my favorite fantasy flavors.
Eric’s Picks:
Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen #3
Cover art by Steve Lieber
This is a bold cover that accomplishes a lot while also being relatively simple (in a good way). The plentiful amount of white space is used effectively, keeping one’s attention solely on the text and the image at the bottom. Sometimes devoting most of a cover to posing a statement or a question can pay off, and it does here: the mystery is established and it sets you up perfectly for the issue itself. I also appreciate how the decoy corpse is rendered in a sort of cartoony manner rather than with a realistic bent; it helps maintain the stylization’s sense of fun and prevents the mood from getting too gruesome. This is a unique piece all around.
Aquaman #52
Variant cover art by Joshua Middleton
Joshua Middleton’s been knocking it out of the park with his Aquaman covers for ages now, and this month’s issue is no exception. Jellyfish are my favorite animals so this piece strikes a major chord with me, largely due to how beautifully Middleton captures their bioluminescence. The fades from the bright yellow-greens to the darker depths of the water are fantastic. There’s a real sense that this scene is actually taking place underwater. Aquaman himself is well-rendered too. Every detail here is awesome.
Strayed #2
Variant cover art by Jim Mahfood
I don’t know what’s going on here but that’s part of the fun of it. Space backgrounds are always cool to me, and seeing a cat and beetle zoom across the cosmos? Doubly cool. The beetle in particular is really well-detailed from its legs to its horn. And why is there a woman riding on its back?! This is the sort of bizarre image that charms and gets me interested to check a series out. Strayed continues to deliver good covers.
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