The Best of the Week in Covers – 05.08.2013

Ah, this is not going to be a very good Best of the Week in Covers tonight. And I think you should change the channel. Change the channel, go on, right now… or better yet, turn off the TV, okay? No, I know it seems like this is supposed to be funny, but tomorrow you’re gonna find out that it wasn’t and by that time I’ll have been fired. No, this is… this is not… this is not a sketch. This show used to be cutting edge political and social satire, but it’s gotten lobotomized by a candy-ass broadcast network hell-bent on doing nothing that might challenge their audience. We’re about to do a sketch that you’ve seen already about 500 times. Yeah, no one’s gonna confuse George Bush with George Plimpton. Yeah, we get it. We’re all being lobotomized by this country’s most influential industry that’s just throwing in the towel on any endeavor to do anything that doesn’t include the courting of 12 year old boys. And not even the smart 12 year olds. The stupid ones. The idiots. Which there are plenty, thanks in no small measure to this network, so why don’t you just change the channel? Turn off your TVs, do it right now, go ahead…. A struggle between art and commerce. Well, there’s always been a struggle between art and commerce. And now I’m telling you art is getting its ass kicked. And it’s making us mean, and it’s making us bitchy. It’s making us cheap punks. That’s not who we are! People are having contests to see how much they can be like Donald Trump?… We’re eating worms for money. Who wants to screw my sister? Guys are getting killed in a war that’s got theme music and a logo? That remote in your hand is a crack pipe. [monitors] Oh yeah, every once in a while we pretend to be appalled…. Pornographers! It’s not even good pornography. They’re just this side of snuff films. And friends, that’s what’s next because that’s all that’s left. And the two things that make them scared gutless are the FCC and every psycho religious cult that gets positively horny at the very mention of a boycott. These are the people they’re afraid of – this prissy, feckless, off-the-charts, greed-filled whorehouse of a network. And you’re watching this thoroughly unpatriotic Mother- 

Go to VTR, now! 

 Astonishing X-Men #62
Cover by Phil Noto

Some fearful asymmetry and an unnerving pea soup pallor elevate an otherwise simple portrait of change.

Prophet #35
Cover by Zachary Baldus

Oh, the places you’ll go. I see these covers and think about the young lads and lassies unearthing these otherworldly treasures in twenty or thirty years time in some attic or flea market. These tickets to other worlds, other sensibilities.

The Fearless Defenders #4
Cover by Mark Brooks

A playful paper-doll theme heralds Brunhilde’s costume change, continuing the series’ provocative theme (the characters were previously cast as action figures).

The Rocketeer: Hollywood Horror #4
Cover by Walter Simonson & Jordie Bellaire

Bringing new meaning to Hollywood and Vines!