If covers were elephants, these would be the Babars.
Fatale #7
By Sean Phillips
Maybe the best implementation of the high end glamour magazine treatment since the first issue. There’s something so alluring and dangerous about that jade green door, especially in contrast to here creme-on-alabaster coloring.
The Shade #11
By Tony Harris
Check out all this business over to the right. This miasma of energies. We’re so used to Kirby dots in representation of cosmic power, but here’s a reminder that there are other ways to go about it. I love that the Shade and his aura exist in this blotch of spilt watercolor rinse from the dirty water jar. All that murky purple.
Saga #6
By Fiona Staples
What do fresh, dew-kissed leaves in the vacuum of space signify? Is it hope? Is it the irrepressibility of life, railing against the darkness? All I know is that it’s striking and beautiful.
Red Hood and The Outlaws #12
By Kenneth Rocafort
This is a super cheesy, super shameless homage to Star Wars at its most melodramatic, and I absolutely love it.
I picked up all of these except Red Hood. The Fatale cover is really striking. Allred’s Daredevil cover and GLC were great also.
Red Hood – I would never expect a cover like that from DC.
I really love that Fatale cover, but I think the Uncanny X-Force cover is my favorite this week.
Saga is just full of awesome in every issue. This cover literally stole my gaze from the new comics wall at the shop. I’m excited to finally dig in and read it today.
no Batwoman love? That cover was great, thought it would be here for sure.
Pretty weak list. There were a lot of good covers this week.
Avengers vs X-Men #10 Team Variant Covers
Batwoman #12
Before Watchmen Rorschach #1
Birds Of Prey Vol 3 #12
Call Of Wonderland #3 Cover B
Elephantmen #42
Homecoming #1 Michael Turner Cover
Pathfinder #1
X-Men Vol 3 #34
I think whoever is doing these lists is getting lazy. They’ve been getting worse every week for a while now.
Or we have different tastes in covers?
Lazy? His name is right there.
Who’s lazy now?!
no! lazy! words like “miasma,” “dew-kissed,” “irrepressibility,” and “alabaster” were used. lazy, i say!
Lazy is not even being able to read the byline.
I’m sorry, but even though I love Bermejo, that Rorschach cover was bland at best.
Kenneth Rocafort deserves a hell of a lot more credit than I see most comic websites give him. His work on Red Hood has been stellar. He’s done every issue, though admittedly not all were 20 pages (there back-ups in some issues), as well as every cover. His panel layouts are inventive and energetic. Some of the sceneries, especially earlier in the series, were downright gorgeously detailed. It’s a shame he’s moving on to Superman, which didn’t work well for him last year on Paul Cornell’s Action Comics run, but I’m hopeful.
Couldn’t agree more.
I concur, whole-heartedly!
Too bad the book still sucks!
And I still doubt Paul Cornell write those Action Comics issues…
this week’s covers make a good case for well-chosen font. both saga and fatale have title fonts that really compliment the design.
but here’s the kicker. i really wouldn’t have gotten the star wars connection on red hood without the font and font layout. that’s pretty telling to me.
Well… its typical space opera/Sci Fi imagery. Nothing necessarily Star Wars about it. Most classic Star Wars poster images have a large head as background – bad guy – and good guys up front. This could be the poster for The Ice Pirates.
right? that’s my point. it could be ice pirates, the black hole, the original BSG (maybe), or any number of atari/intelivision videogame covers. it’s the font that makes it star wars.
I think it’s specifically referencing Star Wars comic covers, not necessarily movie posters. Mark is spot on in pointing to the typography.
@mark – agreed – the Return of the Jedi font makes it.
They used the word “scoundrel.” What other clue do you need?
i dunno man, when i read “scoundrel” i tend to think of either pirates or foppish dandies. that might just be me, though 🙂
It could be BSG, Ice Prates, or The Black Hole except that Star Wars predated ALL of them. So they would all have been influenced by Star Wars.
@mark. That’s funny, because when I hear “scoundrel”, I think of Han Solo.
“I’m nice men.”
“Scoundrel? Scoundrel……I like the sound of that.”- Han Solo
Great picks Paul. I like the leaves as exhaust from the tree-rocketship, such a simple, but wonderful idea.
Also an honorable mention for Saucer Country, The colors and perspective really stood out on the shelf to me. Ryan Kelly is doing some fantastic work on that book.
Dew would be frozen ice particles in space, no?
Si.
What’s your point? 🙂
It’s a freaking big ass tree rocketing through space on magic? I get the dew not being frozen.
Why didn’t you pick Batwoman? I really enjoy all the covers you picked. But the Saga cover is a little non-committal for me and Shade is kind of murky for my tastes. That Batwoman cover is just beautiful to me. I was just curious about your professional opinion on the cover since the ones you picked had such thoughtful descriptions.
The Batwoman cover is definitely an honorable mention. I definitely studied it for a bit. I think it comes down to the composition being so busy. I think the Wonder Woman elements feel a little haphazard. It’s better than a lot of stuff out there, for sure.
It is a little busy, but that just drew me in.
Good picks Paul. I don’t read Fatale (not sure why, as I love all things crimey), but it sure does have some striking covers. The glare on that Saga cover gets me every time. I’ve been checking my glasses for smudges all week. It’s pretty ridiculous. And I’m always a sucker for a Star Wars tribute.
I don’t read Red Hood, can someone tell me why Arsenal wears that stupid hat?
Very honorable mentions go out to Wonder Woman & Daredevil.
Like last month’s cover to Red Hood and the Outlaws I still have the same thought:
“Oh my god! Starfire is actually clothed!”
I’d love to have the money to buy a huge mansion — if only so that I’d have all that wall space to hang all the ridiculously wonderful artwork that comic books give us through the year (and years). It’s criminal how much of it we forget once it’s stored into long boxes, or even worse, into the bowels of our hard drives! Beauty shouldn’t be locked away. I do have some color copies of my favorite covers hanging on a living room wall, along with some panels which mean a lot to me scattered in other corners of my home. But it ain’t enough. lol