Has anyone noticed the cover treatments on the DC covers on some of the #2 issues? They’re putting a lot more words on those covers. It’s a great throwback that we got away from, as comic covers got more art based. If they’re trying to attract people, I think this is a really fun way to do it. As I sorted through my issues this week, I started noticing the text, and it reminded me of classic comics in the best way. They seem to be mostly sticking to the lower tier titles, but I like the trend. Will we see dialog on there sometime soon?
More of this, please. Let’s keep it fun.
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The text on the I, Vampire cover may actually be the only clue we are getting as to what the hell is going on in that series, if the largely incomprehensible first issue is anything to go by!
The I, Vampire cover in particular reminded me of classic horror comics, and gave me another reason to love the title.
Oh, I really dislike this. I think it rarely adds to the cover and is really often badly done.
Nightwing #2 had “SAIKO KILLER” as a caption, the worst pun possible. Blackhawks had “THE ENEMY WITHIN” and… he was just a bad guy. Nothing “within” about the guy…
I honestly didn’t even notice either way.
I’d rather see dialogue balloons than those shitty fonts.
Seriously?
thirded about the fonts. check out the justice league dark above. there’s six — SIX! — different fonts on that sucker. most of which have minimal design relationship to the other. ugh.
The’ enemy within’ refers to the nanocites coarsing menacingly through the veins of the girl with the unpronouncable name.
The Supergirl one looks good I guess…
I’m all for it. I don’t even mind a word balloon or two.
Covers are like movie posters. Both can sport tag lines to lure you in. Nothing wrong with that.
There will be bad cover copy just like there are badly drawn or poorly composed covers without words. You wanna see words, you check out Marvel covers of the seventies. You’d get the title, some dialogue, descriptive copy and some sort of reference to the Marvel bullpen or true believers. That’s when it was definitely out of control.
I love it! Didn’t O.M.A.C. #2 had some text on it also???
I love cover text and word ballons.
A cover should be selling the story inside not just a generic piece of cover art.
Agreed. I’ve always hated the generic art cover that has nothing to do with the story.
I dig it. I think DC was doing this somewhat regularly before the relaunch but now that there’s more spotlight on these issues it’s even more important to grab people’s attention. And it’s not as though they have to choose between words or no words. There can be both.
I like the idea of it in theory. I’d hate to see a rule where it has to be on every issue…those kinds of things never end well. A word balloon or two could be really fun.
The thing is, if they are going to start using text elements on the cover, it needs to be handled professionally. They need to stop asking letterers to do design work, because its just not something most of them can handle. The cover systems already have too many things going on, and when you add in the other elements….its a mess. No clear hierarchies, alignments or unified design. The type choices are clunky and kitschy, and dependent on SFX. Really its a bunch of spare parts thrown together and it shows. These should be clever, interesting and incredibly designed book/magazine covers, but they are just rarely handled with any sort of sophistication which is a sad thing.
Cool.
I love it. This is how comic book covers should be. I wanna see more of this!
Meh.
i guess i’ll be a voice of dissent here…
i’m all for fun, but blurbs on covers is one of the many reasons i walked away from comics the first time in the early 90’s. too busy. too hyperbolic. and redundant to art should already be telling a story on the cover. like, take that supergirl cover for instance – if supergirl and superman (superboy?) are fighting then it seems redundant to tell me that the house of el is divided, yeah? after a while it just irritates me. and so i prefer cover without text any day because i’d prefer to be shown, not told. and i like the purdy pictures.
clearly, this trend will end with the internet broken again.
…well I think it’s cool. I would love word balloons on the cover as well. You can do stuff like this on comics. They are fun.
As long as they are not misleading or flat out lies, I am cool with text or word balloons. I hate it when comics use phrases or even images that have NOTHING to do with the contents or, worse, mislead people. It’s like false advertising. It’s like back in the day when a band released a catchy, good single that got people to buy an album that sounded nothing like the single and sucked (you youngin’s might not remember that, with your fancy iTunes and all). It’s deceptive.
Bad puns are also kind of a groaner.
Its what comix do, this stuff is expected and welcomed by me for one.
I approve of the cover text. If done right and you don’t know what the issue is about, BAM, you now have a better idea of what happens in the issue. (assuming the artwork gives no indication)
Yeah, blurbs and balloons, please! Tease some mad situations to draw us in.
I may have to check out Justice League Dark #2. I wasn’t a huge fan of the first issue but that text makes me curious.
It’s better than the first, SteenAR – which I enjoyed. The story is much more cohesive, with some great character work, and probably the best depiction of Dawn Granger’s Dove identity ever.
Yeah, I love cover text! Glad to see it back. In general, I feel like comics covers over the last year or so have become a lot better. For a while there, with Marvel especially, the covers just seemed really generic and had little to nothing to do with the contents.
I dig it, but yeah word balloon covers are even more awesome. Savage Dragon does those from time to time.
DC was doing this before the reboot.