Coverage

Do you ever buy a comic just for the cover? Not just because Michael Turner drew a cool Wolverine pose and you were probably gonna buy it anyway. But something that you didn't know, that just struck you? A great cover sums up the story without giving it away and stands out on a wall of comics. "The Filth" trade paperback comes to mind. All you have to do is face it forward on the shelf and customers can't help but pick it up for a closer look. The bright graphic nervous system stemming from the title "The Filth" is curiosity-inspiring genius.

"Planetary" is one of the few series that I must have in issues just because of John Cassidy's clever covers with logos uniquely designed for each issue's concept.

Arthur Suydam might have had the coolest job on the planet this past year, redoing famous Marvel covers and replacing the characters with undead versions for Marvel Zombies

But out of every cover artist working today, James Jean stands at the top of my list (and many others). His covers for Fables have contributed as much to the book as the artists inside. Vertigo has always produced some of the best covers around. Glen Fabry's painted Preacher covers captured the gritty disgusting details of the books perfectly and Dave McKean's Sandman covers are practically legendary.

Many artists like Chris Ware and Brian Wood move back and forth from illustration to graphic design (not to mention writing) and it shows with signature looks that really stand out.

For some interesting analysis of covers, check out the Cover Browser Labs and Chris Butcher's blog about the covers on various incarnations of Bone vol 1. It was posted a month ago so you may have to scroll down a bit.

And Newsarama did an article showing Jock's process for the awesome cover of the new Scalped series, out this week.

-Nick