This is just a boring cover. It just doesn't feel designed at all, beyond, the artist just fulfilling the act of telling you the girl likes her cocaine. I mean, that should be obvious, because cocaine is awesome. (That's a joke kids, cocaine is *sniffffff* bad for you)
It lacks drama just from the flat layout. This is what I call an "Interior panel" cover. Which in my book is always a big no-no.
Also, the girls reflection is way off. The angle is wrong and she looks like she's in another room altogether. Or maybe she has a twin sister beside her about five feet back who also loves that sweet, sweet cocai...... sorry.
Ok, beyond the continuing mystery of who buys these celebrity comics (I'm assuming somebody does because they keep making them) is the issue of landing that likeness. Which, I have to confess I'm terrible at doing. So if you're going to be doing a cover based on a famous person, you better bring your A-game. If the publisher was smart, he'd go down to the park and hire one of those street caricature artists to do one. Plus they work really cheap. Seriously, some of those artists kick ass.
The design of this cover isn't the issue. It's Ok. But the thing that jumped out at me was her leg (I circled it like Perez Hilton, minus the cum drops he seems to love drawing on celebrities) it's super bendy looking. Very strange.
And lastly, we have Alex Ross's The Last Phantom cover. My main problem isn't Alex's fault, it's the logo. It's doesn't stand out at all. And to make matters worse, making "The" white really doesn't help the problem.
Well, that's it for another week. If I talked about your work, and I've hurt your feelings, I'm sorry. It's just my opinion. Karma will probably be kicking me in the ass soon enough.
Hey Dave.....Love your blog. Not only is it funny and on the money, but it helps me as a comic reviewer. I take reviewing pretty seriously (more seriously than I should considering the pay, LOL), so I try to absorb any sort of intelligent commentary about the artform.
ReplyDeleteLove your blog for that reason alone: It's giving me a new list of things to look for and expanding my vocabulary for things I was already seeing, but couldn't verbalize very well.
Bravo!
The artist of the Bachmann cover failed to truly capture the insanity in her eyes. It's a decent likeness otherwise.
ReplyDeleteDave, have you ever been on a specific color-trend frenzy for a time? Those last few years, it seems that every Alex Ross cover has to have lots of pink. I never noticed this before so I suppose this a trend he developped recently.
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