Comic Book Resources

You said the Spectre was "a goateed black man", are you aware that that is the Spectre's new host, Crispus Allen originally from Gotham Central? If you know that it makes the goatee a lot easier to accept.

Also, for Carlos Pacheco's Superman cover, isn't Superman holding his hand like that so it looks like he is holding the Earth? Thats the reason for us at least, do you mean why would Superman hold his hands like that?

The reason WHY he has a goatee is easy to accept. The goatee itself, not so much.

And did Van Sciver go off of a drawing of Impulse or someone's description of "The dude has big feet."

You said the Spectre was “a goateed black man”, are you aware that that is the Spectre’s new host, Crispus Allen originally from Gotham Central? If you know that it makes the goatee a lot easier to accept.

When this big, supernatural deity flies around with a big ghostly face and a GOATEE, it ruins the effect.

It looks so dorky.

Huddleston seems to realize that, so he just drew Crispus as Crispus.

Also, for Carlos Pacheco’s Superman cover, isn’t Superman holding his hand like that so it looks like he is holding the Earth? Thats the reason for us at least, do you mean why would Superman hold his hands like that?

The desired effect is to make it appear as though Superman is holding up the Earth, but if the pose doesn't make sense, it just seems kinda cheap. I don't think this pose makes sense.

Comparing Long Halloween to Extreme Justice. Just mean. Just accept that Jeph Loeb is awesome (one can't get banned for likeing Loeb, right?)

Absolute Extreme Justice, probably not.

Absolute Cosmic Odyssey, oh yes.

I'm assuming Brian indeed meant "Why is Superman holding his hands like that?" from his perspective, because obviously he's drawn for the viewer's benefit to look like he's cradling Earth in his hand. It's a preposterous pose, the kind of one would expect from a young ham actor trying to lend gravitas to his interpretation of Hamlet. Meanwhile, I wonder: Why is the moon so small? Ridiculous. No space object small enough to fit under Superman's ass would be so nicely rounded. Satellites and planets attain their roundness because of their size. (Yeah, I know, fictional universe and all — but come on, Pacheco draws similar-sized jagged space debris all around! So illogically busy.) This concept should really work for Superman, so I'll give them points for the idea, but in Pacheco's execution ... Well, it's just a dopey flop of a cover from many different angles.

I love Bianchi's 'Tec cover, and would put it in the Top Five. (Best he's done on the title so far, I'd say.) Ditto the T5 for Bond's Exterminators cover, which is both whimsical and gross all at once. Really like the Hughes Catwoman cover too, but why does it look like she's having a crossover with the old Birds of Prey here? (Especially when she's supposed to be visiting Metropolis? If Hughes couldn't work in a clear Metropolis/Supes angle, then he totally missed the boat with this cover.)

Alex Ross always seems to draw Superman like he's an almost-aging-gracefully fiftysomething. What's up with that? But his Justice cover was great. Honorable mention. Also to both Jean's Fables covers and to the Zauriel cover (mostly for its really nice coloring job).

Lastly (off topic, but): What's up with all the licensed horror comics? Who reads those? Somebody must be, and yet ... There's a hunger for more Freddie and Chainsaw in the world? Seriously? What, isn't The Boys violent and misantrhopic enough?

I get the impression Pacheco really liked Quitely's cover to All Star Superman and wanted to do something similar. It's got that casual "Yeah, I'm Superman, just hangin' out in space sitting on a meteor because I can," but I the added symbolism of "he's got the whole world in his hands" is too much. Also, did Brainiac or someone shrink the moon?

I'm not a huge Adam Hughes fan, but that Black Canary is awesome.

I want to really like the Birds of Prey cover, but it looks like Huntress has dislocated at least one of her shoulders, and quite possibly had one completely ripped off and re-attached with twine and elastic bands.

I don't think it's supposed to just LOOK like Supes is holding up the earth in that cover, he quite literally IS holding up the earth. Look closely at it, he's actually sitting on the moon. It's metaphorical.

I'd be totally cool with it if it was Superman ACTUALLY holding up the Earth.

That'd be fine.

I don't think that's what it is, though.

"When this big, supernatural deity flies around with a big ghostly face and a GOATEE, it ruins the effect.

It looks so dorky.

Huddleston seems to realize that, so he just drew Crispus as Crispus."
My original statement was "makes the goatee a lot easier to accept... okay, a little easier". I agree, it doesn't totally befit the Spectre, but other than glasses and/or his bald head, I don't know how you can really show how its Crispus and I think, a lot is lost if that is not shown. I'm willing to accept the goatee if it means its such a neat character in that role.

Regarding Superman;
The more I think about it, the less sense it makes and the more I agree with you. Did Superman get big? If so why is he just 'imagining' holding the earth, whats the point then? Did the moon get small, if so shouldn't Superman be doing something about that? I think its pretty straight forward, Superman chilling and holding up the world, but with the choices made and the exact composition it does not quite hold up.

a) The moon and Earth are small, and Superman is sitting on the small moon, and holding the small Earth.

b) Superman is HUGE, and is sitting on a normal sized moon, and holding a normal sized Earth.

Pick one.
What he's not doing is floating in space pretending to sit on the moon, and pretending to hold Earth in his hand, just to fool some unsuspecting space-traveler, who is approaching Superman just exactly under that right angle to be fooled.

Well, whatever the intention, NEF, Pacheco seems to have missed SOMEthing in the execution.

Which is too bad, as it could have been an amazing cover.

My cover thoughts:

Okay, I'm confused about Batman now. The last issue said that Morrison and Van Fleet would be doing one more issue before the Ostrander/Mandrake fill-in, but the issue that was supposed to come out next month is the one pictured in the February solicitations. So is there one more issue, or does the fill-in start next issue? Weird.

Is Nightwing fighting Mickey and Mallory from Natural Born Killers?

Is that supposed to be Darkseid in the background of the Pete Woods Firestorm cover? If so, he looks really, really weird. I guess he's supposed to have a rocky face, but that's a bit TOO rocky.

You ask about the archery technique on the Greeen Arrow covers, but, like I've seen on other GA covers, you need a bowstring for a bow to work. (This applies only to the GA cover, not the Connor Hawke one)

I don't know who that character is on the Alex Ross JSA cover, but thanks to Ross I've become way too familiar with her personal grooming habits.

I don't care very much for the Red Menace covers either, but I wanted to note that the guy in the lower right of this cover reminds me of the sorts of characters that Will Eisner would draw.

So, my favorites are, Fables (probably the best of the month, in my opinion), Jack of Fables, Loveless, The Atom, Crossing Midnight, Y, The Spirit, JLA (just because of Adam Hughes), and the Jeff Smith Shazam (I'm very stoked that it's finally coming out).

In defense of Absolute Long Halloween, if you check out Newsarama and other fansites, there are plenty of people who rank the book as one of the top 10 Batman books ever, and many even call it the best Batman story ever. I've seen a lot of interest expressed online about Absolute Long Halloween, so the demand is there and many consider it a praiseworthy work of art. So it makes good business sense. It'll sell.

I want a poster of that Justice League cover! That is why Black Canary is awesome.

Check out that anatomy on the Atom cover. Did Ladronn get away with drawing what I think he did, down at the bottom front of the half-figure???

Personally I think that Scooby Doo cover should get at least an honorable mention.

It's one of the few that's readable and compelling as as a thumbnail. That should count for a lot.

"I’ve seen a lot of interest expressed online about Absolute Long Halloween, so the demand is there and many consider it a praiseworthy work of art. So it makes good business sense. It’ll sell."

I also strongly suspect that the success of "Heroes" has something to do with DC cranking out a $75 (or whatever) version of the most buzz-generating story in their catalogue by Loeb and Sale. I imagine a press release to mainstream media outlets and booksellers touting: "By the makers of the TV sensation Heroes ... ! "

I just took a look at a higher-resolution copy of that Atom cover over at Newsarama.

And, yes, that is indeed a cross-section of a penis.

-Steve!

Take a closer look at the Green Lantern cover. I know the solicit says the cover is Ethan Van Sciver but that's not Ethan's style. If you look at the bottom corner you can juuuusssttt make out -- Ivan Reis.

The only problem I have with an Absolute Long Halloween is that it makes an Absolute Dark Victory thinkable. And that's a very bad thing...

Who is the character on the JSA cover?

... And apparently, bowstrings do not get drawn on DCAU books. Or the cover of Green Arrow. Wtf?

Re: the Spectre Goatee - yes, it looks silly. I think the closest anyone's come to making it work is Mike Mignola, which doesn't really count, because Mike Mignola is incapable of drawing anything horror-related that isn't freaking awesome.

Ostrander established a precedent for Spectres with facial hair - in fact in his version of the Spectre origin, the first Spectre was a first-century Hindu with a mustache and beard - but that guy looked kinda lame, too. The bigger problem here is that Cris Allen was a terrible choice to take over as the Spectre. DC got so wrapped up in mimicking the superficial aspects of the original Spectre (Jim Corrigan was a murdered cop, too!) that they missed what made Corrigan work as a foil for the Spectre (Corrigan was already a vengeful, angry man before he became the Spectre). Crispin Allen doesn't fit the profile: yeah, he was killed in the line of duty, but he wasn't stirred into a blind rage over it - he's more or less the same methodical, rational police detective he used to be, and he's very ill at ease with this whole "wrath of God" business. Corrigan really wanted to go out and kill the wicked in horrible, horrible ways, at least for the better part of his career - the morally reprehensible nature of his work didn't start to sink in for quite a while because he was a fantastically angry man taking out his anger on a cosmic scale. Not so for Cris Allen, who figures out pretty quick that the whole gig is pretty screwed up, which doesn't leave writers with much room to take the character.

And yeah, the goatee looks dumb, too.

Tim Bradstreet, mixing things up on this Sandman Mystery Theatre cover!

I like it!

But . . . but . . . "man standing in front of brick wall looking menacing" is a classic!

"Who is the character on the JSA cover? "

That's Ma Hunkel's granddaughter. I believe she is going by the name of Cyclone, since her grandma's old name of Red Tornado has since been taken...

Take a closer look at the JSA cover and you see that Maxine Hunkel isn't wearing any undergarments. Ross, that perv!

"The desired effect is to make it appear as though Superman is holding up the Earth, but if the pose doesn’t make sense, it just seems kinda cheap. I don’t think this pose makes sense."

I don't think you're supposed to take it literally. Loosen up a bit. It's not meant to be seen as if the character Superman is ACTUALLY holding the planet in his palm, and sitting on the moon.

It's just your basic Superman-as-Rodin's Thinker contemplating his role in the universe. Or something like that, with some Atlas supporting the globe mixed into the metaphor.

I don't see you complaining that Jack of Fables and the two girls must be 100 feet tall to be that much bigger than a sign from the Vegas Strip.

So, on the anatomy front, Ladronn gives us a penis cross-section (in what I thought was the ugliest cover of the month, now redeemed since this was pointed out), and Alex Ross lets us in on the shaving habits of whoever that is on the JSA cover.

The Fables cover is hands down the best of the month, you've just become inured to their goodness.

So is it just me, or is Kyle staring at Donna Troy's cleavage there?

maybe it's just me, but the superman cover felt like some weird amalgam of Atlas and The Thinker.

I like the concept of Superman sitting on the moon holding the Earth, but I think it would have to be done in a Rockwell Saturday Evening Post approach, not with inked lines and space crowded with stars and asteroids (which would certainly spell doom for us if there were any that size hovering nearby!).

"The sad thing is that, so far, Superman Confidential has been about as interesting as these covers - nice to look at, but basically a lot of posing, as far as plot goes."

Jesus dude, there's only been one issue. Let there be at least two before you completly slam it.

I think the difference between an Absolute Long Halloween and an Absolute Extreme Justice is that Long Halloween actually sells. -_-

I hate that Justice League cover but really like the Catwoman cover -- the JLA one got too much of a weird Acuña vibe to it -- though I'm not sure you could say for sure that this particular issue DOESN'T involve Catwoman scaling a building.

With the Direct Market, how much influence does a cover have nowadays anyways. I'm sick of posing covers as much as anyone, but I don't think people are actually getting fooled by them.

"I got this issue of 'Detective Comics' and it really wasn't about Batman sitting in his chair! WTF!"

"At no time in this 'Batman Confidential' issue did Batman stand atop a building, arms outstretched, and wail! I demand my 2.99 back!"

That Wonder Woman cover is boring. I saw more lively pinups in Wizard circa 1994.

The most messed up thing about that Superman/Batman Greatest Stories Ever tpb is that, according to the solicitation, it collects Superman/Batman Annual #1. The one that came out three weeks ago. Now, I mean, that issue was fantastic, but Greatest Ever? At least give it a month, guys.

The design on the black canary cover was good, but it looked a tad like greg land which is a bit unfortunate. Her hair is way too 80's. The fables cover should of been in honourable mentions instead.

Jeff Smith's cover for Shazam should of been number 1.

Unless of course you were worried about blowing your wad too early on calling it in case issue 2 was better, then by all means.

I was pretty impressed at you for not doing the usual thing of automatically putting a Matt Wagner cover in the top five no matter how mundane it is.

Then I realized there was no Matt Wagner issue this month. Oh well.

Am I missing something? Why is the idea of the Spectre with a goatee so lame? It's just facial hair, people.

And for Moose N Squirrel, who said -

"Corrigan really wanted to go out and kill the wicked in horrible, horrible ways, at least for the better part of his career - the morally reprehensible nature of his work didn’t start to sink in for quite a while because he was a fantastically angry man taking out his anger on a cosmic scale. Not so for Cris Allen, who figures out pretty quick that the whole gig is pretty screwed up, which doesn’t leave writers with much room to take the character."

Sounds to me from just that description that Allen would be a much more fascinating character in the role than Corrigan. Unless all you want is the 1960s version with Jim Aparo drawing all the horrible bizarre deaths in such loving detail.

The Fables cover is hands down the best of the month, you’ve just become inured to their goodness.

I have admitted in the past that I probably do hold Jean to a slightly higher standard, if only because he's usually so creative with his covers that when he isn't particularly creative, the covers seem that much more lackluster to me.

It may not be fair, but that's how it is.

Jesus dude, there’s only been one issue. Let there be at least two before you completly slam it.

"So far" means "so far." One issue into New Frontier, we knew Darwyn Cooke was doing a good job on the book. One issue into Superman Confidential...not so much.

In defense of Absolute Long Halloween, if you check out Newsarama and other fansites, there are plenty of people who rank the book as one of the top 10 Batman books ever, and many even call it the best Batman story ever. I’ve seen a lot of interest expressed online about Absolute Long Halloween, so the demand is there and many consider it a praiseworthy work of art. So it makes good business sense. It’ll sell.

I believe that.

It still skeeves me out.

I mean, a poster book of Michael Turner covers would ALSO sell well, wouldn't it?

Unless of course you were worried about blowing your wad too early on calling it in case issue 2 was better, then by all means.

It was a consideration!

And hey, Top Five is impressive! Then again, no Matt Wagner or Frank Quitely covers this month...;)

I was pretty impressed at you for not doing the usual thing of automatically putting a Matt Wagner cover in the top five no matter how mundane it is.

Then I realized there was no Matt Wagner issue this month. Oh well.

Wagner doesn't automatically get on the Top Five. He missed two of the past five months (not counting this month).

He only gets on when he rocks.

I can't help it that he rocks often!

Hey, they did an Absolute Hush as well, and Long Halloween was at least better than that one.

Well, I don't think Absolutes are determined by quality but rather by popularity. Is the book popular enough to convince people to drop over $70 to purchase it? There are many books that are great quality but wouldn't get many sales at $75. Long Halloween is total crap, but it's crap that people inexplicably love and find to be one of the greatest works of the medium.

"Hey, they did an Absolute Hush as well, and Long Halloween was at least better than that one."

Can't disagree with that. Long Halloween wasn't that bad. The story was fair to middling, but the art is some of the best art ever to grace a Batman story (behind Batman: Year One obviously) so an Absolute edition seems as justified here as it is for most of the other editions.

With that Superman cover I'd definitely say he is touching the world. If you couldn't see his cape an leg behind the moon it would be less obvious. A bit reckless really though. At the very least he'll have caused a tidal wave doing that

The Robin cover is an homage, right? But what's it an homage to? I'm irritated that I can't quite place it.

I mean, a poster book of Michael Turner covers would ALSO sell well, wouldn’t it?

Trust me, if he stays exclusive enough at either company and produces a sizeable enough amount of covers to fill up a book, it'll happen. And it'll be an expensive hardcover to boot.

The Robin cover is an homage, right? But what’s it an homage to? I’m irritated that I can’t quite place it.

I'll give a cool point to the person who can find it!

In fairness, each issue of New Frontier was double-sized and more costly. It had better be good by then!

Am I missing something? Why is the idea of the Spectre with a goatee so lame? It’s just facial hair, people.

Lame facial hair!

In fairness, each issue of New Frontier was double-sized and more costly. It had better be good by then!

New Frontier was an awesome book within the first part of the first issue!! The Losers story, by itself, would be enough to make that book awesome.

Well, I don’t think Absolutes are determined by quality but rather by popularity. Is the book popular enough to convince people to drop over $70 to purchase it? There are many books that are great quality but wouldn’t get many sales at $75. Long Halloween is total crap, but it’s crap that people inexplicably love and find to be one of the greatest works of the medium.

I still love you, T.

As well you should.

You should come to Rocketship on Saturday.

We could totally make out.

Seriously, though, you should come to Rocketship.

Sounds to me from just that description that Allen would be a much more fascinating character in the role than Corrigan. Unless all you want is the 1960s version with Jim Aparo drawing all the horrible bizarre deaths in such loving detail.

But that's just it. Corrigan is actually a more conflicted character than Crispen Allen. Corrigan is torn between his base desire for vengeance, which fuels his desire to exact Aparo-esque acts of grotesque cosmic slaughter, and his natural, human senses of conscience and empathy, which tell him what he's doing is wrong and insane. His dilemma is that he's been given the power to get revenge on anyone and anything, and the only limit is his own morality. Throughout the Ostrander/Mandrake run, the conflict is between the essential role of the Spectre as the "wrath of God" and Corrigan's growing realization that such an entity makes no sense.

Allen, though, starts off with this conflict more or less resolved. He already knows the Spectre is crazy, and he doesn't seem to have any desire to go around avenging the murdered dead; in fact, he's started off his ghostly career thoroughly disgusted with the whole concept of the Spectre. The only explanation for why he continues to be the Spectre at all is a fatalistic one: Allen is explicitly presented as a man who's been robbed of his autonomy by a higher power, and is helpless to prevent the Spectre from going off on its merry, death-dealing way, much less control it. Corrigan's conflict was internal, between his base and better natures; Allen's is entirely external, caught in a hopeless struggle between himself and an entity that arbitrarily possesses him from time to time. Allen's dilemma is far less interesting because it doesn't really tell us anything meaningful about ourselves or our world. Corrigan's question is "can justice be immoral?" Allen's question is "what if you were dead and a ghost, and this bigger meaner ghost kept bossing you around?"

I may go Bri. I really have no excuse since I live only 3 local train stops away.

You're crazy, Brian! Superman Confidential was really good! Sharp character work, an interesting perspective on a young Superman, and very nice cartooning!

Speaking of homages, that Alex Ross Justice cover appears to be an homage to the Brian Bolland splash in Justice League of America no. 200. It was Batman getting the jump on Black Canary and Green Arrow in the original, but aside from that detail they seem very much the same to me.

The Jeff Smith Shazam! cover is striking, but it's also the same image they showed when the project was announced at the 2004 SDCC. I'd be inclined to rank it lower just for that reason.

How weird is it that just by not closing the italic brackets, you turn every other comment AFTER you into italics - isn't that bizarre?

"The Robin cover is an homage, right? But what’s it an homage to? I’m irritated that I can’t quite place it."/"I’ll give a cool point to the person who can find it!"

Seems to me to stongly echo (if not directly homage) the classic "Days of Future Past" cover where Wolverine protects Kitty from unseen but presumably impending doom on the other side of the spotlight.

The Robin cover reminds me of the classic Rocketeer (#2) "On the Spot" cover--except the shadow doesn't show the secret identity of the spot-lit character.

Not the most original idea in the world, but this Derec Donovan cover design is still a good one (the execution is a bit off, though, especially Connor’s face).

How about this one, MacQ?

Um, you know that rant that people keep doing about how stupid it is when gangbangers are shown holding their pistols sideways? It's worse with a bow. It looks stupid, it doesn't work, and usually the artist ends up having the string pass through or over the archer's arm.

Note on the first cover that Connor is drawing the bow up over his shoulder. Try it sometime. He's also got his draw hand palm-down. Dumb.

Note on the second cover that Ollie's draw hand is positioned vertically. He can't possibly be holding the string. It's in the correct position if his bow were vertical, but this pose is basically impossible.

Ditto Alex Ross's JLA cover. The best archery in this month's covers is Ty Templeton's Teen Titans Go, and he's got Speedy shooting off the wrong side of the bow.

Gene Ha did a JLA cover with Red Arrow (Roy Harper), and he had the good sense to e-mail and ask for advice. It looks gorgeous and actually looks like somebody who knows how to shoot a bow.

Thanks for the positive feedback 6 out of 6 for Krypto covers, Brian.

On the Flash cover: Ethan Van Sciver was the regular artist on Impulse for something like 15-20 issues, so he knows Impulse. He also did a great job on the one-shot Flash: Iron Heights. Not sure what happened here.