Highway 62

First and foremost, the cover to any book (and let’s be clear, I’m a big fan of trade collections and don’t really care for the monthly format) is an advertisement. It’s true. I have no artistic soul, no poetry flowing through my veins. I’m driven by my lower urges and only wish to sell my paltry wares. Right. You finished now?

A cover is an advertisement, pure and simple. It’s all that most people, if they even go past a rack of comics, or see someone reading a comic in public (ha!) will ever see. Like it or not, people are going to judge the book by its cover. If they’re not intrigued by what they see, then they’re not going to give it a second look. If they’re repulsed by what they see, then they’re going to judge not only the book, but the reader, and perhaps even the form in that instant.

You can guess what’s coming next, right?

SKANKY EMMA FROST COVER HERE

My favorite. I realize that Greg Horn’s an easy target, but then longtime readers will be reminded that I only take down easy targets.

Yeah, that’s something special alright. You wouldn’t know by looking at it that this is a book about a somewhat awkward teenager coming of age and dealing with her own particular genetic gifts (no, not her breasts, bonehead). Looks like a Maxim cover, doesn’t it? I see lots of Maxim magazines on the racks at bookstores, but I don’t often see anyone other than fourteen year olds looking through them, much less anyone in public.

Technical merits aside, what happened with Emma Frost was someone thinking that it was a good idea to put stroke material on the outside when it was really Dawson’s Creek on the inside. Not the brightest move, and one that virtually guarantees anyone who is seen reading it will be judged as someone who is not only incapable of relating to a real woman, but is probably afraid of them. Congrats, guys. Bang-up job on that.

Granted, Marvel’s editorial department got smart about it:

NON-SKANKY EMMA FROST COVER HERE

Hey, lookit that! A cover that actually reflects, to a large degree, what’s going on in the book. That’s great. And the person across the way isn’t going to think that you’re a major pervert, either. Not like with those covers for Trouble last year (brr!). No, I don’t care if they were modeled on tweenie fiction book cover or not, they were utterly skeezy.

So great, we’ve got covers that reflect what’s going on in the book, and may even be somewhat interesting to look at (if not exactly eye-catching). They don’t really jump off the shelf, do they?

And while I’m at it. Take a look at those Ultimate Spider-Man covers over in James’ article at CBR. Good golly, but those don’t do anything to sell the book, do they? “Look, I’m Spiderman, and I can swing over the city! HOW ICONIC AM I?” Yeah, sure, an iconic Spider-Man pose. Whoop-ee. They are utterly boring and uninspiring. They do nothing other than say, “hey, this Spider-Man cat is a character that appears in this book. Don’t ask what else happens, just buy the book because Spider-Man is in it.” And oh yeah, NEVER EVER EVER cover up the logo with your characters, not unless it’s something special (which this cover certainly isn’t.)

BORING SPIDER MAN COVER HERE

Talk about not selling the book to anyone but the zombies in the audience. I mean, that’s great, if that’s who you’re selling to. But then why even bother. Just put the words “Spider-Man” on the cover and leave the rest blank. Spider-zombies will snap it up. Unless of course, Spider-Man doesn’t actually appear in the book and it’s just people talking in someone’s bedroom.

Okay, that was cheap. It’s a character weakness. I try to live with it.

But really, those covers don’t generate any excitement or enthusiasm, or show off even a glimmer of understanding the character. Pin-ups can do this, but they usually don’t. Pin-ups on the front don’t really sell the book to anyone but… Oh. I said that already, didn’t I?

So, what sells a book? What makes me linger on a cover and want to pick up the book to see what’s going on inside?

IRON FIST COVER HERE.

I’m just kidding you. But it’s a hell of a lot more exciting than any of the covers we’ve already seen here, right? Granted, it’s not something that you’re expecting a forty-year old stockbroker to be reading on the commuter train in the morning. But it is, however, something that would fire the imagination of an eight- to fourteen-year-old. That’s solid action, if a little awkwardly staged (but some of those old Marvel covers were). Sure, the text is largely cheesy and nonsensical (but some folks revel in that).

So yeah, juvenile. But a lot more likely to jump into the hands of a young reader than a boring ‘ol pin-up. Any less embarrassing to read in public than the Emma Frost cover? Exercise left to the reader.

And now you’re asking me, okay, what really works in a cover? Well, if you’re just trying to catch someone’s eye, what you want is contrast, and lots of it.

WANTED COVER HERE

Lookit that. Even tiny, it just grabs your little eyeballs and demands attention. I’m not going to vouch for the contents, but the cover does its job (even if it ultimately is a boring pin-up). Though, really, I’m talking about logo design here more than just the cover art, but the two need to work with and not against each other.

Here’s something a little better (and a hell of a read to boot):

DEMO COVER HERE

Brian Wood, unsurprisingly, is a talented graphic designer and artist himself. It shows. He’s put his skills to good use. The logo design stands out so you can track it down (and it helps a lot that it’s only got four, count them, four letters to spell out instead of something interminably long like say, The Uncanny X-Men or -Spectacular Spider-Man.) And oh yeah, Becky Cloonan delivers the art like nobody’s business.

You’re not going to lose either of those on the shelf. Of course, you can have an eye-catching cover, and even eye-catching type, but if you don’t know what it is you’re looking at, you’re going to be lost.

HELLBLAZER COVER HERE

I can read the cover just fine, as long as I’m not LOOKING FOR THE TITLE OF THE BOOK. Sure, I, as an obsessive, know that Tim Bradstreet is doing the covers for Hellblazer now, so it’s either that or The Punisher. As an interesting cover, it works great, can’t take my eyes off of it. As a selling tool to get people to buy Hellblazer, it’s at best only partially successful.

Now let’s take a look at some covers by a favorite artist of mine, mister Darwyn Cooke. Let’s start with this one:

EGO COVER HERE

Lovely cover. Evocative. Compelling. Expressionistic. Kinda tough to read that title with the thin logotype. Little tricky to figure out who’s starring in it, unless you’re able to read the small “BATMAN” type in red at the top. Not that this is a bad thing, really. Hell, it even looks like a real honest to god book cover for a real book with words and stuff in it. I’d be interested in finding out what’s in it, even if the cover is a tad busy.

Now, look at these books, without looking at the text, if you can. Are these covers from the same series or not?

NEW FRONTIER 4 COVER HERE NEW FRONTIER COVER 5 HERE

Time’s up! What did you guess?

Yes, they’re both from the same series, but you couldn’t tell without reading the type, could you? And the type isn’t the same shape/font/layout, is it? Nope. As much as I love the little dash of creativity with redesigning the same logo differently for different issues, it makes things pretty damn hard on people who aren’t obsessively paying attention to things. People made the same complaint about WildCats 3.0, and I’d have to agree. Logo and identity design rules are there for a reason.

But back to the New Frontier covers. Everything I said about the Ego cover applies, in terms of the ooh and aah factor. Interesting covers that actually reflect the content within, without having to beat you over the head with it. The covers make me want to pick ‘em up and flip through, even if the logotype changes from issue to issue are a little bothersome. But the increased contrast and (somewhat) reduced busy-ness makes them pretty effective (if you’re targeting design geeks like myself.)

And if you want to see a great job of covers becoming an integral part of the series and identity of the book, as well as being a great selling tool, and always jumping off the stands, then look no further than this:

INVISIBLES COVER HERE

Oh, but you knew I was going to sneak in some Grant Morrison goodness, didn’t you? Well, really, Steve Yeowell goodness, but you get the picture. That’s a cover that demands attention and gets it, snapping your knees to the asphalt with a rubber truncheon and beating you soundly about the head and face. That’s a cover that’s doing its job right there, and the same could be said for the entire series of covers. Yes, Dave McKean’s covers for The Sandman were consistently lovely, but can’t match those Invisibles covers in my book.

Is that really the sun coming up? I need to lay off the caffeine I think. Right, so. Questions?

Next week, then.