One of the many nice things about comics? You can judge a book by it’s cover! Even if the cover artist is different from whoever did the interiors, the cover acts as a primer for what’s to come. They’re like movie posters, flashing the most exciting and tantalizing elements of the issue, even if what’s pictured is more thematic than story-derived. In today’s comics market, we have no shortage of wildly talented artists who make it their goal to entice you to buy, and below you’ll find our five favorites from 2015.
5. Mike Mignola
(Mark Tweedale) At the end of 2012, Mike Mignola stepped back from doing many of the covers for his many, many books. This even extended to the trade collections, which had previously only ever had covers by Mike Mignola. So 2015 has been a big treat. He did all the covers for “Frankenstein Underground”, a special cover for the “Baltimore” prose novel’s paperback release, plus several others for his various other titles. His variant cover for “B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth” #135 was particularly stunning. But even still, the best is undoubtedly his cover for “Hellboy in Hell” #7. It’s shocking in such a quiet and beautiful way. Hellboy’s been dead for a while now, but this cover really hammered home the reality of it.
4. Darwyn Cooke
(Mike Romeo) Darwyn Cooke’s been good for a along while now, but I think it’s safe to say that 2015 has been a very good year for him when it comes to covers. Have you seen what he’s done on “Twilight Children?” Besides his obvious talents as a cartoonist, Cooke is also showing incredible strength as a designer with those covers. His use of composition, his eschewing of holding lines, the color choices he’s making, all of it shows signs of an artist at the top of his game. Plus, did you see what he did for that Golden Age Batman omnibus? It made me swoon!
Cooke wrapped up 2014 with that amazing line of DC variant covers, and somehow managed to find a way to up his game after such a monumental achievement.
3. Francis Manapul
(Brian Salvatore) Sometime around 2014, Francis Manapul’s interior work started to get (even more) delayed. Perhaps this is a symptom of doing more writing, or maybe he is just slowing down a bit. Regardless, what this allowed Manapul to do is to find even more time to focus on the covers that have been one of his trademarks since breaking into the business.
This year alone, he covered over 15 DC books, from the “Darkseid War” tie-ins to “Batman/Superman,” “Batman and Robin Eternal,” to variants for a number of series. Each one of his covers maintains his signature style, but the malleability of his covers is really something to behold. From the beautiful but cold covers for the “Darkseid War” tie-ins to the somehow not at all outside his comfort zone Looney Tunes variants, Manapul is able to get at the core emotional truth of the book he’s covering (or the variant theme, if that’s the case), and represent it perfectly with one single image.
2. Jamie McKelvie
(Vince Ostrowski) Jamie McKelvie’s covers, in recent years, have become an iconic study of faces. Faces of all shapes, gender identifications, and colors. Why, that’s almost exclusively what the covers of “The Wicked + The Divine” are – and by now, you know what I’m talking about, even if you don’t read the book. You could be terrible at discerning one artist from another and still know a McKelvie cover when you see one. Near the end of 2014 (between the time of our last “Year in Review” and now), this iconic cover style showed up on a half-dozen other Image books, as well, with McKelvie applying his style to “Shutter”, “East of West”, and a few others. And just as others have wanted him to adapt their characters to his style, he too put his spin on the styles of other iconic artists in 2015. His McFarlane-esque “Spider-Gwen” cover and the Patrick Nagel heroine at the center of the “Phonogram” #1 cover are two just two eye-catching examples. If a picture is worth a thousand words, a McKelvie cover puts about 900 of them (give or take) on his subject’s face.
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1. Mike Del Mundo
(Greg Matiasevich) We all judge books by their covers on some level. Everyone does. But in comics, we are almost always judging books by their covers months before we actually get to see the rest of the book. And in the years (decades?) since we’ve moved away from story-point covers as an industry standard, where you could hook a reader with an impossible scenario and a hyperbolic word balloon or two, the importance of being able to create an arresting, standalone image has only grown. And it’s not a skill every comics artist has. I can point out example after example of wonderful sequential artists who, frankly, suck at doing covers. So when you see someone who can combine image choice with rendering, color choices, texture, and even storytelling of a more static nature than the interior of the book, you take notice.
This is the year I took notice of Mike Del Mundo.
Month after month, as I go through the Marvel section of the Previews catalog, I stop on the Del Mundo covers. They eschew the lineart approach and go right into paintings; more Andrew Robinson than Bryan Hitch. Color choices edge towards Frazier Irving boldness. And storytelling? Tell me you looked at any of his “Weirdworld” or “Planet Hulk” covers and DIDN’T want to pick that book up. Can’t do it, can you? Because Mike Del Mundo’s job is to make you judge every book he covers as worthy of your money, and this year he was VERY good at it.
Editor’s Notes:
Mike Romeo – I have no qualms with any of the names on this list. It’s kinda nuts how, with something as diverse as cover art, a list as undeniable as this one could come together. Even if one of the artists above isn’t your cup of tea, they’re all at a level where denying the quality of their work would be foolhardy.
Brian Salvatore – Cover art has never been better than it is right now. There, I said it.
