There are three for-sure things all people love in life: comic covers, cover bands, and MS Paint. Some warned us to never combine this holy trinity. We here at Multiveristy Comics said no, threw caution to the wind, and combined mankind’s three favorite things into our new weekly feature: MS Masterpaint Theater! Each week, we will highlight some of the best comic cover art by recreating those masterpieces in the artist’s ultimate tool, MS Paint.

Welcome to this week of MS Master Paint Theater. Before we enjoy this week’s masterpieces, let’s run over the rules again real quick.

Rules:

Must use MS Paint.
Must use mouse and keyboard.
No tips, tricks, or hints.
1 hour per piece.
Each piece will be rated on a scale of 1 to 10.

Simple enough! Let’s open the curtain on this week’s covers! Enjoy

Masterpaint Theater

Kill Or Be Killed #1
By Sean Phillips

Is there much to say about Sean Phillps that you don’t already know if you are a comic fan. The man knows how to capture gritty noir in every possible way. Not to mention the on point coloring of Elizabeth Breitweiser. The team is able to create covers evoke the old crime magazines of the past. I mean come on, he is amazing. I am not amazing, actually the opposite.

Kill Or Be Killed #1
By Kyle Welch after Sean Phillips

That is pretty noirwful. I am about 100 percent sure that gun is not going to fire. Phillips man looks confident and ready to go. Mine looks beady eyed with an oddly long torso who should probably sit down. My painted highlight background looks like a camo patterned fart cloud.

5 bumpy guns out of 10.

Batman Beyond #15
By Bernard Chang

We have our first Multiversity Staff contributor, Leo Johnson, jumping in to do his take on the cover for Batman Beyond #15. I have always loved the look and style of the Batman Beyond world. Spellbinder is such a great character design and Chang’s puts it to great use on this cover. I will say as a Masterpaint vet, Batman and Rewire in the center are going to be hard to do but if anyone can do it, its Leo (or not, probably not).

Batman Beyond #15
By Leo Johnson after Bernard Chang

Batman Beyond 15 Masterpaint — Batman beyond 15 Masterpaint

Leo: “I learned a few things doing this: Kyle is insane for doing this every week. Paint is super hard using a laptop trackpad. I’m not above cheating.

I was already way past the hour mark and still had to draw the little dudes, so I just grabbed ’em from the actual cover and dropped them in their with Paint. Like I said, I’m not above cheating. All in all, it’s not terrible, but homeboy definitely needs to get his hand looked at because I don’t think it’s supposed to look quite like that. “

4 deformed hands out of 10

Thank you for checking out another installment of MS Masterpaint Theater. Look for more stunning recreations next week. As we have settled into a weekly groove I will look to get other Multiversity Staff into contributing and maybe even possible creator guests! If you are a reader and would like to contribute, we would love your submissions for your MS Paint masterpieces. Send them here: kwelch@multiversitycomics.com. Until next week, may your airbrush always be crappy.