What are your thoughts & opinions on the realism movement going on with comic covers?books today? 1 1

[Artboy99]

16 minutes ago, 1950's war comics said:

bumping an interesting thread that i just got around to reading

and thanks for doing so as I completely missed it the first time around.

My opinion: The realistic images are definitely for the cover collectors and CGC encapsulation crowd. I do have to say that art is fantastic these days, such well drawn images.

However, to me they are completely hit or miss. Some of them I absolutely love for the fantastic art, then others I shrug my shoulders and it doesn't make me want to buy the comic.

I still have a problem with the multiple covers/ multiple variants to books. I used to be a run collector, now for new books I find I only buy the covers I like which means I am not reading the stories/comics anymore and what that does is make me be far more choosy about what I buy. If anyone else is like this then it is actually reducing comic sales.

If I do want to read the story then I am more likely to buy the trade.

Edited October 12, 2019 by Artboy99

[1950's war comics]

i will admit too that some of the modern covers are amazing , the way the Hulk looks on the covers these days has drawn me to take the comic of the rack and marvel at it's realism, and with the intent to buy !   but when i open it up and see that there is only two minutes of reading inside i put it back on the rack

[Ken Aldred]

20 minutes ago, 1950's war comics said:

   but when i open it up and see that there is only two minutes of reading inside i put it back on the rack

Yup. 

That’s why I buy trade paperback story collections.  At least 10 minutes’ worth of entertainment that way. 

Edited October 12, 2019 by Ken Aldred

[ORRGO THE UNCONQUERABLE]

On 4/22/2019 at 12:29 AM, FSF said:

No it doesn't seem strange.  The notion that it is "ludicrous" is way overstating things. It's a comic book, not the Manhattan Project. 

As for conveying the work to the artist, do you really think Marvel or DC are going to spend time reaching out to all of the potential shops and cover artists even as stories might change as they're writing them.  I'm not sure if you ever worked for a "real" company but businesses do not operate that way. Never have and never will.

Of all the things to complain about the comic world, which jumped the shark over a decade ago, that would be way down on my list of things to worry about.  Candidly, I don't really read any new comics.  Lots of people don't but want to book for cover art.  It is the only thing one sees when it is bagged and boarded and immensely important.

I'm not sure why you are extending this to society in general.  You sound like a tired old guy talking about the "good old days."  Nothing is more tiresome on the internet.

 

Marvel and DC had cover art that reflected the story for years, and still do.  not sure what you’re taking about. 
 

I personally HATE “realistic” covers. Comics is one if the few mediums where you can have stuff that looks insane or silly and it works. No need to make it DULL or mimic movies, that’s just handicapping one of comics strengths. 
 

not only do I hate realistic covers I hate covers that have nothing to do with the story and I hate variants. I bailed out of collecting/reading in the 90’s when everything had a bagged trading card or a silver embossed cover. It’s all geared toward dirks who think they’ll make money. All of those comics are worthless now and these will be too. I hate the whole “flipping” section of comic fans. These are the individual_without_enough_empathys who go and buy every jack Kirby eternals when Feige announces a movie coming. There’s no love of comics it’s a love of money, if they like money that much there’s much more in the stock market. 
 

anything geared toward flipping or collecting not reading I hate and variants/pin ups/realism is all that.  Honestly they are the new 90’s garbage all over again. When this phase passes no one will be rabidly looking for these stupid variants or eighth first issue.

I’m 42 and started collecting at 9 years old in 86. I read from 86-91.  I still buy FF to complete my collection but all I buy now are silver and bronze. 
 

I buy jack Kirby 70’s captain America to read and they are all under $5 bucks. I buy 70’s marvel two in one, same thing - $3-$5 bucks. 
In a perfect world people who be obsessively collecting these books with fun stories and dynamic Energetic visual storytelling. I try modern comics but it’s all pretentious, overly clever or laden with pop culture winks and is mostly people in apartments talking about relationships, if not that it’s bad modern writers who have horrible takes on characters they don’t understand like Tom kings Batman or the new dr doom series.

anyways someone feel free to post old man Simpson yelling at clouds since that’s the defacto response to something like this. 

 

 

[the blob]

Isn't artgerm digital? I guess the end result is what should matter, but I am less excited by a digital rendition for some reason. Or is all this stuff digital nowadays? 

[speedcake]

I really like much of the work being done on covers, as many people do obviously, and the level of talent across the board is impressive. I'm guilty of buying moderns just for the cover if I see one that stands out to me. And I'm a sucker for Parrillo covers no matter the subject.

But at NYCC last weekend I walked by a table at one of the dealers that commissions covers and their entire table display was covers that amounted to nothing more than head shots of the various characters. Some of them were beautifully rendered, but when seen all together like that they became very mundane and boring. Of course there are plenty more covers being done that are dynamic, even if they don't necessarily depict something that's happening in the comic itself, but man was it a bummer to see all of those covers that were just heads. Boring ol' heads.

[IbukiLord]

I buy books just for the covers, luckily there are still plenty that are both a good cover and book.

 

Can't stand covers with speech bubbles nor do I feel that a cover needs to hint at what's happening inside the book. It needs to be striking and eye catching which is what many moderns are doing right in my eyes.

[kav]

Great covers usually great interior art almost always dumb stories seems to be the trend.  Lotta great artists.  Lotta really really bad writers.

[Ryan.]

A lot of the complaints in this thread regarding covers that don't reflect the art inside the book are applicable to the Golden Age as well. 

[Xenosmilus]

They need to have cheap ($), linear story comics for kids again. Just my .

[musicmeta]

On 4/22/2019 at 10:48 AM, FSF said:

The point of the thread is very simple.  Do you like the increasing new style of art or not?  I suppose that as an extension of that is whether it is even appropriate to consider it comic art at this point though this part was not obvious.  Beyond that, there is no objective or agenda or any other consideration.  I'm just curious what the audience thinks of this pretty significant shift in what is being defined as "comic art."  As far any notion that I'm upset, that is completely absurd.  Feel free to post whatever you want and lots of threads get derailed so I get that and am guilty of it myself from time to time but I still don't understand this need to focus on the stories and even more so, the talk of "captions" as if there were that many books that actually even used them on the cover even before the modern era.  And regarding any sort of notion that I think Artgerm or any other books that I buy are going to be valuable is completely laughable.  I'm well entrenched in the camp that thinks that virtually all comic books will be essentially worthless sometime before i die.  I'm in my mid 40s if that helps.  I don't do comics, or any collectibles, for money.

I do not.

[lordisam]

Here are two new covers I loved that show what is going on the issue.  The Moonshine issue does have a “poster” feel but also captures the essence of the issue.  And the Prodigy cover says the story - the hero does indeed fight a shark underwater.