You've seen the By the Numbers breakdown of our picks for best comic covers of the year by publisher, series, and artist...but what we all really love is a top ten countdown, right?
10. Silver Surfer #1
by Francesco Francavilla
There
were a lot of great covers by this master this year, so it was tough to
pick just one, but I couldn't resist including his most minimal work
yet. The sheer simplicity and lack of color really make it stand out
from the get go, but it's the size of its main character that makes it a
classic. It emphasizes the space, the massive world that the Silver
Surfer exists in, and gives us an idea of the explorative nature of this
series.
9. Magneto #1
by Paolo Rivera
In
many cases, good covers start with good ideas; with that logic, great
covers start with great concepts. Rivera starts with a stellar idea, one
that is able to give us great facial acting, remind us of who this
character is with the outline of his classic helmet, and clue us in with
the barbed wire that this new series is going to deal with his dark and
tragic past. Then, more subtly, the shading that looks like the real
helmet is there emphasizes what we usually can't see underneath it,
hinting that we're going to learn more about Magneto than we have in the
past. It's simple and elegant and frighteningly powerful.
8. Thor #18
by Esad Ribic
Oh,
Esad Ribic. I'm loving Russell Dauterman on the new series, but it was
difficult to pick just one of Ribic's terrifically epic Thor: God of
Thunder covers. This one stands out in that it gives us a sense of scale
without involving space in anyway; it's just one monster and Thor. The
creature's design is fantastic as well, not your typical dragon, and the
way his entire body isn't seen, curving upwards out of frame, gives us
an even scarier sense of just how big this thing is. The shading and
color are unique as well, giving everything an ethereal feel while
leaving Thor standing out in the foreground, giving the cover a ton of
depth.
7. Batman/Superman #17
by Darwyn Cooke
I
can't deny: I'm a huge Darwyn Cooke fan. He's got a great sense of
character and tone, and among all his recent covers for DC, this one
shows off his skills best. At first glance, it's a simple idea–the
characters' body language and facial expressions begin to tell the story
of a bomb defused just in time. But the level of detail that Cooke
infuses within his cartooning style is astounding–the guards lying
unconscious on the staircase, the rushed pile of C4 under the bomb, the
bullet holes of close misses just behind our heroes. The coloring, too,
from the green glow of the bomb to the red of the unseen alarm give us a
sense of the intensity of the situation that just resolved. All of this
makes it a great piece, but it's Superman's utter relief while Batman
smiles as if he was never concerned that makes it an instant classic.
6. Mind MGMT #22
by Matt Kindt
Based on the painting "The Treachery of Images"
by surrealist René Magritte, Kindt's simplest cover is possibly his
best. The concept, to start, fits this series perfectly–in a complex
story about agents that can bend and shape perception and reality at
will, what can be considered truth? Just as Magritte's original painting
does, it forces us to question what we are looking at...we must take
into account that the physical comic we are reading is just a
representation of the story Kindt is telling, and we cannot know what is
real or not. Being able to shift the pipe perfectly into an agent in
defensive posture is nothing short of stunning, and it's admirable that
the background isn't just a matte–indeed, there may even be the
silhouette of a face hidden, which urges us even further to pay close
attention.
5. Wonder Woman #33
by Joshua Middleton
I
love Chiang's covers for Wonder Woman, but it was this variant for
Batman's 75th Anniversary that eventually won the day. This thing is
oozing with gothic art deco style that is rarely seen on covers. The
contrast of the dark and grainy Gotham and the bright sun of Paradise
Island puts our characters right in the center. Their design, too, is
phenomenal, with Batman full of straight lines and sharp corners while
Wonder Woman has a powerful sense of flow. I love how the rectangular
rays of light that radiate from her sword (or the sun) cross paths with
the spotlight (or Bat-Signal) from Gotham, and how those three rays fall
both in front and behind the characters, giving the cover a surprising
amount of depth given its more portrait-style depiction. I hope this
cover caught the attention of more than just me with its breathtaking
look and we'll see Middleton more and more!
4. Supreme Blue Rose #2
by Tula Lotay
Lotay is a relative newcomer to comics, but her work on Supreme Blue Rose and Bodies
this year really took the comics art world by storm. Of all her covers
this year, this is definitely my favorite. Just on the surface, it oozes
with Sean Phillips style, giving us a classical femme fatale, but Lotay
gives her a relaxed posture that contrasts with her subtly concerned
facial expression. There are a lot of added elements that up the
mysterious tone: the foggy green wisps, the braille dots that
menacingly surround her neck, the scribbles design on her dress, and of
course the molecule-like diagrams that connect all the covers. The
impressionistic background makes her stand out even more, but it's the
phenomenal color choices of a sort of pastel green and the fiery primary
red that make the entire cover jump out at you. The whole thing is
elegant, sexy, and wholly enigmatic–it makes you desperately want to
understand while at the same time her face seems to be trying to send
you a secret message to stay away.
3. She Hulk #2
by Kevin Wada
Wada's
She Hulk covers are all among the best of this year, and it was
extremely hard to narrow it down, but I opted for the panelled
storytelling of #2 over the simple and iconic cover of the first issue.
The panels each tell their own story, but together describe the series
and the character perfectly. The facial detail in the center panel is
fun and beautiful, the action in the last two panels is a blast, and the
circular nature of it all, leading from the fight in the street to an
early morning with a bandaged hand, is just wonderful. This series as a
whole really gave a strong feminine character that deserves to be
celebrated, and this cover in particular expertly captures that.
2. Winter Soldier: The Bitter March #2
by Andrew Robinson
As Kyle said on the podcast,
"All great spy stories take place on a train." The 1960's mod-spy story
was drawn wonderfully by Roland Boschi, but it was Robinson's insanely
cool covers that drew my attention first. While the first issue
similarly utilizes the title and is stylish in its own right, this one
ups the ante significantly. The title's integration into the image and
the color choices on it work almost like a movie's opening titles,
leading your eye downward to see the action scene in medias res. This
one image captures the intense spy action of this issue with absolute
perfection, from the scientist and Ran Shen sharing a cocktail to two
forces looking to steal her secrets coming from the right and above. Add to
it the silhouetted train's slightly cartoonish tilt which gives it a
sense of dangerous speed and you've got a cover that is both gorgeous
and tells a thrilling story in itself!
1. Amazing Spider-Man #1
by Marcos Martin
Marcos Martin's work in the past few years on Daredevil and The Private Eye
has earned him even more fans, and clearly the guy is deserving of all
the praise. I give you what I deem the best comic cover of 2014 with his
variant of The Amazing Spider-Man #1. The concept in general is a
very good one: look at the world from the perspective of Spider-Man,
the acrobat, by inverting the image. Much more interesting than the
crazy swinging through the streets Spider-Man that we've seen a million
times, this cover also recreates the feeling of being a superhero
through a thrilling sense of height that is impressive given the
upside-down perspective. Adding to this is the curvature of the world
that seems as if he's almost launched himself into orbit and the
fantastic contrast between the highly detailed, almost photo-realistic
NYC and the very simple bottom half, with just the figure and the
gradient background. The typography is bombastic and modern, emphasizing
that favorite adjective of your friendly neighborhood web slinger as
being so big, such an event, that it can't even fit on the page without
being split onto two lines. This is a cover that makes me excited about a
character, that takes an extremely simple concept and makes it beautiful
through careful design and detail. Hell, it's a cover that works just
as well if you look at it upside-down! It is nothing short of...well,
Amazing.
–––––––––––––––––––––
It
was a really wonderful year for comic book cover art, and narrowing
this list down was incredibly difficult. Following are some of the
runners up. If your favorite cover didn't make the list, let us know!
We'd love to hear what you have to think on Twitter or Facebook!
Runners Up
by Wesley Craig
by Jamie McKelvie
by Goni Montes
by Vic Malhotra
Wonder Woman #34
by Cliff Chiang
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