The Cool Kids Table: dave johnson

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Art Attack: July 2013's Coolest Covers

-It's crazy to me sometimes to remember how long Stuart Immonen has been doing comic book art at the high level he has, how many times he has evolved his style and how drastically. This is a guy who already had a unique take on super heroes back in the 90's when he drew Final Night, went way outside the box for Nextwave, had the chops to follow Mark Bagley on Ultimate Spider-Man and handled a book no less high profile than New Avengers. With All-New X-Men, he's morphed yet again, perhaps in more subtle ways, but he's a talent who definitely takes care to make teenagers look like teenagers. This cover is even another side, very fine art in the background and very striking at the fore.

-That's a clever Avengers Arena cover by Dave Johnson that can work multiple ways. The brackets make sense given the book's premise, but he does cool work making them shadows or roots or whatever you want to see them

-Man, I love the way Patrick Gleason visualized the whole environment for that Batman & Catwoman cover, not just the figures or the setting but how they interact. Love the angle of the characters and the use of the Bat Signal.

-I love the way Salvador Larroca draw super heroes; classic, colorful, powerful super heroes. That is all.

-That's some especially pretty Chris Samnee Daredevil art. All that black looks awesome and perfectly conveys a predicament that would crush Matt Murdock. This cover works from both a storytelling perspective and in creating an enticing snapshot.

-Double shot of Juan Doe radness this month. Fun Blood Brothers cover and then graphic brilliance on Earth 2, taking smart cues from propaganda posters and using the figures perfectly. Juan's art always grabs you.

-Mark Brooks, you did it again.

-I want that Francis Manapul Flash cover as a poster.

-Nice callback on this month's Indestructible Hulk cover by Paolo Rivera to his own Daredevil #1 work, using DD's billy clubs to blind Hulk and Banner this go around.

-Speaking of callbacks, Nova #6 is a nice shot from Ed McGuinness after a fashion to one of my all-time favorites, the original Nova #25.

-Ryan Stegman doing some Bill Sienkiewicz jazz with the ninjas battling Scarlet Spider--very cool!

-Thor: God of Thunder. Esad Ribic. Guh.

100 BULLETS: BROTHER LONO #2 by Dave Johnson

ALL-NEW X-MEN #14 by Stuart Immonen

AVENGERS ARENA #12 by Dave Johnson

AVENGERS ASSEMBLE #17 by Joe Quinones

BATMAN & CATWOMAN #22 by Patrick Gleason

BATMAN INCORPORATED #13 by Chris Burnham

BATWOMAN #22 by J.H. Williams III

BLOOD BROTHERS #1 by Juan Doe

CABLE & X-FORCE #10 by Salvador Larroca

CAPTAIN MARVEL #14 by Joe Quinones

DAREDEVIL #29 by Chris Samnee

DAREDEVIL: DARK NIGHTS #2 by Lee Weeks

DEADPOOL #13 by Kris Anka

DIAL H #14 by Brian Bolland

EARTH 2 #14 by Juan Doe

FATALE #16 by Sean Phillips

FEARLESS DEFENDERS #6 by Mark Brooks

FLASH #22 by Francis Manapul

GREEN ARROW #22 by Andrea Sorrentino

GREEN LANTERN CORPS #22 by Bernard Chang

GREEN TEAM: TEEN TRILLIONAIRES #3 by Amanda Conner

HOUSE OF GOLD AND BONES #4 by Frank Quitely

INDESTRUCTIBLE HULK #10 by Paolo Rivera

IRON MAN #12 by Greg Land

KATANA #6 by Pasqual Ferry

LAZARUS #2 by Michael Lark

NOVA #6 by Ed McGuinness

RED SHE-HULK #67 by Francesco Francavilla

SCARLET SPIDER #19 by Ryan Stegman

SECRET AVENGERS #7 by Nic Klein

SUPERGIRL #22 by Mahmud Asrar

SUPERIOR FOES OF SPIDER-MAN #1 by Marcos Martin

THOR: GOD OF THUNDER #10 by Esad Ribic

THUNDERBOLTS #12 by Julian Totino Tedesco

X-FACTOR #259 by David Yardin

Friday, April 12, 2013

Art Attack: June 2013's Coolest Covers

-Working in comics, one of the downsides is I don't get surprised a lot, but I had no idea 100 Bullets was coming back and I was thrilled to be taken off guard by the news. Dave Johnson's cover takes you right back.

-That's a really different kind of cover for Astonishing X-Men by Phil Noto. Iceman is hardly the type of character who typically gets placed in a fantasy setting, but the unique juxtaposition here coupled with beautiful colors and the cool array of past and present love interests works really nicely (and makes you realize what a weird romantic history Bobby Drake has had). Noto is the consummate pro.

-Paolo Rivera really first got on the map beyond being the painter of Mythos when he drew that Punisher team-up issue of Amazing Spider-Man, so it's cool to see him back on both characters (after a fashion) with this month's Avenging Spider-Man cover, as he's got a great grasp for them. I'd love to see some regular Paolo Punisher.

-Jae Lee is a master of taking the familiar and making it striking, as he does on Batman/Superman #1. Two iconic figures, not a lot of busy scenery, just beautiful fine art.

-Great use of blacks on Georges Jeanty's cover for Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I wonder how long he tinkered before settling on that approach?

-If that Daredevil cover by Chris Samnee doesn't fill you with a tingly excitement, this blog may not be for you (wait! Come back!).

-These Skullkickers homage covers have yet to miss for me.

-Nobody in comics is doing covers any more inventive than Mark Brooks on Fearless Defenders right now. I'd love to know where he gets his ideas from. Hey wait, I run a web site that could probably look into just that...

-Juan Doe on G.I. Joe! It just feels right.

-Was talking with Impact Wrestling's Samoa Joe about Paolo Rivera's Indestructible Hulk cover the other day when he visited the Marvel offices and it caught his eye. We both dug beyond the humor aspect that the style is very old school in a lot of ways, but has a slick modern polish. Paolo is really on fire.

-I didn't put that Mind the Gap cover on just to try and avoid Jim McCann whining in the comments section again, I really like the idea and Rodin Esquejo executes it perfectly (it could have come off really sloppy in the wrong hands).

-Enlarge that Superior Spider-Man cover by Giuseppe Camuncoli and then scroll up and down your screen for a bit. It's trippy.

-Thor: God of Thunder #9 is currently the desktop wallpaper of my work computer.

-With Ultimate Comics X-Men, B.P.R.D. and the aforementioned 100 Bullets, Dave Johnson makes my list three times this month. He's still the master.

-Declan Shalvey may be the most underrated artist in mainstream comics. He has a knack for dropping the fantastic (like an alien symbiote) into a world that looks more mundane and realistic than a lot of others depict with very compelling results.

100 BULLETS: BROTHER LONO #1 by Dave Johnson