Comments on: CAPES, COWLS & COSTUMES >> Challenging Reads

By: rob!

rob! — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 02:25:16 +0000

a Challengers of the Unknown novel? you just blew my mind!

every time you do this column you show me something at least one thing i never, ever heard of before. can’t wait to see what’s next…

By: RP

RP — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 01:31:19 +0000

Alex Ross could do some awesome Bama-esque covers if he wasn’t making tons of money doing comics. Graphitti designs still has gorgeous prints of Bama’s best Doc Savage covers for cheap on its web site. There are also signed ones, but those are considerably more pricey.

By: Paul Kupperberg

Paul Kupperberg — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 20:45:15 +0000

I see what you mean. At first glance, because of Mignola’s cartoony style, the Bama influence doesn’t jump out at you, but once you look at the layout and composition, it all comes together.

By: RP

RP — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 17:40:26 +0000

The HELLBOY books that Christopher Golden has done have that kind of Bama-throwback look to them, but the other comic novelizations that come to mind, THE DEATH AND LIFE OF SUPERMAN and BATMAN: KNIGHTFALL, had terrible covers.

By: Paul Kupperberg

Paul Kupperberg — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 13:44:15 +0000

I think the way the cover art “progressed” from pulp magazine-style heroic action or poster shots on these books in the 1980s to the more lurid porn-ish look of WITCHBLADE in the new millennium works as a perfect metaphor for the direction comic books have taken in the last 20 years. I love the old Bama-influenced style of paperback book covers, like CHALLS and BLACKHAWK, not to mention some earlier books like CAPTAIN AMERICA and THE AVENGERS, which I reviewed in an earlier column, but current paperback book covers just can’t hold a candle to these classics…I guess, like most everything else these days, they don’t make ‘em like they used to. The best comic book novel cover in recent years (in my opinion) was Tom DeHaven’s sweet IT’S SUPERMAN, designed and executed by Chris Ware, but even that was striking really more for its Chip Kidd-influenced graphics than the illustration itself.

Sometimes I think about this stuff way too much.

By: Rod

Rod — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 11:31:14 +0000

Those covers are awesome, especially for CHALLENGERS and BLACKHAWK. Exception is WITCHBLADE, which looks either like the cover of some fanboy’s Trapper Keeper or porn.