I miss covers with substance 3 3

[kav]

On 11/29/2021 at 12:46 PM, ttfitz said:

On 11/29/2021 at 12:26 PM, kav said:

Any self absorbed kid back in my day was mocked mercilessly.

FTFY.

You got me that time.
Ah just like the old days 

[Changer Farseer]

Hi, new to the boards.  I have been meaning to join this forum for a while, but never got around to it(especially love the reading the original art section of the forum).  This thread finally got me to join :). While I agree with the original post about most covers being just poses and a bit repetitive and not very informing of the contents of the comics for quite a while now, I think there are still lots of great covers that have been made over the last 30 or 20 years. I wanted to share some that I have liked over the years, since the opening poster asked to see some good modern covers.  Most of them are Gambit and X-Men related because I love the X-Men and Gambit is my favorite comic character.

[1950's war comics]

 

On 11/29/2021 at 6:13 PM, Changer Farseer said:

to see some good modern covers

i have to admit those DD covers are sweet !!

[Changer Farseer]

On 11/30/2021 at 5:52 AM, 1950's war comics said:

 

i have to admit those DD covers are sweet !!

Yeah, agreed!  Chris Samnee especially knows how to craft a cover.  I love his original art sketches too.

[Get Marwood & I]

I haven't read all the thread entries, but I like the old style, busy comic covers of my youth like these, that tell a story arc:

    

• 176 - Crikey, is that the Goblin in silhouette? He's killed Flash!
• 177 - It is Gobby!
• 178 - He's put Aunt May in hospital!
• 179 - Silvermaine's turned up!
• 180 - There's two Goblins!

They're of their time, charming, colourful and (to an early teen), exciting.

What do these tell us?

Not a lot. Some are OK, some less so.

I don't mind a nice 'picture' cover like this:

I like that.

It's certainly better than this:

 

There's good and bad in all the eras, but I prefer the comics of the 1950s-1980s overall, as that was the time, for me, when the medium was at it's best and most relevant. It's all been done now. There's nothing new that can happen to Spidey, or that can be done to him or his cast of characters. Everything that was ever great was in those early years. A bit like everything really. 

[kav]

This just in for all the young whippersnappers arguing stuff is better now-got this PM:
 

I bought a new fridge/ freezer.

It broke 2 weeks later

Tech cant come out over weekend - the wifey ain't happy.

[Ryan.]

On 12/3/2021 at 9:02 PM, kav said:

This just in for all the young whippersnappers arguing stuff is better now-got this PM:
 

I bought a new fridge/ freezer.

It broke 2 weeks later

Tech cant come out over weekend - the wifey ain't happy.

Thanks for the update! 

[ttfitz]

On 12/3/2021 at 9:02 PM, kav said:

This just in for all the young whippersnappers arguing stuff is better now-got this PM:
 

I bought a new fridge/ freezer.

It broke 2 weeks later

Tech cant come out over weekend - the wifey ain't happy.

Truthfully, if I was going to have a fridge (or most anything) break down, I would prefer it to be in the first two weeks. Always gonna be duds, best to sort that stuff out early. It's why most folks who build their own computers know to run stress-test software for the first day or two.

[kav]

On 12/3/2021 at 8:58 PM, ttfitz said:

Truthfully, if I was going to have a fridge (or most anything) break down, I would prefer it to be in the first two weeks. Always gonna be duds, best to sort that stuff out early. It's why most folks who build their own computers know to run stress-test software for the first day or two.

I'll tell 'im to pass on to wife.
But yeah 2 weeks better than 2 years when warranty expired.

[Jesse-Lee]

On 12/3/2021 at 8:02 PM, kav said:

This just in for all the young whippersnappers arguing stuff is better now-got this PM:
 

I bought a new fridge/ freezer.

It broke 2 weeks later

Tech cant come out over weekend - the wifey ain't happy.

My grandma has the same fridge now that she got when I was about 5 years old. I'm 43 now.

[kav]

On 12/3/2021 at 9:37 PM, Jesse-Lee said:

My grandma has the same fridge now that she got when I was about 5 years old. I'm 43 now.

boomers = awesome

[Jesse-Lee]

On 12/3/2021 at 8:02 PM, kav said:

This just in for all the young whippersnappers arguing stuff is better now-got this PM:
 

I bought a new fridge/ freezer.

It broke 2 weeks later

Tech cant come out over weekend - the wifey ain't happy.

I feel your pain though. Our chest freezer that we got second-hand - and it was beat up then - recently went belly up after owning it for 15 years, and literally about two weeks before we were going to take delivery of a 1/4 cow that we bought and was at the butcher's. I believe the freezer was about 25-30 years old total. We got a new one, and it's nice, but it doesn't feel as heavy-duty as the one we had to get rid of. I'm sure it's more energy efficient, but that old one was a tank.

Edited December 4, 2021 by Jesse-Lee

[kav]

On 12/3/2021 at 9:43 PM, Jesse-Lee said:

I feel your pain though. Our chest freezer that we got second-hand - and it was beat up then - recently went belly up after owning it for 15 years, and literally about two weeks before we were going to take delivery of a 1/4 cow that we bought and was at the butcher's. I believe the freezer was about 25-30 years old total. We got a new one, and it's nice, but it doesn't feel as heavy-duty as the one we had to get rid of. I'm sure it's more energy efficient, but that old one was a tank.

well at least you can surf the web on the new one.  for couple weeks before it craps out I mean.

[Off Panel]

I'm just another fifty-something-year-old dude on the boards, but in addition to all my well-loved Silver, Bronze, and Copper books, I do actually still read current comics. (I never got around to making my FDQ exit from reading new books, despite all the indignities we longtime comic book guys have suffered over the years. )

To my peers who swore off new comics because Marvel restarted Amazing Spider-man's numbering after issue 441 or DC retconned out a ton of history with The New 52 or Jane Foster got to be Thor for a while, I'm going to give it to you straight: you're missing out.

While there's still plenty of drek to be found in Modern Age comics (just as there was in the Golden, Silver, Bronze and Copper ages), there are also some extraordinarily well written and drawn comics out there. Even if you're just a low-brow Marvel zombie like me.

I've found Al Ewing's Immortal Hulk to be completely riveting -- creepy, mysterious, gross, horrifying, and surprisingly FUN! Ewing explains all the splintered Hulk incarnations over the years in a way that not only makes sense, but makes the character way more interesting. Joe Bennett's artwork on the book is so beautifully ugly it sometimes makes my skin crawl. 

I rolled my eyes when I read that Jane Foster was going to be Thor. Not because "a girl can't be Thor," but because the Supporting-Character-Is-The-New-Hero trope has just been done to death. But guess what? Those Jane Foster stories were some of the best Thor comics I've ever read. Jason Aaron gets Thor in a way that 90% of writers just don't, and his stories are HUGE (like, Nine Realms huge), but with genuine humor and great character moments.

Jonathan Hickman's writing is the closest thing I've experienced to Stan and Jack's universe-building creativity. Read his simultaneous runs on Avengers and New Avengers (2013-2015) for an incredibly big and cool story. (New Avengers #23 is one of the best Marvel comics I have ever read, but you'll need to read it within the context of the run to truly appreciate it.) He has now turned his talents to completely reimagining the X-men in a way that is respectful of their history while changing every aspect of their existence. I don't see this book ever returning to the old status quo; I believe this is what the X-men will be from now on. And it's really good.

A lot of people really love Donny Cates' writing as well. I find him to be a little bit gimmicky, but his books are never dull and they do have a lot of "Whoa -- that was cool!" moments.

Other great artists to check out: Stuart Immonen, Paulo Siqueira, Patrick Gleason.

Anyway, I'm going to side with the whipper-snappers on this one. I have LOTS of complaints with a whole laundry list of modern comic book practices (because I'm old and my primary pastimes are collecting comics and complaining), but if you can't find any good writing and art in modern comics, you just aren't looking.

NEXT POST: I'll actually address the topic (Missing covers with substance). Yeah, I actually agree with that...

 

[Cat]

On 11/27/2021 at 9:54 AM, Randall Ries said:

More accurate description. Just because you can't hack it doesn't mean it isn't true. Show me a more self absorbed generation. Please. Hint: You will have to wait until YOUR kids are teenagers.

Your opinion is not empirical fact. Just because it's shared by other older members here STILL doesn't make it fact. It's frankly a little bit disgusting the way some of you are coming down on younger members and people in general, generalising them as all the tired old tropes of greedy and self-centred, just for utilising the technology of the day, same as you did in yours with what was available. Newsflash: if you were their age today you'd be doing the SAME things. 

You really ARE being a grumpy old man out of touch with it all, and I hope you're not, but you're giving yourself a bad image here and now. Treat others fairly if you want the same treatment. 

I'm also dismayed at the current state of things, particularly Marvel, but it is what it is. Maybe I'm no longer the audience, and that's okay. I've still got decades of material to read whenever I want, and much more still to collect before I run out of 'my' comics. Maybe by the time I do comics will appeal to me again. Who knows? 

[Comics4All]

On 12/3/2021 at 9:02 PM, kav said:

 the wifey ain't happy.

That's What She Said!

Also, This weekend is the anniversary of Burger King's WHOPPER!

@onlyweaknesskryptonite

[Gaard]

I tend to stay away from Whoppers. Seems like whenever I'm brave enough to order one, it comes with a soggy bun.

[onlyweaknesskryptonite]

On 12/4/2021 at 10:05 AM, Gaard said:

soggy

[Off Panel]

It seems to me that there are a lot of very cool posters on the fronts of comic books today. 

I like cool posters. I like 'em on my wall and at the movie theatre. I even like 'em in the subway.

I don't particularly like 'em on the front of my comic books.

A poster and a comic book cover are not interchangeable. The qualities that make a poster successful may overlap with the qualities that make a comic cover successful, but they aren't the same.

A poster is successful when:

• It is cool and interesting to look at
• It makes you feel some kinda way

A comic book cover is successful when:

• It is cool and interesting to look at
• It gets you excited about the story you could be reading
• It makes you need to know what happens next
• It makes you want to buy that comic book rather than the comic next to it

Here are two comic books from 2016, same series and same artist. One has a poster and one has a comic book cover. 

 

 

(And yeah, Alex Ross' art may lend itself more to posters than comic book covers, but I'm trying to compare apples to apples here as best I can.)

[Ken Aldred]

On 12/4/2021 at 6:00 AM, Off Panel said:

To my peers who swore off new comics because Marvel restarted Amazing Spider-man's numbering after issue 441 or DC retconned out a ton of history with The New 52 or Jane Foster got to be Thor for a while, I'm going to give it to you straight: you're missing out.

I agree.  In previous Ages, were Spider-Man and Thor comics, for example, always consistent, were they never patchy, mediocre or even very poorly-written and / or poorly-drawn, and, despite that, somehow still considered superior to the modern versions, at their best?

Rather than give up in defeat, hasn't it always been the case, then and now, to look around at other material to find the best being published at any particular time, rather than tar everything, without examination and comparison, with the brush of a singular, brief, Modern Age misfire such as One More Day?

It strikes me as ongoing, detached confirmation bias, not truth by way of exploration, immersion or experience. Regardless of my chronological age, I've always gone for the latter.

 

 

Edited December 4, 2021 by Ken Aldred