COMICS: I'm not going to wade into the 'My superhero comic cover can beat up your superhero comic cover' argument making it's way around various comics weblogs since I think arguing about art is just about the most pointless thing someone can do with their life. There's absolutely no way to even pretend to have any objective arguments about it so it all comes down to 'I like what I like.' Rational adults should be able to leave it at that.

With that said, I do want to point out some really nice comic book covers I like, because there are so few of them. Most straight superhero comic covers are so bland as to make no impression on me, just like most science fiction book covers. Here are a couple of books whose covers I really like.

These are two covers to Grant Morrison’s The Filth that I really like. The minimalistic sort of industrial look to some of the images really stands out amongst a sea of muscles and capes. If the series is ever collected I really hope they at least reprint the covers in the book. A note on how they came up with this look would make my day as well.

Wildcats 3.0 is one of my favorite books of 2003 and definately has the most imaginative covers of any superhero book (even though it’s more of a corporate intrigue book the superhero parts of it are so ingrained as to make it silly not to call it at least nominally a superhero title). The ‘Build Your Own Grifter’ cover is one of my favorites of all time.

The Losers is another great book of 2003 and this cover has stuck in my mind since I first saw a preview image of it. For a guy with one name, Jock sure can draw. :)

What I like about the covers to Fables is that they always reflect what’s going on in the book but only until you read it. This looks like random images until you read the issue and see how it fits together.

Dave Johnson is one of the kings of covers, as far as I’m concerned. His work on 100 Bullets has been some of my favorite stuff in recent memory. I would love one of those big posters of all the 100B covers.

This is by no means a complete list, I have too horrible of a memory for that. What I do notice putting together this list is how it’s all DC books. I’ll have to look over the recent Daredevil covers and post the couple of those I’ve liked. For the most visible part of a comic before someone buys it, Marvel sure doesn’t put a lot of effort or thought into its book’s covers.