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Wallace Sellars
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 01 May 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 17699
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| Posted: 14 April 2016 at 8:45pm | IP Logged | 1
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Ray, you're not going to believe this, but I was going to post the second and
third covers from your post, too.
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Charles Valderrama
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 4830
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| Posted: 14 April 2016 at 9:06pm | IP Logged | 2
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You posted some great "classic" covers, Wallace.... and as I stated, something is missing in today's cover treatments and part of the issue is the PLAIN typefaces... the worse offense is the one for BATMAN/SUPERMAN... horribly bland.
-C!
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Michael Roberts
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 20 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 14857
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| Posted: 14 April 2016 at 9:14pm | IP Logged | 3
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In Wallace's last set of covers, I see a lot of people trying to be Chip
Kidd.
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Charles Valderrama
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 4830
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| Posted: 14 April 2016 at 9:18pm | IP Logged | 4
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Yeah, and those "plain" covers really take the fun out of holding a comic book... as a kid, I would've passed those by.
-C!
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Matt Reed
Byrne Robotics Security
Robotmod
Joined: 16 April 2004
Posts: 35945
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| Posted: 14 April 2016 at 11:27pm | IP Logged | 5
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Seriously. There's a comic titled "Old Man Logan". I know I've been out of new mainstream comics for a while, but that's just friggin' bonkers.
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Brian Hague
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 14 November 2006
Posts: 8515
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| Posted: 15 April 2016 at 7:13am | IP Logged | 6
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The current book on the stands whose title gets me is "Spider-Gwen." Clearly, she isn't called that by anyone in the book, anymore than our iteration of the character is called "Spider-Peter." Having not read anything with the character in it, I still have no idea what her super-heroine name is. It's interesting that the book is called something that would intrigue readers, however, much like "Old Man Logan," a succinct summary of the concept, rather than the character's name.
The overall look of comics today has changed. Bold, flashy, and colorful might have appealed to children, but since that audience is no longer on anyone's radar, the idea is to go with sophistication and, if possible, some visual quirkiness that will get the reader to spend time puzzling out the iconography of your cover. The recent thread about a Scarlet Witch cover being a topographical map with a barely recognizable "hidden head" of the character worked into it is a fair example. The Hawkeye book does this a bit as well. A recent issue was told from the perspective of his dog, using an ongoing series of iPhone-style icons to signify the dog's moments of recognition or reaction.
These days, if you can't get a slick Ari Granov or Mike Mayhew-style portrait of your character for the cover, a shadowy ilio peppered with icons is pretty much what you want. Besides, hand-drawn is out anyway. Hand-drawn looks like you're amateurishly wallowing in nostalgia or coudn't afford a tight, typographic solution to your communication needs.
Something that jumped out at me from the above covers: A comic starring Red Wolf has gone five issues already??
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Bill Collins
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 26 May 2005
Location: England
Posts: 11296
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| Posted: 15 April 2016 at 7:25am | IP Logged | 7
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Look at those covers that Wallace posted,they`re eye catching,individual and fun,then look at the modern ones,staid,boring and all look very similar,as if they`re trying to lend an air of legitimacy,but totally missing the point of a good comic cover.
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Dale Lerette
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 24 March 2010
Location: Canada
Posts: 750
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| Posted: 15 April 2016 at 7:37am | IP Logged | 8
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I think as comics have become more of a digital production they are relying more on software with fonts to generate those logos. I think they generally look bland and prefer the older flashier logos.
Edit: Looking at the covers posted I can't help but notice they look more like "book" covers instead of comics.
Edited by Dale Lerette on 15 April 2016 at 7:40am
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Eric Sofer
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 31 January 2014
Location: United States
Posts: 4789
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| Posted: 15 April 2016 at 9:03am | IP Logged | 9
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ITEM: Plain text logos are dumb. They are definitely less impressive and do not help.
ITEM: Missing "DC" or "Marvel (Comics Group" at the top, as comics had when they were on newsstands isn't helping things either. Why be ashamed of your brand?
ITEM: Of course, the logos are the cherry on a wonderful sundae. If it's a sawdust and mashed potato sundae, no amount of cherry is going to help that.
ITEM (and kinda tangent): A bigger issue that isn't being addressed is coloring, I think modern comics, with 256 million colors available (I think - I'm not sure of the exact number) give colorists the chance to make art REALLY muddy and unimpressive. I compared the modern covers to the older (one dares to say classic covers), and the first thing that catches my eye is that covers from an era of limited colors are bright and brilliant; they get my attention. Dull red on dull green on dull blue on gray on dark gray just isn't much fun to look at... and wouldn't catch my attention. I think that using a 256 color palette is probably plenty enough without sinking into a blurry, unexciting morass.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 133324
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| Posted: 15 April 2016 at 9:54am | IP Logged | 10
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Typed logos are just one more way the publishers are saying "PLEASE don't think of us as comic books! We are SO much BETTER than comic books!"Tom Palmer has complained about the negative effect the computer age and tools like Photoshop have had on the advertising and design industry. "Sketches" done in Ps look like finished product, so little is done beyond the first few passes. The same is true of these typed logos. Because they are slick and sharp and clean, to the eyes of technicians they look GREAT. But they lack all the personality that used to make comic logos so much FUN. Oh, I'm sorry. I said the F-word. That's no longer allowed in American comics. I'll show myself out.
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Bill Collins
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 26 May 2005
Location: England
Posts: 11296
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| Posted: 15 April 2016 at 10:54am | IP Logged | 11
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The same can be said of movie posters,generic,often poorly photo-shopped images instead of the beatiful painted ones by the likes of Drew Struzan and The Hildebrandt Bros.Also,regarding logos,most Marvel heroes had their own personal logo.So when they appeared in Marvel Team Up or Two In One,they shared their logo on the cover with Spider-man or The Thing.Similarly with DC and The Brave And The Bold.
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Bill Collins
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 26 May 2005
Location: England
Posts: 11296
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| Posted: 15 April 2016 at 11:07am | IP Logged | 12
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What a coincidence,just saw this on Comixolgy,even as a thumbnail it was eye catching and easily recogniseable as J.B.`s gorgeous work...and using a limited colour pallette!
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