And inside this episode we review Jeremy Whitley and M. Goodwin’s Princeless #3, and an Advance Review of Joe Keatinge and Ross Campbell’s Glory #23.  We also talk about the hotly contested Wonder Woman #8 cover, which is stirring up a surprising amount of controversy.  We then have an interview with the wonderfully charming and incredibly talented Duane Swierczynski, who’s writing one of our favorite DC books – Birds of Prey! Lastly, we give Chick of the Week to the late Kim Yale, and discuss Sue’s efforts to revive the Kim Yale Award which sadly became defunct with the dissolving of Friends of Lulu last year.

So head on over to CSBG and check it out.  You can also subscribe via iTunes at the link on CSBG!

Legion of Monsters #4

“The worst thing about “Legion of Monsters” is that it’s not an ongoing series. Thanks to fantastic work by Dennis Hopeless, Juan Doe and Wil Quintana I felt more love and investment in these characters than I do for most characters I’ve read about for three times as long…”

As always, likes and retweets are much appreciated and you can find all my CBR Reviews thus far here.

If you’d like to see the full DC April Cover Solicits head on over to CBR.

Not so much the funny this month…I don’t know if that’s my fault or the covers not giving me much to work with.  Either way…lower your expectations a bit!

Come one, come all, to our bi-monthly installment of DRUNK COVER SOLICITS IN THREE SENTENCES OR LESS!

ALL-STAR WESTERN 8.  Hmm. Still like the illustration style, but this is much less effective than last month’s which kind of blew me away.  Still love the color palette though. Although…the more I look at this…the more disturbing it is…I mean we’re looking directly at her crotch…and the way his head is…um…yeah.

AMERICAN VAMPIRE 26. This is stunning.  Love the loose line work – it has a great energy, but the colors are fucking fantastic.

ANIMAL MAN 8.  I kind of suspect this isn’t the final cover, that it’s unfinished.  But I wish this was the finished version.  I think it’s kinda badass.

AQUAMAN 8.  Kinda boring but it’s nice to see Mera on a cover, and her costume is fairly reasonably low cut as opposed to unreasonably low cut, which are generally our two options in superhero costumes.

BATGIRL 8.  This is…really unfortunate.  In addition to being ugly as sin, the positioning is very…yeah, I’m going to stick with unfortunate.  As is the face.  I don’t think Syaf was trying to draw anything borderline obscene with horrible implications, but there it is just the same.

I blame the Fed Ex Arrow.  The Fed Ex Arrow is to blame for all of this. 

BLUE BEETLE 8.  What an utter mess. I wish these covers better illustrated what’s inside.  They have just been terrible.

BATMAN ODYSSEY 13.  You know the fucked up thing about this?  This is the LEAST bat-shit crazy of the Odyssey covers…and LOOK AT IT?!?!?!

BATMAN & ROBIN 8.  Does anyone know who these two people are?  Cause they aren’t anyone I recognize. I mean, they’re clearly dressed up as Batman and Robin…but they’re clearly imposters.

BIRDS OF PREY 8.  Love it.  Love, love, love it.  A bunch of ladies kicking ass and taking names, and it’s not drawn by Finch so they actually look like reasonable (beautiful) human beings and not some bizarre assemblage of body parts stitched together in a way that no human being is.  Have I talked about how much I love Poison Ivy’s redesign?  No?  Well I do on 3 Chicks on Monday, so listen to that, yo.

BATWOMAN 8.  SO EXCITED!!!!  Amy Reeder doing Batwoman is something I have been excited about for…like a year.  IT’S FINALLY HERE!!!  And this is my favorite of her covers that we’ve seen so far.  Absolutely fantastic.  Love the limited color palette and pops of red.  Just stunning. It feels so quintessential “Bat” to me.

CATWOMAN 8.  I would love to give this points for Selina’s costume being zipped up, but the anatomy is so fucked up…I just can’t even begin.  I mean…do you see her TORSO…what about her FUCKING GROIN?!?!?!  WTF?  And she’s still sporting crazy eyes.  UGH.

DETECTIVE COMICS 8.  This is one of the better Tony Daniel covers I’ve seen.  The way they’re all sliding off of the page is nice and gives the cover great energy.  The bad guy heads are also scary as fuck.  Pretty good.

FABLES 116.  The colors are nice here and that tiger is fucking fierce…but this isn’t one of the better Fables covers I’ve seen. #sadface

FAIREST 2.  Love it. The illustration work, the color palette, the great sense of humor and energy about it.

FLASH 8.  Pretty cool.

FRANKENSTEIN AGENT OF S.H.A.D.E. 8.  I love the composition on this, with everything pushed to the left.  Illustration work is nice too.

GREEN ARROW 8.  Kind of a mess.

GRIFTER 8.  I bet this book is about muscles.  Shirtless muscles.  And some guns.

HAWK & DOVE 8.  This cover confuses me so much.  Help walk me through it.  What is that idiotic top piece of Dove’s costume supposed to be made of..?  Because it appears both opaque and completely translucent…even showing off her muscles, clavicle, and even the shading on her skin…?  Also, whose right leg does she have?  Because it can’t possibly be hers.  How is Hawk standing with his legs that far apart…I mean are you seeing this?  How are those weird strips on Hawk’s costume attached?  Is it super glue?  Are they held on by the power of his mind?  Lastly…what is the “effect” at the bottom of the page that is making the whole bottom of the image all blurry.  What is it about?  I MUST KNOW!!!!

HELLBLAZER 290.  Woo.  Very cool and effective.  The missing eyes are particularly gruesome.

I,VAMPIRE 8.  This is great.  Love the limited color palette and the great effect on the lead character – which creates great movement and division of space while also creating a badass graphic element.  Looks like this is crossing over with Justice League Dark?  I do worry if this cover is going to be utterly destroyed once the title block is added though.  :/

I, ZOMBIE 24.  I’m conflicted.  On the one hand, I think we all know this is fairly awesome.  On the other…what. the. fuck.

JUSTICE LEAGUE 8. I guess this means GA is not down with the JL?  In other news, this is maybe the best I’ve seen Diana rendered in the new 52 outside of her own book.

Still, she should be taller than Superman.  When will the rest of comics catch up with that?

JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK 8.  This is fucking great.  Not my favorite of Sook’s covers for JL Dark (that would maybe be #7 last month) but still excellent.

LEGION.  Nice to see a lady getting the solo cover treatment and not having to bare a lot of flesh to do so.  I could do without the cheesy “characters reflected in the sword” thing though.

MEN OF WAR 8.  Honestly, these Men of War covers have been fantastic.  Too bad the book itself doesn’t interest me much.  This cover is no exception. Frankenstein doesn’t really mesh with the idea of war planes, so right out of the gate this is pretty interesting.  Add to that the desaturated color palette with the pops of red and it’s both cool and intriguing, a little scary.

MISTER TERRIFIC 8.  This is better than the last six or so of these have been, but it’s still not quite working the way the first two did.  Still the face seems off to me and the figure work a little strange.

THE NEW DEADWARIANS 2.  Wow. Very smart, very cool, very effective.  Definitely one of the best of the month.  I’ll be checking this out.

NIGHT FORCE 2.  This almost works – the colors are nice, the textures are great, and some of the images are intriguing…but it doesn’t quite come together and ends up feeling kind of like a mess.

NORTHLANDERS 50.  I don’t know if this is the real cover for the end of Northlanders, but I kinda hope it is.  It’s great.  Very bold and matter of fact.  I like it.

NIGHTWING 8.  No, just no.  It’s so damn silly.  Embarrassing.

O.M.A.C. 8.  If I had to guess OMAC, they’re getting rid of you thanks to that shit ass mohawk you have.  It’s just ridiculous man.

RED HOOD & THE OUTLAWS 8.  What a mess.  Also, looking at this cover it’s impossible for me to understand how anyone could think that no matter who you were, that it would be comfortable to fight crime in a swimsuit…a bikini no less.

RESURRECTION MAN 8.  Very nice Rafael Albuquerque Resurrection Man cover…much better than what we’ve been seeing.  I love the combination of the very graphic with the highly rendered death in the background.  Cool indeed.

SAUCER COUNTY 2.  Wow. This is fucking fantastic.  So simple and so damn effective.

SAVAGE HAWKMAN 8.  Adam has begged me to say something other than “Savage, Yo” for this week…but I honestly can’t think of anything.  What about

Silly, yo.

Yeah, that works too.

SCALPED 58.  As usual Scalped nails that perfect combination of scary and compelling.  Love the white space, the positive and negative space, as well as the limited monochromatic color palette and the energy of the composition.

SUPERGIRL 8.  This is a really cool concept executed well.  Except the face.  The face is really weak here.  Bummer.

SHADE 7.  Very cool offering for Shade.  Nice use of color and composition.  Lots of energy.

SUPERMAN 8.  Wow.  They’re really trying to reach new heights with weirdness on Superman.  I mean the dude has been besieged by tentacles of late…and now they’re inside him? Very disturbing.  Also, I can’t tell you how weird it is to see this Daemonite Wildstorm character in a Superman book…its kind of freaking me out.

SPACEMAN 6.  Fucking fantastic.  Best Spaceman cover yet.

SUICIDE SQUAD 8.  Gods. There aren’t words for how much I hate this shit. What an unbelievable mess and that’s before you deal with a sexed up ridiculous (and super ugly) Harley Quinn and a skinny younger – looks nothing like her old self in any of the ways that matter – Amanda Waller.  ULTIMATE FAIL.

STATIC SHOCK 8.  Fantastic cover.  Very smart.  Too bad the book wasn’t good and is now canceled.  I’m going to freak out the first time I hear “There’s not more diversity in our books because when we do that you guys don’t buy the books – just look at Static Shock…”  Here’s the answer guys…MAKE BETTER BOOKS.  This book didn’t fail because fans don’t want to read a book with a black lead, it failed because IT WAS NOT GOOD.

SUPERBOY 8.  Hey! It’s Grunge!  Is it wrong that I find hm infinitely more interesting than Superboy?  All that said, this cover is pretty unimpressive.

SWAMP THING 8.  Hard to judge with such a big image blacked out. 

TEEN TITANS 8.  And I thought last month’s cover had lots of lines.  Here we go LINE-TASTIC!  Not only are people wearing Tron shit, but the floor is gridded (also Tron style I guess) and then the “sky” is arbitrarily filled with lines.  Oh wait, this is by Brett Line-tastic Booth.  Questions answered then!

UNWRITTEN 36.  Fucking unbelievably fantastic.  This is PERFECT.  I love where the price information is even.  So smart and beautifully designed.

DOMINIQUE LAVEAU, VOODOO CHILD 2.  Man, this puts “that other Voodoo book” to shame.  So visually interesting, great graphics…it’s Rafael Grampa, so no real surprise there.  So wish this was the regular Voodoo book, much more interesting!

VOODOO 8.  Yikes.  I have no earthly idea what is going on here, except that they are fighting in one of those magical no background backgrounds.  And possibly there’s a giant lava lamp in there with them.

WONDER WOMAN 8.  SO MUCH LOVE FOR THIS!  SO MUCH!  Really fantastic.  I know a lot of people have a problem with the guns…first and foremost they’re “Eros Guns” (hence the heart shaped firing effects)…but for me, I wouldn’t have a problem with a gun period.  Diana is a very pragmatic character.  One of my favorite things about her is that she is willing to do what it takes to get the job (i.e. Justice) done…even when it may not be popular.  Whether this means blinding herself, or freeing female prisoners and letting them exact their own justice, snapping a killer’s neck, or shooting bullets.  Diana is not “politically correct”…she has her beliefs and she’s adamant about them.  It’s one of the best things about her.

It’d be a hell of a lot more beautiful and compelling without that goddamn banner, but this Storm cover for Avengers #21 by Daniel Acuna is lovely.  Also, despite how long she’s been around and how A-list she is/should be, Storm has precious few truly awesome covers…ironic that this one is from Avengers and not X-Men…but I’ll take what I can get:

A bit of totally awesome by Marian Churchland for Prophet #21:

And this absolutely gorgeous offering by Cliff Chiang for Wonder Woman #5.  And a nice use of restraint on the tentacles there.  Well done sir, well done:

Wonder Woman #5

“The world we live in is one in which most artists have to have a fill-in issue several issues into their run on a comic. It’s an unfortunate reality, but if it’s going to happen, it’s nice when editorial is smart about it. “Wonder Woman” #5 is the perfect example of a smart fill-in issue.

With Zeus out of the picture, Poseidon makes his move, and Diana, rather than fight the angry god, turns his attention toward Hera in a clever bit of plotting that raises the book far above your typical “hero punches villain” trope…”

Ultimate Spider-Man #6

“Ultimate Spider-Man” steps up as the second book I read this week with a fill-in artist that transcends what is often a terrible mis-step in a comic by picking an excellent artist in synch with the book’s style, tone and very essence.

In “Ultimate Spider-Man” #6 we see Miles doing legitimate solo crime fighting as he saves a woman being robbed. Things do not go so well (although he is ultimately successful) and it’s clear Miles has a lot to learn. That goes for more than just fighting, as he deals unsuccessfully with the police, reporters, and fans (and non-fans). He’s also learning when to exit before you almost get unmasked in broad daylight…”

I’ll have one more review coming this weekend (for a GREAT book) but I thought I’d get these up now.

I also did reviews last week for: Batwoman #5, Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Season 9 #5, and X-Men Legacy #260.1

As always, likes and retweets are much appreciated and you can read all my CBR Reviews thus far, here!

First up, Steve Morris’ truly excellent Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Season Nine #5.  Look at those colors, absolutely fantastic.  Love the text integration as well, so smart:

And then there’s Batwoman #5 by J.H. Williams III.  Absolutely stunning – and as I discussed when it came up in Drunk Cover Solicits a few months ago, there’s so much more there than meets the eye at first glance.  It’s beautiful if you don’t look deep, but if you take the time, it’s incredibly complex and interesting.  Actually, I’d say that about both these covers.  Excellent work gents.

I’m not going to do a post for Panel Of The Week for last week (too busy/tired/lazy) but this definitely would have been one of the picks, also from Batwoman #5 and J.H. Williams:

So head on over and check it out!

Let’s not waste it now kids!

Update! This post was picked up by Jezebel, check it out!

Update 2! Now it’s been picked up by The Huffington Post…INDEED!

Wolverine and the X-Men: Alpha & Omega #1

“My kingdom for more superhero comics by Brian Wood. Don’t get me wrong, I still want all his great independent, creator-owned, non-superhero stuff (since I’m greedy), but the plain fact of the matter is that the superhero world is a better place with Brian Wood writing stories in it. “Wolverine and The X-Men: Alpha & Omega” #1 is a great comic, the kind we need stacks and stacks of…”

X-23 #20

“The penultimate issue of “X-23” is another great one, the kind of outing that makes you thoroughly depressed that it is the next-to-last issue and not just “issue #20.” However, pairing up Marjorie Liu and Phil Noto again this month and next (with #21 due in March) is a wonderful way to end the series if it has to end, as they have showed the true potential of this book, and how much it will be missed from the Marvel comics landscape.
..”

As always, likes and retweets are much appreciated and you can read all my CBR Reviews thus far here.

All that said…these are my “25 Best Single Issues of 2011″…

025.  THE RED WING #1 by Brian Hickman, Nick Pitarra, and Rachelle Rosenberg

024.  HELLBOY: THE FURY #1 by Mike Mignola, Duncan Fegredo, and Dave Stewart

023.  WOLVERINE & JUBILEE #1 by Kathryn Immonen and Phil Noto

022. NEW YORK FIVE #1 by Brian Wood and Ryan Kelly

021. BIRDS OF PREY #2 by Duane Swierczynski, Jesus Saiz, and Allen Passalaqua*

*cover above to Birds of Prey #1 (just cause I prefer it!)

020.  ANGEL & FAITH #1 by Christos Gage, Rebekah Isaacs, and Dan Jackson

019.  LOOSE ENDS #1 by Jason Latour, Chris Brunner, and Rico Renzi

018. BATGIRL #18 by Bryan Q. Miller and Dustin Nguyen

017.  NORTHLANDERS #42 by Brian Wood, Paul Azaceta, and Dave McCraig

016.  X-23 #13 by Marjorie Liu and Phil Noto

015.  RACHEL RISING #1 by Terry Moore

014.  SECRET AVENGERS #20 by Warren Ellis, Alex Maleev, and Nick Filardi

013.  GENERATION HOPE #9 by Kieron Gillen, Jamie McKelvie, and Jim Charalampidis

012.  SECRET AVENGERS #18 by Warren Ellis, David Aja, and Raul Allen

011.  NONPLAYER #1 by Nate Simpson

010.  DETECTIVE COMICS #881 by Scott Snyder, Francesco Francavilla, Jock, and David Baron

09.  UNCANNY X-FORCE #4 by Rick Remender, Jerome Opena, and Dean White

08.  BATWOMAN #1 by J.H. Williams III, W. Haden Blackman, and Dave Stewart

07.  WOLVERINE & THE X-MEN #1 by Jason Aaron, Chris Bachalo, Tim Tomsend, Jaime Mendoza, and Al Vey

06.  BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER: SEASON 9 #1 by Joss Whedon, Georges Jeanty, Dexter Vines, and Michelle Madsen

05.  OPTIC NERVE #12 by Adrian Tomine

04.  SECRET AVENGERS #16 by Warren Ellis, Jamie McKelvie, and Matthew Wilson

03.  ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #3 by Brian Michael Bendis, Sara Pichelli, and Justin Ponsor

02.  WONDER WOMAN #1 by Brian Azzarello, Cliff Chiang, and Matthew Wilson

01.  DETECTIVE COMICS #874 by Scott Snyder and Francesco Francavilla

Without further ado…these are my “30 Best Covers of 2011″…

030.  HELLBOY: THE FURY #1 – Mike Mignola

So simple and yet so effective.  When you have a character as wonderfully designed as Hellboy you really just need the confidence to let him command the page, and Mignola obviously has that.  With a limited Black, Red and Grey-ish white color palette, single figure (with a big ass axe) and a lot of white space you have powerful imagery that also creates amazing positive and negative shapes.  Gorgeous stuff.

029.  AVENGERS ORIGINS: VISION – Marko Djurdjevic

The limited color palette with a big swath of yellow and a small pop of red is inspired.  Almost as much as Djurdjevic’s use of wonderful simplified graphic elements and shapes with ah highly rendered and realistic figure.  A cover absolutely deserving of Vision!

028.  JOHN CARTER: A PRINCESS OF MARS #3 – Skottie Young

This is wonderful on so many levels.  The composition has such energy and creates such great shapes, both positive and negative.  The size and complexity of the tentacles while still remaining graphic and simple – how in places it devolves into just basic shapes is wonderful.  The color choices, as always with a Young cover are inspired and subtle.  Huge bonus points for it being one of the first tentacle covers I’ve ever seen in comics that doesn’t feel “kinda rapey”.

027.  DEADMAN & THE FLYING GRAYSONS #1 – Cliff Chiang

A wonderfully fun and surprisingly accurate take on old fashioned circus posters.  Exceptional use of text and graphic design really sell this as being exactly what it’s supposed to be.  I already said fun, right?  Too bad it’s crowded by a horrible Green Lantern banner.  Boo to banners man, BOO.

026.  X-FACTOR #228 – David Yardin

Really compelling and, especially if you know the context, quite sad.  The horrified and shocked expression on Madrox’s face combined with this look of him almost melting or bleeding and watching it…well, it’s haunting and powerful imagery.  The restraint Yardin uses both with color, and composition serves him well and gives the cover all the more impact.

025.  UNCANNY X-FORCE #17 – Esad Ribic

This is probably the biggest surprise on the list for most people that know my tastes.  Psylocke in a bikini (which is even MORE revealing than her regular silly costume) IS an odd choice for this list, but there are some things I love about it – most especially the colors -everything bathed in gorgeous blue light.  I also like the rendering work on Psylocke, she looks very real and fleshy and not plastic and fake, like so many comics default to portraying women.  This cover also has a nice emotional element in that Psylocke’s costume harkens back to darker days, and her intense embrace with Archangel suggests crazy intense relationship stuff going on inside.  I love it.

024.  GREEN WAKE #4 – Riley Rossmo

Dark and gritty with some wonderful graphic elements, Rossmo does wonderful layering and makes excellent color choices.  Additionally the title text is wonderfully placed and perfectly designed.  Sometimes it’s the little things that really make a cover like this work.

023.  THE PUNISHER #3 – Bryan Hitch

Wonderful mid-air action that brings new meaning to the word intensity.  To see a non-flying character get a double kick to the face high above the city is INTENSE.  Wonderful details and great composition combine to make this a fantastically fun cover.

022.  NEW YORK FIVE #2 – Ryan Kelly

Perhaps not for everyone (if you’re opposed to kissing in your comics…and who would be?), this cover to me sums up exactly what comics need to be doing if they want to capture that elusive (but very rich) younger female demographic.  Of course you have to find a way to get this in front of them, but if you could, I suspect they’d eat this up.  The illustration work is wonderful, the almost monochromatic colors are smart and evocative, and the characters are effortlessly emotional.  Combine all that with great composition that creates interesting positive and negative shapes and this cover is a slam dunk.

021. WOLVERINE & JUBILEE #1 – Oliver Coipel

While this seems deceptively simple compared to a lot of covers on this list, the reality is that you simply cannot value enough a cover of wonderfully designed characters, looking like badasses.  So much of superheroes is caught up in iconic imagery and attitude, so when you slightly redesign a character badly in need of it (Jubilee I’m looking at you girl) and then get a talented artist to render them perfectly on the cover of a new series…well, it goes a long way.  This cover stayed with me for an entire year because it was effortlessly cool and a great example of what more superhero covers should look like if they want to attract new readers.  If only the rest of the series’ covers had been as effortless and easy to understand.

020.  DMZ #66 – John Paul Leon

Absolutely fantastic flat graphic imagery and use of limited color here to create something both disturbing and beautiful.  Like the best covers usually do, this works instantly as powerful visual, but as you delve more deeply you find all sorts of hidden gems – the grid of the city, the bodies layered in behind the figure.  Exceptional.

019.  I, ZOMBIE #7 – Mike Allred

Because Allred is a genius and he does all the I, Zombie covers, they’re all pretty great, but this was definitely the best one of 2011.  It’s so damn disturbing, but beautiful at the same time that you can’t help but stare.  The way that eye fits perfectly into the mask raises this cover up to a whole other level – had that aspect not been perfectly executed this would still have been an interesting cover, but it would have lost much of its impact.  Allred’s ingenious use of the mask with Gwen’s zombie body is not only striking to look at, but speaks volumes about the character and her journey both physical and emotional.  Wonderful stuff.

018.  JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #625 – Stephanie Hans

Another absolutely stunning cover hamstrung by a terrible event banner.  The title “Journey Into Mystery” is cumbersome enough, but adding to that with “Fear Itself” and the giant solid block that dominates a full third of the cover is a damn crime.  As a matter of fact…let’s take a look at this illustration sans the banner so you can better see how brilliant it is.

All right now!  Here we go!  The complementary colors – green and pink – just absolutely make this sing, especially since the green is layered in an almost monochromatic way it’s so dense.  The figure work is sublime, and while I’m sure Hans left the top blank to account for the title, a much smaller title would have helped immensely as part of the beauty of this cover is the composition and the positive and negative space that’s created by leaving so much open at the top.  Just gorgeous.  My favorite of her covers over the last year – and there were many beauties to choose from.

017.  FF #1 – Daniel Acuna

Acuna has absolutely nailed a kind of vintage feeling for this Future Foundation cover, but one that manages to feel not at all old fashioned.  It’s somehow modern and cool, while calling back to simpler times.  The figure work and expression is exceptional and the motion, even with so much going on is just wonderful.  You can’t look at this cover without smiling, which, quite frankly, should be the goal of more comics covers.

016.  DMZ #61 – John Paul Leon

Maybe it’s the New Yorker in me, but this cover fills me with so much emotion – many of them conflicting – horror, beauty, dread, shame, pride.  While I attribute some of what I feel to what I personally feel for New York anyway, it’s a truly great cover that can create emotion in a single image.

015.  SECRET AVENGERS 16 – Jamie McKelvie

Everything about this is fun. It is 100% fun.  The energy and color, the composition and feeling of motion.  After reading this issue I learned this was not a flying car but a falling one, which takes a few points off, but it’s still undeniably cool.  If there’s one thing I need more of in my comics it’s good old fashioned fun, which this has in spades.

014.  NORTHLANDERS #35 – Massimo Carnevale

How so many great artists can create things of such beauty that are also so grippingly horrifying I will never know.  This haunting piece by Carnevale has incredibly subtle choices made regarding color and even composition so that you are not distracted by the horrifying reality of what’s being conveyed.

013.  OZMA OF OZ #6 – Skottie Young

I mean, this deserves to place on sheer personality alone.  Look at the eyes…the smile…the eyebrows!  Fantastic work with character design and expression, combined with bold color decisions and exceptional text integration makes this a cover everyone will remember.

012.  NEW YORK FIVE #3 – Ryan Kelly

Exceptional illustration work full of character combined with smart monochromatic color choices, and a black and white element that speaks volumes about how this character feels and where she is in her life. Rarely to comic covers manage to convey so much with so little.

011.  SUPERGIRL #58 – Amy Reeder

One of the crappiest things about 2011 is that we got far too few Amy Reeder covers.  This Reeder cover does everything a sueprhero cover should do.  It’s iconic and emotional, beautiful and inspiring.  Most importantly perhaps, I really want to know and read about Amy Reeder’s Supergirl.

010.  BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER: SEASON 9 #1 – Steve Morris

I don’t know if Steve Morris just happened to be the perfect artist to pick for a story arc called “Freefall” or whether he’s just such a great artist that he would excel at any concept handed to him, but the net result (and especially on the covers for issue #1 and issue #2 of the series) has been absolutely sublime.  Morris manages to render an absolutely perfect Buffy/Sarah Michelle Gellar face that feels quintessentially Buffy without being too slavishly devoted to Gellar to feel weird.  The soft heavenly color choices are ideal for the feeling he’s trying to get across, and the attention to detail in everything from the floating/falling buildings, to the birds in the sky come together to create truly powerful imagely.

09.  BATWOMAN #2 – J.H. Williams III

Incredibly smart and viscerally moving, perfectly executed so that it feels powerfully real.  The illustration work is sublime, but I suspect my favorite aspect is the attention to detail on the Bat symbol as it is submerged.  Beautiful and haunting.

08.  OZMA OF OZ #2 – Skottie Young

Unbelievably smart use of color and composition.  The figures Young creates with these simple shapes is haunting and horrible, but also beautiful.  This cover just goes to show that simplicity – when perfectly executed and creatively conceived – is just as powerful as the most detailed of covers.  Take away the pink background and this cover is

07.  BATWOMAN #1 – J.H. Williams III

What is there to say about Williams Batwoman work that has not already been said?  The man is a genius whether constructing compelling and intricately detailed covers, or crafting perfect interiors.  Like all his covers, this manages to work instantly when you look at it because it is nicely graphic and clear, but the more you examine it the more hidden treats you discover.

06.  WOLVERINE & THE X-MEN 2 – Chris Bachalo

So damn fun.  I wish Bachalo could draw all my X-Men covers…FOREVER.  This was even better when it was simply Krakoa and Wolverine, but it held up nicely in the final translation, thanks in part to Marvel letting Bachalo integrate the text in a creative way.  The figures and movement, composition and positive and negative space are just wonderful.  The colors are bright and poppy and as always, Bachalo has no fear of extremes across the board.  Bachalo also still draws the best damn Wolverine around – a short stocky badass.

05.  BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER: SEASON 9 #2 – Steve Morris

Absolutely wonderful composition…there’s so much movement and energy as the figures seem to fall off the page.  Nice integration of the story name.  Beautiful rendering work, and pitch perfect color choices, dark and saturated yet a muted palette fitting the tone of the illustration.

04.  DAREDEVIL REBORN 4 – Jock

Another absolutely brilliant visual idea, perfectly captured.  The limited color use is particularly powerful and the fact that it is the cable from Daredevil’s billy club that creates the outline? Well…I did say brilliant already, yes?

03.  UNCANNY X-FORCE #4 – Esad Ribic

Absolutely wonderful in how it captures motion and creates interesting patterns and shapes.  With Fantoxmex, Psylocke, Wolverine, Deadpool, and Archangel all with busy detailed costumes this could have been a complete mess, but Ribic uses the shapes and patterns to his advantage and creates a brilliant image in the process.  Frequently illustration work this detailed and precise can look static and dead on the page, but Ribic makes the absolutely smartest composition choices and the result is a split second captured in time that has all the energy of a cocked fist.  Brilliant.

02.  DETECTIVE COMICS #880 – Jock

Absolutely horrifying and brilliant.  Completely effective and wildly smart.  Jock proves himself again and again with his comics work (he’s only in my top 30 twice, but if I had done a top 50 he could have had as many as eight spots thanks to his amazing work on Detective Comics and Daredevil Reborn alone) but this is his best and most haunting work of the year.  Just take a moment to marvel at what he has done with three simple colors.  Incredible. When a character is as overexposed as Batman (over 70 years of comics and media, with any number of books and beyond out there being created every year…every month!) it’s hard to find new ways to represent Batman (and his world) Jock is constantly surprising me with his creativity and this one grabbed me by the throat and shook me like crazy when I first saw it.  I doubt I’ll ever forget it.

01.  DAREDEVIL #1  – Paolo Rivera

As I said on She Has No Head! A truly brilliant idea and a flawless execution.  Bravo Rivera, Bravo!

It’s also worth noting that had this rejected Wonder Woman cover by Cliff Chiang (below) been the cover to Wonder Woman #1, it would have easily placed in the top 5 of my list.  Easy come, easy go!  I know some people don’t like seeing Diana with the bloody axe, but I have no problem with it and find it much more compelling visually than the cover that they ended up with.  It’s actually  my desktop as we speak.  So honorable mention to Cliff Chiang, for a cover I never go the chance to buy but am excited to at least have via the magic of the internet!

SECRET AVENGERS #20

“Warren Ellis has been absolutely killing his run on “Secret Avengers,” writing some of the smartest and best superhero comics of the last year with brilliant standalone stories that tell surprisingly complex tales with satisfying results. It doesn’t hurt that Ellis has had a rotating cast of unbelievably talented artists to help him deliver these stories, and Alex Maleev on this issue is no exception…”

ANGEL & FAITH #5

“Despite how much I’ve been enjoying “Angel & Faith” thus far, I was hesitant about this issue — even with the always exceptional Phil Noto as guest artist — since it guest-starred arguably my least favorite Buffy Universe character, Harmony. Those fears were averted however, as Christos Gage and Noto do great work delivering a fun issue that manages to keep things moving forward while still taking a little breather…”

JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK #4

““Justice League Dark” continues to be the title of the new DCU that I desperately want to like more than I do. It’s a good book, but with so many fantastic characters crowded together, largely unused, too much of the book is falling flat…”

As always, likes and retweets are much appreciated and you can read all my CBR Reviews thus far here.

If you’d like to see the full Marvel March Cover Solicits head on over to CBR.

Come one, come all, to our bi-monthly installment of DRUNK COVER SOLICITS IN THREE SENTENCES OR LESS!

So again, these are a bit on the late side but here they are…fresh for the new year in all their non-glory.  The thing is…I gotta be honest…Marvel has cleaned up their game considerably.  And I know you want to be sad about it, cause let’s face it, making fun of shit is fun.  But seriously, there’s not A LOT to make fun of lately. The difference in Marvel’s covers now, from a year ago…it’s pretty remarkable.  They are going on five or six months now of having covers so non-offensive that it’s pretty tough to give them a hard time.  So #1 – My hat is officially off to them and #2 – how can I take credit for this change?

I still make plenty of fun of the covers below…but there are only 26 covers to DC’s 52, and that’s straight up because there’s just not as much to say on the whole.  And I appreciate the hell out of that change, but I also have to admit that on the whole the covers are more boring too.  Would I rather have offensive than boring?  Well, for Drunk Solicits, yes, the answer is yes, for life?  No, no, I’d rather have just about anything than offensive crap in comics.  But still…it’s very interesting this development in covers over the last few months.

AGE OF APOCALYPSE #1.  All the above said, let’s start with something slightly offensive.  But not really. I mean this is such a cartoonish and exaggerated drawing style it’s hard to take it TOO seriously.  It doesn’t have the same effect of looking at something super realistic.  That said, Jean is wearing some Starfire level shit there and it’s just fucking ridiculous.  C’mon comics, don’t be a douchebag.

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 681.  Is Johnny wearing his Future Foundation pajamas for this mission?  He looks like an idiot.

ASTONISHING X-MEN 48.  I’m kind of having trouble containing my excitement over this.  Some underused characters, some new characters, some Marjorie Liu…seems kind of interesting.  Like super fucking interesting.  Yay!

AVENGERS 24.  I really like Daniel Acuna’s work and there’s a lot to like here (from colors and attitude to just straight up great graphic illustration work) but I’m not loving whatshernames costume which is ridiculous and when paired with her positioning (between his legs) it’s extra annoying.

AVENGERS ACADEMY 27.  This is very fun.  Lots of energy and color and it’s great to see the Runaways back.  I have one complaint, which is that Molly’s weird hat is too weird and thus hella distracting.

AVENGERS v X-MEN 1.  Okay, so, the short version is, cool image, nice rendering.  I like it.  The more indepth is…wtf.

And now prepare for a comics diatribe in 3, 2, 1….I don’t want to see the Avengers at war with the X-Men and I definitely don’t want to see it when the X-Men are already somewhat at war with one another.  Also, just, FYI comics dudes, it makes the Avengers look weak as fuck if you have them go up against the X-Men when they’re already a bit divided.  I am unabashedly an X-Men fan. Even though I have come to quite love the Avengers, I will likely never be anything but a tried and true X-Men Fan (well, except if we’re talking Batman…and maybe Wonder Woman)…so I’m not inclined to care a whit about them destroying the Avengers (or whatever)…but I don’t want to see it.  So, who knows what you have up your sleeves, and maybe a war with the Avengers is what it will take to galvanize the X-Men and make them unite again…but if so…then Schism (which I didn’t like or “get” anyway) feels like an even bigger and more complete waste of time.  And this…this is why I hate fucking “events.”  They never matter anyway…because you always untie the shit before it even felt tied.  This is what is wrong with superhero comics kids.  Just make good comics.  You know those brilliant Warren Ellis standalone Secret Avengers comics you’ve been doing?  Some of the best damn superhero comics I’ve read in…well, just about ever…do more of that.  More great, smart, beautifully illustrated comics that have nothing to do with crossovers and “world ending events”.  Seriously.  PLEASE?!

Okay…end rant. Moving on.

AVENGERS X-SANCTION 4.  So I don’t give two shits about this X-Sanction event, but this is a good image.  Well executed, full of movement, utterly believable (well, if you believe in cybernetics and superheroes and shit) and really kinetic and emotional.  Good work Skroce.

AVENGERS SOMETHING OR OTHER RETAILER COPY WHO GIVES A FUCK.  I’ll give you three seconds to figure out why this cover enrages me.  If it’s your first time visiting you can have ten seconds.

WHAT THE FUCK BLACK WIDOW!?!?!  Everyone is dressed and ready to go and you’re unzipped to LITERALLY YOUR CROTCH AREA.  WTF COMIC ARTIST.  STOP BEING A DOUCHEBAG THAT’S NEVER HAD A GIRLFRIEND!!!!

CAPTAIN AMERICA 9.  I like Alan Davis.  This is mostly cool.  Sharon Carter is zipped up (thank the gods).  The torpedo boobs are a bit excessive though.

DAKEN: DARK WOLVERINE 22.  Awww. Woverine haz a sad.  It’s like that Sad Keanu Meme.

DAREDEVIL 10.  Wow.  These Daredevil covers have been amazing.  This is no exception, brilliant work by Paolo Rivera.  Wonderful line work and emotion.  Great composition.  I’d love to think this is the final image – with the limited color palette as is, since it’s just beautiful as is, but you never know.  Regardless, very gorgeous work.

DEFENDERS 4.  Very nice.  Like it all – from figure work and composition to the desaturated colors.  Wondering why miss freckles doesn’t have any fingernails though.  That her superpower?

FANTASTIC FOUR 604.  I feel like Sue is trying to give Reed a run for his money with bending into strange shapes here.  Tired of him showing off all these years I suppose.

FORMIC WARS: SILENT STRIKE 4.  Very nice.  Wonderful use of repetitive image and limited color.  Creates a really powerful image overall.

GHOST RIDER 9.  Hmmm.  Now this is unfortunate.  This is some great illustration work overall, but that unzipped sexy ghost rider bullshit is just inexcusable.  It’s regoddamndiculous and we all know it.  Plus..does she have “sexy fire hair” here?  C’MON NOW!

JOHN CARTER: THE GODS OF MARS 1.  Very nice work here by Julian Totino Todesco (which, because I am a lazy American, I constantly think of as “that Totinos Pizza guy”…so sad).  Todesco has been doing some really wonderful work on a variety of covers including the Northanger Abbey covers.  The use of a limited color palette here is wonderful.  I also love that he’s managed to evoke that retro fantasy sexy cover vibe without making the female character look overly objectified or crazy submissive.  Good on you Todesco…keep it up!

AVENGERS (who cares movie tie-in shit).  I think you all know what I fucking hate about this.  Oh…some newbies here?  Okay, I’ll indulge you.  Why the fuck is the only female character on this cover showing her fucking ASS?!?!?!?!?!  None of the men (SEVEN OF THEM!!!!) are showing their asses…but the one chick…oh yes, she definitely has be in a sexy ass show off pose.  FUCKING RIDICULOUS.

YOU CAN BE BETTER THAN THIS COMICS.  PLEASE.

This is particularly offensive considering this is a Joss Whedon movie…one of the most famous male feminists around.  Surely this is not what he would have picked for the sole female on the cover of his movie tie-in comics.

NEW AVENGERS 23.  So much fucking fail.  First of all…just take a moment to look at the area between Ms. Marvel’s shoulders and thighs.  I ask you…how is that fucking possible?  No matter how small she is, no matter how contorted she is, no matter how big that goddamn sword is, you cannot hide her entire back and ass behind that sword.  Fucking hell.  There’s a lot of other shit wrong with this cover (including the fact that it just looks absolutely stupid) but I’m too tired.  We’re moving on.

NEW MUTANTS 39.  Very nice.  Great shapes and colors and style to this cover.  Nice stylized work to the figures. Me likey.

NORTHANGER ABBEY 5.  Beautiful painterly work by Todesco (that Totinos guy I mentioned earlier).  I especially like that they used real text for the pages they show.  I can’t tell you how many times I have seen artists use this effect and then fuck up the actual text.  So this is nice.  Great attention to detail…it makes the cover.

SUPERCROOKS 1.  Okay…time for a lesson comics.  Can you see what’s wrong with this from a female point of view?  No?  Okay, let me help you out.

You’ve got seven fairly interesting male characters.  They seem to have a lot of personality and be of a variety of shapes and sizes.  And then you’ve got one female character.  And for that female character you’ve decided to make her a stone cold fox in leather pants with giant boobs in a revealing halter top.  Do I need to continue?  I do?  Okay.  So your seven male characters are all (despite all being quite different) covered – LITERALLY – from head to toe.  Yet your one female character is VERY liberal with the skin.  More liberal certainly than the average chick you’d see walking down the street.  Do you still need help?  Yeah?  Okay.  SO CONTEXT IS KING MAN.  That character you have there…she works a lot better if you have another female character that doesn’t look borderline slutty.  If you’re only going to have one token female character then you just straight up need to be more careful in how you design her.  Otherwise you end up with a cover like this that is…I’m sorry to say, full of fail.  As a woman I’d never pick this up, because I can tell before reading a single word, what you think about women and how you value them…and I straight up don’t agree.  You’re loudly broadcasting to me that there is nothing for me here.  Too bad cause I like comics, and I like books about villains…or crooks…or whatever.

ULTIMATE COMICS X-MEN 9.  I kind of love how realistic this looks.  Like…it looks like a dude who really can turn his body into metal. Kinda fun.  Go Kaare.

ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN 8.  This works for me less.  It’s funny because it’s also Kaare, but while what worked about the X-Men title (for me) was how realistic it seemed, what DOESN’T work here for me is that it seems so stylized and not realistic.  Stylized is usually really good…but this is straddling a weird line that just doesn’t work.

UNCANNY X-FORCE 23.  Oh man I miss Excalibur.  Look at Meggan…she’s so cute!

WOLVERINE & THE X-MEN 7.  Ugh. Bradshaw. I feel so fucking grouchy about him coming onto this title (whether permanent or not) that I just can’t even look at this shit.  BLARG!

WOLVERINE & THE X-MEN ALPHA & OMEGA 3.  YESSSSSS!  Look at this!?!?!  I LOVE IT!!!  Wonderful work by John Tyler Christopher.  This is the kind of art and attitude I expect from a Brian Wood X-Men book…look at how awesome it is…the clothes, the attitude, even just the character being focused on!??!?!  What a great way to end things!

If you’d like to see the full DC March Cover Solicits head on over to CBR.

Come one, come all, to our bi-monthly installment of DRUNK COVER SOLICITS IN THREE SENTENCES OR LESS!

So these are a bit on the late side (sorry folks, sickness, travel, and variety of other non-drunk obligations precluded getting drunk and writing these) but here they are…fresh for the new year.  Ring in 2012 right with some scathing drunk cover solicits.

And, to get sappy for a moment, thanks to all of you who read…those of you who comment and retweet and those who don’t.  I know some of you read and can’t really comment (comics is a small little world and making fun of big two covers can be dangerous) but I appreciate the support and feedback nonetheless!

Here’s to another great year of many wonderful things…including DRUNK COVER SOLICITS!  Woo!

ACTION COMICS 7.  What the fuck is up with that Superman face?!  He looks like a sad malnourished Williamsburg hipster.

ALL STAR WESTERN 7.  Hmm. I’m regretting giving up on All Star Western so soon, cause this is TONS OF FUN.  Love the illustration work, the movement, the composition, the phenomenal color palette.  The background especially is just gorgeous with the lanterns and architectural elements – are they in a gladiator ring on an old Ferry boat?  Badass. Also, the gladiator chick manages to be sexy and cool, and thanks to her posing she’s not SUPER objectified.  Great cover kids!

AMERICAN VAMPIRE 25.  I feel like we’ve seen this idea kind of a lot before…but since it’s Rafael Albuquerque…it’s still very pretty and smartly done…good colors, good composition, excellent rendering work.  Approved!

ANIMAL MAN 7.  I love Travel Foreman.  I’m a HUGE fan.  This doesn’t work so well though.  It may be unfinished though…so I’m going to hold off on complaints.  Shocking, right?  What?  Maybe it’s a new me for 2012?!  (no, no it’s not).

AQUAMAN 7.  I like this…I think it’s actually still Reis who I’m not always a fan of…but it looks way more like Alan Davis…and so I approve.  The face is so much more interesting to me than what we’ve seen of late for Aquaman…even though the cover’s not actually that interesting.

BATGIRL 7.  Oh hey, look!  It’s Batgirl, she of the amazing eight pack!  Or ten pack if you include what I assume are supposed to be her boobs but look like another set of stomach muscles. What. the. fuck.  This cover is so goddamn ugly my drunk brain can’t stand it.  Also…do you see the length of her arms?  That shit…if extended would easily go down past her knees…those arms go to like mid-shin.  Batgirl?  Should be Apegirl I guess. Or Cromag-girl or something.

BATMAN 7.  Another great Batman cover.  While the figures on the “spotlight” thing is way overdone, the graphic claw shapes just make this work SO HARD.

BATMAN ODYSSEY VOL 2. no 6.  It’s gotten to the point with Odyssey where I just don’t even look at the covers for fear of the insane shit I might have to see.  It’s insanity people.  INSANITY.

BATWOMAN 7.  SO EXCITED TO SEE AMY REEDER ON THIS!  I love J.H. Williams III like crazy (it’s well-documented…look it up…I’ll wait)  but I’m still very excited to see Reeder’s take on Batwoman.  It will obviously be different…but that excites me.  She’s a brilliant artist and very different stylistically than Williams…so I think it will shake things up and make them interesting over there.  This cover suggests exactly that.  It’s smart and beautiful but different than what Williams would do.  If I can’t have Williams for every issue (which I can’t…dude is slow by his own admission) then I’m damn excited to have Reeder.

BIRDS OF PREY 7.  So excited to see a great Jesus Saiz cover instead of some of the other shit we’ve been getting.  Still not sure I like having Batgirl/Babs on the team, but this looks great.  Beautiful, sexy, smart, and not all crazy objectify-y.  Yup this is the year when I add “-y’s” to everything.  I mean, I was already doing that, but let’s just make it official like.

BLACKHAWKS 7.  Man…I hate the whole “effect” of blurring part of an image digitally that is all the rage in comics covers.  Blech.  That said, I’ve heard this book is decent…and that the pink haired chick featured is pretty much the lead…confirmation?

Eta:  I kinda like the colors.  The blue/green background appeals to me…despite stupid blur effect.

CAPTAIN ATOM 7.  Man, that dude is not fucking around.  He already took off part of his leg AND his hand.  #dudeisfuckingseriousaboutviolence

CATWOMAN 7.  Ah…so many jokes…so little time.  Should I go with something about the insanity of those eyes?  Should I go with something about how the perspective is completely fucked and she looks like her shoulder span, edge to edge is approximately 7 inches wide?  Or how the car dimensions do not resemble those of anything that might exist on earth?  Ah, I give up.  Let’s go with the eyes:

So what the fuck is up with Guillem March and womens’ eyes!??!?!  WTF?!?!?!

DEMON KNIGHTS 7.  Pretty fun and cool.  But again, we’re seeing the annoying “digital blur” thing.  Blech.  I hope this trend dies a quick and painful death.

DETECTIVE COMICS 7.  So, as per usual, I hate everything about this (shocker).  EXCEPT.  That Penguin illustration in the background is AWESOME.  Why can’t Daniel’s work be more like that thing…which rocks.

DOMINIQUE LAVEAU – VOODOO CHILD 1.  Honestly…I have no idea what the fuck this is and am too drunk to bother digging up the solicit text, but if it’s remotely related to Voodoo then it’s infinitely more interesting than anything I’ve seen in that title so far.  If it’s not related, it’s still a great image.  Wonderful graphic elements, use of space and composition, as well as wonderful color choices.  Interested in this…Note to self…must find out more when less drunk…

FABLES 115.  Well, this is obviously unfinished, so difficult to comment.  However…so far?  AWESOME.

FAIREST 1.  Oh…I’m so goddamn exited about this.  Honestly?  A little too excited.  Makes me nervous.  But this image is AMAZING.  So beautiful but so much personality….love it.

FLASH 7.  Captain Cold always looks fucking stupid to me…but Francis Manapul is a great artist so he looks slightly less fucking stupid here.

FRANKENSTEIN AGENTS OF SHADE 7.  Mostly this is awesome – especially the illustration of Frankenstein…but the text is really weird and sloppy and disjointed and throwing me off. 

HAWK & DOVE 7.  LOOK!  Everyone has feet!!!!  Of course, they don’t all LOOK like feet, but still…PROGRESS.  There’s still a no background background with weird ass color choices and shitty digital lighting effects…but y’know beggers can’t be choosers, right?  Liefeld still really excels at drawing hands doesn’t he?  I mean…look at those works of art!  What the hell is Dove even doing in this drawing…doesn’t she look like she was added at the last second?  Much like #1 on THIS INFAMOUS VERY FUNNY LIST, it seems like she was added after the fact, and not very convincingly as she hangs weirdly in mid-air.  I mean…seriously…it’s freaking me out even looking at it.

Also, drinking sidebar…I’m perhaps the drunkest I’ve ever been during this and we’re only on H…good times!

HELLBLAZER 289.  This is gorgeous, as per usual, but bot their heads (especially hers) look WAY too big to me.  Still, pretty damn cool.

HUNTRESS 6.  Hmm. I feel like I could just write “see above, re: Catwoman 7″…but I’ll say it again…WTF IS UP WITH GUILLEM MARCH AND WOMENS’ EYES?!?!?!  SOMEONE MAKE IT STOPPPPPP!

I, VAMPIRE 7.  Hmm. I like the paired down and limited palette here.  The perspective and composition are also nice.  It’s also…kind of strangely…a really subtle non-graphic image, considering we’re staring directly into what is basically a headless neck.  Kind of clever actually.

I, ZOMBIE 23.  Very smart and cool work from Mike Allred.  Disturbing and intriguing, effective.

JUSTICE LEAGUE 7.  At first I was kind of liking the looks of Diana here…she looks “big” and powerful and she’s throwing a mean punch…but the size of her waist and some other weirdness end up making me feel annoyed with it.  I like how he’s got everything yanked to the center, even though there’s so much going on…it creates nice negative shapes and the colors are interesting…but it’s just too goddamn busy.

JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK 7.  I know the whole “puppetmaster” thing has been overdone, but this is a REALLY great example of it.  Wonderful illustration and composition with smart positive/negative space, all coming together to create great graphic shapes.  The graphic elements of Madame Xanadu’s hands with the strings laced throughout is just fucking fantastic.  All of Ryan Sook’s covers for this series have been excellent.  Actually…have I ever seen a bad Sook cover?  Not sure I have.

JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL 7.  I mean..if I never see another “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!” cover again it will be too soon.  Double that if it’s a Finch “NOOOOOOOOOOO!!” cover. Blech.

LEGION LOST 7.  I love that in the insanity that is this cover (I mean…are those supposed to be HER wings?  If so, fail) the one thing that is undeniably clear is that she has a costume cut down past her fucking navel.  It’s good they know what’s important here.  #fuckyoucomics

MEN OF WAR 7.  Some of these Men of War covers have been excellent.  This one is great.  Nice repeated imagery and color palette.  Very cool.

MISTER TERRIFIC 7.  Hmm. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again…I don’t know what happened with these JG Jones covers for Mister Terrific…initially (the first two) were so goddamn beautiful, but since then they just really haven’t worked.  There are some good ideas here, but the execution is flawed.  Terrific’s anatomy seems bizarrely out of whack (too broad in the chest, too short in the arms) and the face is VERY weird.  Disappointing.

NIGHTWING 7.  Well, what can I say?  It’s so much better than last month’s cover I feel like doing a goddamn jig.  Not sure about the ropes that would be right across his junk…or the “I have to take a powerful shit face”…but again, so much better than issue #6.  The monochromatic (mostly) yellow background was a good choice.

NORTHLANDERS 49.  Penultimate issue, great cover.  So sad to see this series go.  Wonderful work all around.  Love all the white and the great composition/negative space.

RED HOOD & THE OUTLAWS 7.  I mean, I really couldn’t tell you how I actually feel about this cover, because all I can see is Starfire and her tiny “nipple plates” costume.  So goddamn weird. #growupcomics.

SAUCER COUNTY 1.  Very excited about this.  Paul Cornell?  Ryan Kelly?  SOLD!  And I don’t even need to know the premise (though in truth it sounds hella odd).

SAVAGE HAWKMAN 7.  He’s savage, yo.

(you knew it was coming back.  Also…wtf is up with his anatomy?!? Look at his armmmm?!?!)

SCALPED 57.  Whoa. So smart and effective.  That is an image that will stay with you.  DAMMMMNNNN.

SPACEMAN 5.  Very cool.  Love the unfinished look and the expression and figure work is just ON.

STATIC SHOCK 7.  Borrrring.  I really miss the Brunner/Renzo covers…so much more creativity to them with colors that felt new and young…fresh maybe.  That said, I like Static Shock’s costume here.  Very well designed.  He doesn’t look much like a teenager though.

SUICIDE SQUAD 7.  I got nothing.

Okay wait, I thought of something.  This book fucking sucks. I miss Secret Six so goddamn bad.  Even WITH the crappy Califore art. 

SUPERGIRL 7.  This is very nice.  Beautiful, powerful Supergirl, great figure work and sense of place.  Great composition, color, positive and negative space.  A+ all around.

SUPERMAN 7.  It is honestly freaking me the fuck out to see Superman fighting a villain from WildC.A.T.S.  WTF.

SWAMP THING 7.  Gorgeous. Love the pseudo psychedelic aspect.  The design/graphic work is great, but still such emotion in the figure work and great consideration for composition and positive/negative.  Also the colors are sublime.

TEEN TITANS 7.  This offering from “Brett Could There Be MORE Fussy Lines In This Drawing Booth” is just a mess.  The answer, apparently is “YES! I am Brett Booth and I will FIND A WAY TO MAKE MORE FUSSY LINES!”

THE FURY OF FIRESTORM 7.  I feel like this is one of those drawing where, if I wasn’t too lazy (or drunk) to flip it right side up I would see the HORROR that actually exists.  As it is…at a minimum dude’s pecs are WEIRD, FULL STOP.

THE SHADE 6.  Hmmm.  I feel conflict-y (told you this was the year of adding “-y”).  This is pretty cool overall, but again, it doesn’t feel that in synch with what I’m reading inside (so far).  Regardless, points for a cool ballsy cover with great graphic elements and bold colors.

THE UNWRITTEN 35.  Wow. Love it.  What a great concept and perfectly executed.  The restraint with color is really smart too.  Excellent.

THE UNWRITTEN 35.5.  Man, these have pretty much all been beautiful. Seriously, have we seen a bad or even weak Unwritten cover?  The repetition here is excellent.

VOODOO 7.  Holygodamnmotherfuckingstupidasshell.  Seriously?!  Ugh.  I just can’t even.  Fill in the blank folks.  Make sure to use plenty of goddamn cuss words.

WONDER WOMAN 7.  LOVE IT.  Love every goddamn beautiful thing about it.  Love the graphic elements.  Love Diana’s big ass non-dainty arm, love the positive and negative space, the color use.  Love it ALL.  And yet again DC benefits by having Cliff Chiang drawing the last book of the solicits…a great way to end!

The good news is, I get to look at it too and it’s AWESOME.

Last year I did two massive posts about the 20 best female comics creators of 2010.  I thought about revisiting that list this year, but I felt a lot of those ladies still belong on that list and I wanted to make sure to feature new creators.  So instead I decided to add to it, with 13 new ladies who did great work in 2011 that I’d like to recognize.  So, without further ado, here are 13 fantastic female creators in comics that you should be watching, reading, and supporting.

Please, before filling up the comments with women you think are missing, make sure to check out 2010’s list which includes: Kate Beaton, Rebekah Isaacs, Becky Cloonan, Amy Reeder, Jill Thompson, Gail Simone, Faith Erin Hicks, Kathryn Immonen, Emily Carrol, Amanda Connner, Hope Larson, Linda Medley, Fiona Staples, Colleen Coover, Raina Telgmeier, Lucy Knisley, Sarah Glidden, Katie Cook, Jen Van Meter, Nicola Scott, and Gabrielle Bell.

VERA BROSGOL

Significant Comics Work of 2011: Anya’s Ghost, What Were You Raised By Wolves

Why I’m loving her work right now:  I was familiar with Vera Brosgol only through her shared project with Emily Carroll – Draw This Dress – and so it was fun for me to read her wonderful first graphic novel Anya’s Ghost from First Second.  Having missed Brosgol’s work that appeared in the Flight Anthology (she has work in issues #1, #2, and #4) Anya’s Ghost was the first sequential work I’d seen of Brosgol and I was quite literally floored by her talent.  A wonderfully bold and confident drawing style, influenced largely by her experience as a storyboard artist for feature animation, Brosgol matches her strong cartooning with a surprising YA story about Anya, an immigrant to the US, that falls down a well and meets a ghost.  The resulting tale is decidedly unexpected in a number of ways and is simply a joy to read.  In 2011 Brosgol also produced an exceptional mini-comic (now available online in its entirety) titled What, Were You Raised By Wolves.  It’s funny, and sad and violent and heartbreaking and is the kind of story that leaves you imminently interested in what a creator might do next.  I simply cannot wait to see what Brosgol will do next.

KELLY SUE DECONNICK

Significant Comics Work of 2011: Supergirl #64 – 66, Osborn: Evil Incarcerated, Castle: Deadly Storm

Why I’m loving her work right now:  Kelly Sue DeConnick first came to my attention in 2010 when she penned a handful of quite interesting one-shots for Marvel including Sif and Rescue, as well as a story for Marvel’s Girl Comics Anthology and a story from issue #4 of CGBG.  One-shots and shorts are notoriously tough to write well and so when anyone manages it, I sit up and take notice.  This year DeConnick followed those strong stand alones with some incredible stories for DC and Marvel, most notably a three issue arc on DC’s Supergirl before it re-launched this past September, and Marvel’s critically acclaimed and massively interesting Osborn limited series.  With a great sense of humor and interesting takes on both heroes and villains DeConnick has quickly made herself a writer to watch in comics.  In 2011 DeConnick also co-wrote a Castle Graphic Novel (which I have not read) but which, by the very nature of being a graphic novel tied to a television show, and being co-written by Brian Michael Bendis, is possibly her most well-known work to date and one likely to put her on the map even more powerfully.

RENAE DE LIZ

Significant Comics Work of 2011:  Womanthology, Servant of the Bones

Why I’m loving her work right now:  In the interest of full disclosure, I am involved in Renae De Liz’s Womanthology project as both a backer and contributor. That fact likely makes me horribly biased, but I don’t think given De Liz’s contributions to comics this year, and especially “women and comics” that there’s any way De Liz doesn’t belong on this list no matter who puts this it together.  In addition to her continuing illustration work for IDW – this year with Anne Rice’s Servant of the Bones – De Liz put together the single most successful comics project in Kickstarter’s history with Womanthology, an all female comics anthology that raised over 100k (which means it funded at 437% of its original goal).

I first read something of De Liz’s when I came across her stunning illustration work for IDW’s adaptation of The Last Unicorn in 2010 (which released as a gorgeous hardcover edition in 2011).  From there I began following her on twitter, which was how I learned of her ambitious Womanthology project.  Though De Liz has spent a lot of time in 2011 doing work for IDW (among other things I’m sure) a huge portion of 2011 has been consumed with the business of creating and executing the massive 300-page Womanthology volume that will release in early 2012.  While it’s arguable that De Liz might belong on next year’s list since that’s when Womanthology will release, in truth, her contribution to comics this year is so much more than whatever final product Womanthology produces.  More importantly, De Liz has established herself as a creator that galvanized an entire movement of women in comics, bringing attention and focus to the issue of women in comics, connecting women together, and giving them an avenue for creation and publication.  That, to me, is far more important than the actual volume itself.

EMMA RIOS

Significant Comics Work of 2011:  Spider-Island: Cloak & Dagger, Osborn

Why I’m loving her work right now:  Emma Rios’ first big mainstream project for Marvel was the Dr. Strange mini-series Strange in 2010, and she has been just killing everything she touches ever since.  For Rios 2010 included everything from a fun short in Marvel’s Girl Comics, an Elektra one-shot, work on the excellent Heralds mini-series, and a gorgeous Firestar one-shot.  Rios followed up her 2010 work with even more impressive work penciling both the critically acclaimed Osborn mini-series written by Kelly Sue DeConnick and a Spider Island: Cloak & Dagger mini-series.  Rios’ work is fluid and loose, with a slight Manga influence, and she’s proven herself to be incredibly versatile when it comes to subject matter and her interpretation of that subject matter.  Her storytelling and page layouts are unique and visually striking, packed with detail and yet easily understood.  Reading Rios is like feasting your eyes on a veritable smorgasbord of gorgeous and disturbing details (see above for proof!).

SARA PICHELLI

Significant Comics Work of 2011:  Ultimate Spider-Man

Why I’m loving her work right now:  Sara Pichelli has been doing great work in comics for several years now, from her first work in comics on Star Trek for IDW to work on Runaways with writer Kathryn Immonen in 2009 to a Pixie Strikes Back mini-series in 2010 also with Immonen. However her work this year on Marvel’s new Ultimate Spider-Man title has been straight up revolutionary.  Pichelli’s attention to detail for everything from Miles’ haircut to his clothing to the environment he lives in is exceptional and her strong vision has undoubtedly helped make Ultimate Spider-Man one of the best and most well-executed superhero origin stories I’ve seen in comics in a very long time.  Pichelli’s work has always been passionate and enthusiastic as well as very pretty, but what she’d doing on Ultimate Spider-Man feels far more refined and clean, well-considered and confident.  There’s an absolute precision in her storytelling choices and her character decisions that is breathtaking.  More than once she has given me goosebumps just in how she has chosen to execute a page.  This is some groundbreaking work, and it’s fitting that it’s on a groundbreaking series.

MARJORIE LIU

Significant Comics Work of 2011:  X-23, Daken: Dark Wolverine, Jim Henson’s The Storyteller (Puss in Boots)

Why I’m loving her work right now:  Marjorie Liu first really got my attention in 2010 with her exceptional Black Widow series from Marvel with stunning art from Daniel Acuna.  Unfortunately, the series was cut short, but it left me anxious to see what Liu did next.  And X-23, one of the only series headlining a female character at Marvel, was her next stop.  While the art for X-23 was not always my cup of tea, Liu did an excellent job of fleshing out a character that in a lesser writer’s hands would have just been a sexy teenaged female version of Wolverine.  Under Liu’s pen Laura (X-23) grew into a fantastic and 3-dimensional character while still managing to remain true to what had come before.  In fact, Liu’s work with artist Phil Noto on X-23 issues #13 – 16 for the “Chaos Theory” arc were hands down some of the best comics I read in 2011.  Unfortunately, X-23 has been canceled, but Liu is moving on to write Astonishing X-Men for 2012, with an interesting cast that has in the past frequently been left on the sidelines, so I can’t wait to see what she’ll do with them.

SARAH OLEKSYK

Significant Comics Work of 2011:  Ivy

Why I’m loving her work right now:  I had never heard of Sarah Oleksyk until I picked up her book Ivy from Oni Press this past year.  That’s unfortunate for me because Oleksyk has been doing wonderful indie/mini comics for years now (most of them available in full for free on her website).  They are introspective and sad, funny and bold, smart and beautiful, all rolled into one, and they provide a great glimpse into the insightful and gorgeously illustrated graphic novel Ivy that was collected into a graphic novel this year from Oni.  The artistic skill on display in Ivy is incredibly impressive, but it was Oleksyk’s willingness to tell a daring not necessarily “easy” YA story that felt real and honest that made me such a fan of her work. I expect many more great things from Oleksyk and I hope she continues to not pull her punches.

MEREDITH MCCLAREN

Significant Comics Work of 2011:  Hinges

Why I’m Loving Her Work Right Now:  Tapped to draw the much awaited new Hopeless Savages (volume 4) from Jen Van Meter for Oni, McClaren is a crazy talent, evident by pretty much everything she creates and most notably her brilliant full color webcomic Hinges that she has been producing in 2011.  You can read Hinges in full thus far here, to see for yourself what an insane talent McClaren is.  Her exaggerated cartoon-y style is fluid and beautiful, and so on point that words are frequently completely unnecessary.  McClaren’s character design is particularly impressive and there’s a feeling of boundless creativity and possibility in nearly everything she touches.  From a storytelling point of view she handles everything from sweeping vistas to the most subtle character expressions with seeming ease.  I cannot wait to see her Hopeless Savages work (when will it come out?!  WHEN?!), and expect to be enjoying her work – both creator owned like Hinges, and collaborative like Hopeless Savages -  for many many years to come.

CARLA SPEED MCNEIL

Significant Comics Work of 2011:  Finder: Voice

Why I’m loving her work right now:  Carla Speed McNeil has been an indie comics darling for a while now, but I’ve just recently gotten into her Eisner Award Winning Finder series, and it’s absolutely excellent.  Her eye for detail and illustration chops are only equaled by her ability to tell a compelling story and create characters that you can’t help but feel for.  McNeil’s incredibly detailed black and white artwork is also somehow sublimely clean and the fact that it’s all indescribably beautiful doesn’t hurt either.  A scene in which a character transforms from her “stage look” to her “regular look” as illustrated by McNeil is absolutely phenomenal and is just a hint of the depth and consideration she has for her characters.  Finder: Voice features a “new” main character in Rachel and she’s flawed in all the ways that make for a great protagonist, ways that allow McNeil to show us real growth and triumph for both the character and the story.

CHARLIE “SPIKE” TROTMAN

Significant Comics Work of 2011:  Templar, Arizona

Why I’m loving her work right now:  Spike has been putting out Templar, Arizona since 2005…which is a VERY long run for webcomic.  That kind of devotion and commitment are rare in webcomics and it’s all the better for all of us.  Spike has created a fantastic world of characters, and one in which Templar, Arizona itself is perhaps the star.  Bold and funny, freewheeling and aggressive, Spike’s Templar, Arizona is one of those worlds that you just fall in love with…flaws and all.  Spike has described her Templar as a “slightly irregular Arizona that fell off the back of a truck somewhere, and now all the power outlets are a weird shape and a couple of wars never happened”, which pretty much sums up the offbeat sense of humor and rollicking energy of the series.  Templar, Arizona is filled with wonderful diversity from race and orientation to body shape and even clothing style.  It’s the kind of diversity far too rare in most comics, but found in surprising abundance in creator owned work like Spike’s.  Spike is also working on (and publishing soon?) a book she wrote with illustrator Diana Nock called Poorcraft which was an early kickstarter success.

MARZENA SOWA/SYLVAIN SAVOIA*

*ETA – as noted by commenter Phil Jackson below, Sylvain Savoia is actually male – and thus – though wonderfully talented – not eligible for this list…which means I should change the title to 12 Fantastic Female Comics Creators of 2011.  But I’ll leave it as is.  Huge apologies to Mr. Savoia – in my brief research I didn’t find any reference to gender and made an assumption – which is never a good thing.  Mr. Savoia is incredibly talented however, and deserves recognition for this wonderful work regardless of gender. 

Significant Comics Work of 2011:  Marzi

Why I’m loving their work right now:  Originally six volumes published in France and then published as three volumes in Poland, 2011 saw Marzi collected and translated into one massive tome by Vertigo.  The combination of Sylvain Savoia’s engaging and frequently adorable art and Marzena Sowa’s intense but matter of fact writing, creates a fascinating memoir that skirts the line between childhood innocence and intense, painful reality.  Executed as a series of vignettes that build on one another impressively, the initial feeling when reading Marzi is almost light, despite the surroundings in which Marzi and her friends and family live.  But as the story progresses the intensity and reality of things becomes impossible to ignore.  The result is a powerful and fascinating memoir sure to stay with you.

JANET K. LEE

Significant Comics Work of 2011:  Emma, Northanger Abbey

Janet K. Lee burst onto the comics scene in 2010 with a gorgeous Eisner Award winning graphic novel The Return of The Dapper Men from Archaia, written by Jim McCann.  Insanely creative and anchored by Lee’s phenomenal visuals, McCann and Lee were instant talks of the town thanks to The Return of The Dapper Men (which I, unfortunately, did not read until 2011, or I would have put Lee on last year’s list!).  In 2011 most of Lee’s comics work has been in the form of illustration work for excellent Jane Austen adaptations for Marvel written by Nancy Butler.  Adaptation is a tricky art form and Lee manages to skirt the line between creativity and representation excellently.  These volumes, with Lee’s trademark style which is wholly unique and wildly inventive, are slavishly beautiful.  The adaptations have done a wonderful job of  bringing Austen’s novels into the comics world with respect and enthusiasm and just enough inventiveness to keep things interesting.  The hardcover collections of these mini-series are particularly lovely and make a great addition to any bookshelf for fans of adaptations and Austen.

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And that’s it for this year.  I’m sure, as always, I have missed many wonderful creators.  I hope I’ll discover many more in the coming year both new and old and have an opportunity to focus on many that I’ve missed both here and on She Has No Head!

I feel compelled to mention that doing pieces like this have sometimes drawn criticism from those that think it’s a mistake to feature “women only” lists – that it suggests that women need special treatment, or are not “good enough” to compete with their male counterparts.  I can understand the sentiment and concern, but given my experiences in comics I have to say that I think that women creators DO still need special treatment and all the exposure and support that we can give them.  Not because they’re not just as talented as their male counterparts, but just because it takes a very long time to change an industry that is used to doing things a certain way. It says nothing of their talent or ability to market themselves that they need a bit of a spotlight shown on them, it’s just an unfortunate necessity when trying to help talented individuals break into an industry that has long been fairly closed to them.

For those that think there are no issues with women finding work in comics, I urge you to remember that of DC’s “new 52 re-launch” just four short months ago – which had a minimum of 150+ jobs available to creators (I’m using an estimate of three jobs per book – writer, artist, and colorist – which is a low estimate as it doesn’t include potential inkers or cover artists, etc.) only SIX* women were given jobs on those books.  The wonderful Gail Simone was brought on to write Batgirl and to co-write The Fury of Firestorm, Jenny Frison did covers for I, Vampire, and Amy Reeder had already been scheduled to draw the second arc of the Batwoman series (her issues are still not out yet).  Also colorists Nei Ruffino, Jessica Kholine, and Tanya Horie.  Those are painfully low numbers considering the massive amount of female talent out there.  While Marvel has done a much better job of putting great female creators to work on their books of late, and more independent houses continue to be good at this, the lack of female creators involved in the DC Re-launch was a wake up call for everyone in comics.  And until that sort of thing just doesn’t happen anymore, I think we need as many blogs and posts and lists featuring great female comics creators that we can get.

That’s why I do this, that’s why I think it’s important.  And even if you can’t quite agree, I hope you can agree that there is some amazing talent featured here, talent that is deserving of your attention and support.  I hope you all found some creators worth following and I hope to bring you at least a dozen more by the end of next year as well.

Happy New Year everyone!

*I originally neglected to give DC credit for three female colorists.

Although for “holiday spirit” I have to give it to this wonderful Daredevil #7 from Paolo Manuel Rivera: