Adam Hughes!?! No Wonder!

Here's my official submission for the cover of the week - Adam Hughes. Wonder Woman 184. If only Hughes drew the interior. (I understand he's drawing a Wonder Woman book and it won't be released until the run is finished so we'll have to do with this for now.)

This cover not only demonstrates the skills Adam possesses, but it's a testament to his creative take on the story. This actually happens in this book! (Though Hughes took some liberties with the interpretation and art style.) Wonder Woman finds herself trapped in the past after following a portal which led her to an alternate history where her mother is actually Wonder Woman. She, (the original Wonder Woman), disguises herself as Miss America and helps her mother thwart the Nazis.

Hughes' take on this cover is a metaphor of new finding old by re-creating a dilapidated issue of the Golden Age Wonder Woman to resemble the modern day Wonder Woman's mother. The fact he draws it style for style with how she looked in the Golden Age mixed with his take of today's Wonder Woman is an excellent juxtaposition. It also allows us to see just how far she's come. The surrounding Nazis are done in 30s fashion and the very human expressions seals the deal for my favorite Adam Hughes cover.

Enjoy!

UPGRADE!

Hello all!

As an upgrade to the site, I'm beginning to put together a questionnaire / interview for professionals to tell us what they like to see in a cover. They will talk about their favorite covers, and discuss what they believe makes a book jump off the shelf.

Please leave comments as to what questions you think should go in the interview and I'll pool the results putting together them together. Also, please leave comments as to who you would be interested in seeing a cover interview with!

LET'S DO THIS THING!

I'll post these interviews amidst the weekly challenges so we can tie them together with who is being interviewed!

Hughes submissions will carry through to the end of this week.

ENJOY!

Rob's Submission - Hughes Week

Okay, we all knew it was coming with Ian's God like worship of Hughes artwork, but the day has finally arrived.

After gratuitous butt shots and breasts aplenty I finally narrowed it down to 3 covers.... which is difficult to do when your talking Adam Hughes.

I really enjoyed the cover to Legionnaires#13 because I have a deep appreciation for the Adam Hughes's humor. They harken back to the classic Romance comics covers with their overly expressionistic faces and ridiculous "blurbs". There is almost a Lewinski tone to the artwork and subtext. This one had great composition, bright colors and told the story perfectly.

Then I remembered his rampantly sexual covers that caught your eye because you could not believe that there was such an erotic image on a comic book cover... classic example, Voodoo#2. OMG, who cares what was on the inside because the cover sold the book to more horny teens than anything else on the shelves that month.

Surprisingly enough my favorite cover is not from a regular comic book series or even character. It was from an issue of Spoof Comics Presents#5. I love the cover of Daredame, because it has the right amount of humor, sex and the colors and composition are a classic homage to the Daredevil covers of old (all the way down to the Frank Miller style action sequence at the bottom). I find it to be a surprisingly well balanced cover, and just enjoy every aspect of it.

-Rob

3 Who Know

When at the Comic-con in San Diego of '07 I had the pleasure of sitting in a room with some of the greatest comic artists in the industry. They were discussing what they believe makes a strong comic cover. On the panel were George Perez, Neal Adams, Adam Hughes, Basil Gogos, among others. Revealing an artist's secret to success, Adam had a creative way of making his covers stand out.

"I would go to the local shop and walk in, and stand back from that week's rack by about 10 feet and look at all the comics on the shelf. Seeing all the colors and which comics stood out at me against the sea that didn't. I would then make note of the similar color schemes the other books were using. If everyone was using a blue theme, I would go home and paint a cover using bright oranges, yellows and pinks. The next month I would walk back in and see them using browns and cremes so I would go home and paint a cover in purples, blacks, and grays."

The audience applauded with laughter. Going against the current is another great technique for making your cover stand out. Which brings us to this week's challenge:

This week's target cover is going to focus on your favorite Adam Hughes.

He has so many!

He's won an Eisner for his covers! Which one to choose!?!

Be prepared to defend why yours is better than the others submitted. It's going to get ugly.

Enjoy!