Rivalrys Go 'round - Feuds are Forever

Rob and I were talking about what the definition of the word "rival" actually meant. So, here for reference are the 3 definitions that are applicable to this week's comic cover submission:

Rival:
1 a: one of two or more striving to reach or obtain something that only one can possess

b: one striving for competitive advantage or

3: one that equals another in desired qualities:

The terms rival and feud almost go hand in hand. A rival, or two trying to obtain one thing and, feud, having it going on for a period of time, are cliches of most comic unverses.

To clarify the definition of a feud according to merriam webster:

Feud:
1: a mutual enmity or quarrel that is often prolonged or inveterate;

We then came to a point where we each asked: "Can one still exist while another has evolved or taken it's place?" Can you still have a rivalry between two or more people when a murder has been committed?

I say yes.

Case in point: Whenever a villain gets the upper hand over our hero and is about to dispatch him, near the end of a battle, the villain always brings up the one or two moments the hero neglected them, got the upper hand in, took something away from them, (like an opportunity), or has some reason to exact their revenge based on some prior circumstance.

Some immediate examples I can think of would be Syndrome from Incredibles, Mr. Fantastic and Dr. Doom starting from their college years, Professor X and Magneto, to Space Ghost and Zorak on Coast to Coast.

Rivalries can evolve from feuds and vice versa. A rivalry can be two friends fighting alongside for a common goal as well.

I present this cover as a great visualization of rivals:

This cover plays to the viewer beautifully. If you know history of the X-Men or not, this cover entices you to rip it open and find out what's happening to Wolvie.

The Brood, featured in this and subsequent books, are a vicious alien race that are about dominance and control. This book is about a Brood hatchling and Wolverine fighting over the control of his body unbeknown to the rest of the team until. . . well, I suggest picking it up!

The rich purples and cool blues are complementary to his normal costume colors and play an integral roll in depicting a losing Wolverine. This is a book from Mark Silvestri's run on the series and I believe showcases his greatest work.

This scene does take place in the book and is handled very well.

One trick to a good rivalry cover is to keep ALL the art elements in mind and at your disposal to suggest a "teeter totter"-ing of the cover pitch. Utilize hue, shape, negative space, and temperature to create a slightly imbalanced composition until an edgy suspense is achieved.

Do these things and your only rival will be comic shops charging too little for the book!

Your Line Work is Showing!

If anything shows us how a technique is used, an approach to how an effect was created, or how even the artist team thinks, we can look at their pre-finished work-in-progress. I found this posted by an anonymous owner of the HULK 340 original pencils and inks.
(Click for larger image.)


Notice the feathering of the HULK's hair in the original inks to allow the light blue color to show through in the final rendering so not to oversaturate the blacks in the reflection. You can tell the inker worked mostly with technical pens when rendering McFarlane's pencils. The constant line width and even in the feathering. Maybe he used a sharpee for the solids. I also enjoy the small nuances such as the over rendering of the black that crosses over the cover border line on the left. Wycek's small ruler smudge on the lower right corner also adds a tangible proof of human error whereas today's pieces are perfected so much in Photoshop you can never tell anymore.

Circular composition so your eye wanders from Wolvie, up his claws to Hulk's face, to the title of the book and back down to Wolvie. Nicely done. One last choice I enjoyed about this piece was McFarlane's choice to have Wolvie's left hand cross in front almost giving him that running toward feeling.

There's something revealing about just the black and white image. My college professor often said that if the piece doesn't work in black and white, then it won't work in color. This piece clearly works in black and white defining that statement.

Feel free to comment on what you see and ENJOY!