What makes a good cover? What should it do from a sales/artistic perspective?
Well, I’m always surprised at the various opinions at what makes a good cover. I’m actually kinda surprised at a lot of covers in recent years because they don’t seem to do much other than show the main character of the book just standing there. Now, I’m not saying that a cover like this CAN’T work, but to do it EVERY month seems to be a little uncreative to me. However, it’s done industry-wide right now, so obviously it works somehow … I mean, every Vogue or Cosmo cover will tell you that a straight-on shot of a beautiful woman sells copies. So basically, a good cover should make you want to buy the comic. For me, that means to tease the audience into thinking, “Wow, THAT happens in the book????” prodding them to grab it as soon as they see it. That’s usually the first thing I think about before I start. From there I try to think of something as iconic as I can that will encapsulate what that issue is about. The concept/layout stage is usually the hardest part of drawing anything, I f
