Cover art?

[PaulSebert]

Just out of curiosity, is there a chance Aaron Lopresti might start doing the cover art as well as the interiors on Ms. Marvel?

No offense to any Greg Horn fans out there, but well I'm not that big a fan of having cover art on a book drawn in a different style than the interior. (Also some of the non-readers I've chatted with just seem to find Horn's covers a turn-off.)

[Cardinal Braxiatel]

I agree that some of the soft core porn we've had for covers has been distasteful but Ms Marvel's on an upswing and selling out more often. Just in case, they better not change the covers until they're sure that the smut isn't what's bringing the readers in. Lopresti covers would be better but at least Horn's covers match up pretty good to the action for the interiors.

[mewelke]

I have to say I don't care much for the covers. I'm not offended by gratuitous t&a, but I keep thinking if that's what I'm looking for may as well just buy hentai

[GelfXIII]

While I agree that some of Greg's covers are over the line (The Tigra one comes strongly to mind) some of the others are just flat out awesome (the cover with Wonderman and Ms M flying straight at each other, for one).

[Brian Reed]

1) I don't think we've done any T&A on the covers or in the book. In fact, in the book, Aaron has been very diligent about making Ms. Marvel attractive without making her a sex object - something I appreciate to no end. As far as the covers go, I guess I'm missing the T&A everyone else is talking about (and with my sex drive, I find that hard to believe)

#12 - Ms. Marvel flying at the camera off the deck of an aircraft carrier
#13 - Ms. Marvel holding Iron Man's head and pointing at the reader
#14 - Ms. Marvel and Arachne squaring off
#15 - MODOK zapping Ms. Marvel
#16 - Ms. Marvel/Wonder Man mid-air collision
#17 - Ms. Marvel busting through a wall
#18 - Ms. Marvel putting her hand on her forehead, unable to believe she's stuck with Machine Man and Sleepwalker.

I suppose one could argue the two girls wrestling on the cover of next issue is gratuitous, or T&A, but if you do the exact same pose with Spidey and Venom, nobody will think twice about it. The complaint seems to be "she has boobs and Greg Horn draws them well, making me look at them." In which case, I'm sorry he's so good at that. :)

2) Greg Horn is why I first picked up a copy of She Hulk a couple years back. The cover of the trade (Jen in a business suit, walking up the courthouse steps) caught my eye and got me interested enough to pick up the book and flip through it -- in my opinion THE job of a cover artist. I became a She Hulk fan very quickly thereafter because of Dan Slott's writing, but I might never have cracked open an issue if not for Greg's cover. I couldn't be happier to have him covering this book and I hope he's here for a long, long time to come.

[Taxman]

1) I don't think we've done any T&A on the covers or in the book. In fact . . .Are you at a point in the industry Brian where you have a lot of input into what artist works on you books? Are you at a point creatively where the artist is a major concern?

I really know so little about the industry, I am just curios about the process.

[Brian Reed]

Are you at a point in the industry Brian where you have a lot of input into what artist works on you books? Are you at a point creatively where the artist is a major concern?

I really know so little about the industry, I am just curios about the process.

I get asked opinion ("Do you want to work with this person?"), but I am not yet of a level where I can say "I want this person. Go get them."

I do get input on the pages themselves, but it is rare that I use that power. Only once, with someone who was not Aaron, did I say "Hey, we need to tone down the ass shot in that panel. It's coming off like T&A, and that shouldn't happen."

Creatively, the artist is a major concern your first time at bat - even though I certainly didn't understand that at the time. I was lucky to have Michael Lark there to draw my first issue. And I was lucky to have Bendis by my side on my second project so he could teach me to understand how to write to Jon Luna's strengths. Because of that, nowadays I hate, hate, hate writing an issue before I know who's drawing it. There's a whole visual language you learn from a new artist that you try to cater to as quickly as possible. I've gotten very lucky though. I had to write Captain Marvel #1 before I knew Lee was the artist. Fortunately, Lee is exactly the kind of art I was imagining as I wrote, so we meshed wonderfully.

[PaulSebert]

To be honest I was kind of trying to stay away from the T&A issue, though I've heard it brought up plenty of times.

But my issues are threefold.

1. The cover of the book and the interior art are done by different artists.

2. The cover art and interior art are done in very different styles.

3. I simply like Lopresti's art style better than Horn's.

[Taxman]

I do get input on the pages themselves, but it is rare that I use that power. Only once, with someone who was not Aaron, did I say "Hey, we need to tone down the ass shot in that panel. It's coming off like T&A, and that shouldn't happen." The few times that I have looked at actual scripts, I have found them to be incredibly detailed and specific. I kinda get the idea here that you have a different approach to writing than that. We we ever see any of you scripts published in a special edition or something like that? Is this something that you would have any interest in?

[Brian Reed]

The few times that I have looked at actual scripts, I have found them to be incredibly detailed and specific. I kinda get the idea here that you have a different approach to writing than that. We we ever see any of you scripts published in a special edition or something like that? Is this something that you would have any interest in?

I write full script, with detailed descriptions and sometimes even suggestions of camera placement. But I'm the first to admit that I'm not an artist and that the book is always better when the artist feels they can bring their own contributions to the table, so I'm always open to a different interpretation of what I've written so long as the same story gets told. There's been a lot of times where I see the art and think "that's exactly what I imagined", but I find I get a lot more joy when I think "that's nothing at all like I imagined it, but I like this so much better than what I imagined."

Of course, every so often, you get a clunker and it's nothing at all like what you wanted, and it isn't good in and of itself. But those have been few and far between for me, and have never once happened with Aaron.