Comic Covers (request for data from KS)

[Karen Mahoney]

On Kelly Sue's tumblr today, she makes the following request:

Which are your favorite comic book covers?

Pros: do you have any tips or strategies for coming up with successful cover concepts?

How much weight do you think cover design carries for sales? (I’ve heard the phrase “works like white on a cover,” for instance.)

What’s your thinking here?

I’ve got a crazy work day ahead of me, so I don’t expect to be around much today, but I’ve needed to do a lot of thinking about this lately and I’d love to collect people’s thoughts—everyone’s thoughts are welcome, readers, retailers and pros.

Readers: I’m particularly interested in which (if any) books have you picked up based on cover alone?

Pros: what does your experience tell you about successful cover concepts?

Retailers: what sales patterns have you noticed? Any?

I’ll see if I can’t collate and repost the most thought-provoking to my blog later this weekend.

Maybe we can put some thoughts on this thread...

Cheers,
Kaz

[Kelly Sue]

Sweet, Kaz, thank you.

[beamish]

Here is my response

While I don’t typically cover shop any more a Dave Johnson or Tony Harris cover still makes me stop and consider. I did pick up an anthology once because it had an Alam Moore cover. I can say that variant covers rarely make me want to pay extra.

[Karen Mahoney]

I'll try to think of some specific examples of comics I might have picked up simply based on cover. I'm sure there must be a few...

But in the meantime, I can say for sure that one of the things that matters to me is that the cover concept accurately represents what I'm going to get inside the comic itself. I hate that feeling of being cheated - both in terms of the theme/tone, and in terms of quality. General examples off the top of my head: a comic that shows a couple kissing on the cover, but that has no romance inside. (Disappointing! ) A comic that has stunning cover art, but a different interior artist with a completely different style (or possibly of lesser quality).

Kaz

[beamish]

This is the Alan Moore cover in question. I suppose, to lengthen I was more of a cover shopper as a child. As I got older and I became more interested in content over flash (and I started a pull) the covers themselves held less draw than then names on the covers.

[Arion]

This is the Alan Moore cover in question. I suppose, to lengthen I was more of a cover shopper as a child. As I got older and I became more interested in content over flash (and I started a pull) the covers themselves held less draw than then names on the covers.

Lovely cover!