Journal Entry 7: Marvel at these Comics!

One of my secrets is that I am a huge nerd...(okay, that's not so secret). But either way, people still are really surprised that I know a ton about the Marvel Universe. Here is a sampling of comics pulled off my shelf, from Marvel, SLG, and Vertigo publishing.

The first two comics in my line up is a comparison of Phoenix saga comics. The first is a very recent revival of Jean Grey's story, and the latter is a rerelease of a storyline that took place right after the Dark Phoenix Saga (published in 1986 and spans through 1990). Even though both comics were published in the last few years, they both display signs of the time. The type on Endsong is more fluid and unique from character to character, incorporates the Phoenix logo, and is in a more modern typeface. Phoenix Rising shows clear signs of a grid, a stark hierarchy, and an incredibly bold title, a telltale sign of this storyline, especially in the time it was originally published. I really like both images a lot (as the artist for Endsong is my favorite comic artist, Greg Land), but I really like the treatment of the type-image relationship on Phoenix Rising better. It is very clear and concise.


These two comics are in a similar vein. The Nightcrawler comic is an original from 1986. The one on the left is a very new one, published in 2004. These two comics follow the same guidelines as the Phoenix ones; the older comic follows a specific type grid with a more square, mellow font. The newer comic is more pronounced and is more unique character to character. Again, I like the image set up on the older comic better. With comics, the title is just as important as the cover image, and with the Nightcrawler comic I get a better sense of that. The title on Intifada is too white and takes too much of the attention. Still, we can see a clear pattern that Marvel has followed with their cover designs in the last 20 some years.



These two comics are from SLG publishing. The two authors/artists, Jhonen Vasquez and Roman Dirge, are really close (and even make illustrated cameos in each others' comics). They have worked on many projects together, including the Nickelodeon cartoon Invader Zim. Their storylines always edge on sci-fi horror, humorous gore, and shock value. Even though they are so similar in so many ways, the way their covers appear is very different. A few things that are similar about these covers are that they follow the same grid, have hand lettered titles, and (although it may be hard to see on the thumbnails) are written as "Author's Comic". In the realm of differences, Vasquez uses complimentary colors for his lettering, whereas Dirge uses very similar colors. While this isn't a bad thing, the title on Vasquez's cover stands out more against the dark black plane. The thing I like very much about both of these covers is that the titles both reflect their title characters: Squee! is uneven and blocky, yet coherent, much like Squee himself. The eyeball in the Q mirrors those on Squee, making a good image balance in the cover. The Lenore lettering conveys a sense of whimsy and overboard feminine cutesiness, like Lenore. In this way both covers are really unified with their characters and storylines.