Radiant Comics

I’m back from the comic shop this week and I only got one new comic. And it was a comic full of reprints. It was a fifth Wednesday month so all of my usuals already shipped.

This week’s comic book cover to look at and examine is one that’s new this week. “Rocketeer and the Spirit” #1 by Darwyn Cooke. It’s actually an alternate cover to this book but I liked it better than the regular cover. It turns out that it’s actually half a cover as there is another version that fits together with this on to form a bigger image. But I didn’t know that at the time and liked this one on it’s own.

I mainly like the color, drawing, and design on this cover. I don’t find the story it tells, of the Spirit being reluctantly kissed, very interesting and a bit cliched but that is what they were going for. It’s supposed to be an old fashioned story so it’s not that it fails in any way it’s that it doesn’t resonate with me.

I like the interaction of the figures a lot. Their poses work well together and the interacting shapes of the various arms and legs make for a nice visual dance. I’m not always a fan of Cooke’s drawing (but always of his storytelling) as it sometimes leaves me cold for reasons I can’t figure out but here I really like his drawing. I like the lines of the Spirit’s suit, the zig-zag highlight of the woman’s skirt, and especially the crookedness of the Spirit’s left leg. I like the way the fabric on that leg moves.

I like the color a lot too. A good example of how graphic, flat, cut color can really be effective. Red, blue, orange, and a few shapes made into highlights is all they needed to make the drawing come alive a bit more. Even though there are way too may logos fighting for attention they manage to subdue them by turning down the volume on their colors. It’s not perfect you don’t always get a chance at perfection. And very good is still a nice place to be.