Comics I Bought This Week: February 22, 2014
I’m back from the comic shop this week and I got seven new comics.
This week’s comic book cover to look at and examine is “Finder” #5 by Carla Speed McNeil. This one came out in 1997 which is when I bought it. “Finder” is one of my favorite comics and I still buy anything Speed McNeil does. She’s really really good.
This is a cover that tricks you at first. So much of it is dedicated to the sexy woman with the coin in her teeth that at first you might not notice the girl with her arms crossed. The woman with the coin is also putting on a show for us. A sexy show. She has her back to us with no shirt on, long silky gloves, and a top hat. All done up with some sensual reds. Then we get to the more conservatively dressed but still fashionable girl who is looking at as as we look at what we now realize is a painting or some such behind her. Interesting.
I really like McNeil’s drawing. I think she does a lot with the few lines she uses. She can capture mood and expression really well. She’s got sexy down well with the woman in the top hat and a big of amused distain with the teenage girl with her arms folded. That’s not easy to do. I especially like the eyes of the top hat woman and her mouth. She pulled off the coin between the teeth nicely. That’s a tough gig. Teeth can be a problem when drawing because too much detail makes them scary and too little makes them weird. Here there is just enough. She found the Goldilocks zone.
The colors work well too. The textured purple background is lively but sets back in space and the green of the girl and the red of the woman make for a nice contrast. The matching red hair on both characters brings it all together. The light blue logo works too.
I like almost everything Carla Speed McNeil does. I could probably pick out a lot of her covers that I like. I just read the latest book that she drew, “Bad Houses”, and that too has a nice cover. I’ll have to write about it some time.
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