Comics I Bought This Week: July 20, 2013

Jul20
on July 20, 2013 at 6:00 am
Posted In: Comics I Bought This Week


I’m back from the comic shop this week and I got five new comics and a trade paperback collection:

  • Archer and Armstrong – 11

  • Revival −12

  • Quantum and Woody – 1

  • Daedpool – 13

  • Harbinger Wars – 4

  • Superman: Phantom Zone

    • This week’s comic book cover to look at and examine is “Omega the Unknown” #6 by John Romita and Dave Cockrum. I happened to be looking through my issues of Omega this week and this cover jumped out at me. I’ve had this issue since my youth and always liked the series but I didn’t remember this cover in particular. It’s a good one. I’ve seen lots of good Romita covers and plenty of good Cockrum ones but I don’t think I’ve seen many with Cockrum inking Romita. Our hero, Omega, looks like a typical clean-lined Romita drawing but the villain looks a little rougher. I like the contrast and I think that’s up the Cockrum and the colorist. “The Wrench” has a lot of dull greys and hot reds in his skin tone. That is unusual and effective.

    I like the way they captured the wrench swinging around. It has a lot of motion to it. Not only does the energy arc that swoops around the characters help with that but there is a little subtle haloing around the Wrench’s forearm and shoulder that are very effective in helping the Wrench’s arm swing forward. Most of the time I see haloing used (that’s when a white or color outline is used to separate a foreground object from a black background) it’s more of a graphic element and I rarely find it effective. Here it works. Omega being knocked over and his body following the energy of the wrench also helps sell the composition.

    I like the cover copy on this cover. It might not have needed it but it helps out a bit. The logo and trade dress sit up top like they’re supposed to and don’t get in the way. The logo colors work fine too as they continue the red, blue, and yellow primary color theme of the cover. It all works nicely with the dull neutrals of the concrete sidewalk, the fence, and the Wrench’s lively skin tone.

    One final thing that I like about this cove is that they succeeded in making an unknown character, The Wrench, menacing. He’s got a dumb name and who knows what kind of silly power but that scary face and haircut go a long way. I don’t want to mess with him.