Radiant Comics

I’m back from the comic shop this week and I got twelve new comics.

Alex + Ada – 5

Dead Body Road – 4

Deadly Class – 3

Fatale – 21

Manhattan Projects – 19

The Massive – 21

Mind MGMT – 20

Rachel Rising – 24

Satellite Sam – 7

The Walking Dead – 124

Deadpool -26

Real Heroes -1

This week’s comic book cover to look at and examine is “Fatale” number eleven by Sean Phillips dated January 2013. This is one of the current comics I buy so I thought I’d take a look at one of the covers. Funny thing is since it’s on my pull list I don’t even have to pick it up off the comic shop shelf and therefore haven’t looked at the covers very closely. Though I’ve read them all I don’t remember most of the covers.

There is a Film Noir theme going on in this cover and in “Fatale” covers in general and that expresses itself with subdued color and vaguely menacing scenes. First is the color or lack thereof. We get a whole cover done in black and white except for the yellow headlights of the car. This along with the old fashioned but stylish clothing the women is wearing gives this cover a 1950s Hollywood look.

I like the mixture of detail and silhouette in this covers. Her black coat and dress are all shadow but we get a good look at her face and suitcase. I like that the suitcase is a specific one too. It has a style to it. Too often when comic book artists (especially super-hero artists) have to draw mundane things they draw boring generic versions of things. They don’t reference them. In this cover it looks to me like Phillips referenced the woman’s clothes and her suitcase because they are very stylish rather than generic. Fashion designers spend a lot of their time thinking up looks and stylish clothes. If you’re a comic book artist it’s better to look at what they’ve done than to just start drawing whatever generic dress is in your head. I learned that one the hard way.

Finally there is the vaguely menacing scene. A well dressed woman crossing the road in the dark out in the middle of nowhere (or at least we have no clues as to the where) as a car approaches behind her. Is she in trouble? Is the car there to help or to harm? Who is she and where is she going? It’s all a mystery. A mystery that intrigues me.