Leading off our coverage of the 2009 Eisner Awards are the nominees for Best Cover Artist. Cover art differs from the internal art (in most cases) in that it allows for a richer visual experience in color, layout, and complexity. Cover art can range from shocking to cinematic, stylized to toned down, it can contain characters from the comic or it could be more of a mood piece. The one thing it had better be, though, is evocative of the story because comics, perhaps more so than any other medium, wear their souls on the outside as much as the inside.
Makes sense as the cover will also be competing for a potential reader’s eye on his or her favorite comics shop wall, right? And, of course, there is the potential for the art to become attached to a collectible item. But that’s another thing all together.
So who are being recognized as the stand-outs in their field this year? Here’s the list:
• Jo Chen, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Serenity (Dark Horse); Runaways (Marvel)
• Amy Reeder Hadley, Madame Xanadu (Vertigo/DC)
• Matt Wagner, Zorro (Dynamite); Grendel: Behold the Devil (Dark Horse)
• James Jean, Fables (Vertigo/DC); The Umbrella Academy (Dark Horse)
Of course, we could break down all their individual merits and describe the art too you…but that wouldn’t really be doing them justice. So come along as we take a look at what each artist is bringing to the table and view a sampling of their artwork. It’s a comics wall from the best of the best, coming up after the jump.
Gabriel Bá
Casanova (Image); The Umbrella Academy (Dark Horse)
Last year, Gabriel Bá and the whole crew behind the Umbrella Academy took the Eisner's by storm and surprise. This year he won't be as big a surprise as before, but his three Eisner nominations this year (Best penciler/inker,Best cover artist, Best reprint) show that Bá has staying power. So will he be picking up a golden E for his cover art? Checking a sampling of his work, you can see he's a highly stylized composer who shows a preference for sharp contrasts. As much as I love Bá for his art and his work, I don't know if he can quite pull this category off. A strong contender who brings a unique artistic style to the table, Bá has earned his place in this discussion and should be on his way to being a mainstay.
Jo Chen
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Serenity (Dark Horse); Runaways (Marvel)
Texture, atmosphere, and expression. There, I've given you three good reasons why Jo Chen has to be considered one of the front-runners for Best Cover Artist. An artistic chameleon who excels in cover art, manga style art, and cartoon art, Chen's niche seems to be art in general. It shows through in the samples below. Check out the details that she offers: the expressive faces and very real sense of gravity and danger on the Buffy cover, the rumples and shadows in the Runaways piece (to say nothing of the visual one-two of transposing Molly with The Punisher), and the glorious photo-realistic pseudo-magazine style rendering of Kaylee on the Serenity cover.
Amy Reeder Hadley
Madame Xanadu (Vertigo/DC)
Of all the artists listed, Amy's style is the most difficult for me to classify. The best I can do is to offer up the following: Neo American-Manga. Yeah. I don't like that much either, but it's close. I just feel like she's blending the styles and, in doing so, has created a visual style that's damned near all her own. I love the image created with all those hanging clocks and the dark, stark differences offered in Madame Xanadu #6 (I bet I don't have to tell you which one that is, either). The strength of Amy Reeder Hadley's cover art is the atmosphere that it creates. She is a skilled hand and presenting you with the story's spirit on the cover page. Check out her homepage (by clicking on her name above) and the pictures below to get a better handling on her abilities, as I fear I haven't done her justice here in text.
Matt Wagner
Zorro (Dynamite); Grendel: Behold the Devil (Dark Horse)
Matt Wagner didn't just draw the characters on the covers for which he is nominated, he created one of them. Grendel, a mastermind assassin enjoying his 25th anniversary this year, is an original creation of Mr. Wagner. Not too shabby, eh? In any event, as with Jo Chen above, I think Matt has to be considered a stand-out in a field of stand-out's, mostly for his Zorro covers. That's no knock on Grendel, I've included my favorite Grendel image in the sampling below, but Wagner really showcases all of his abilities on the cover of Zorro, from the dramatic rooftop posing to the almost reluctant expression on Zorro's face as he stands between two religious statues, right down to the reflections on the sword, the differences in tone and attention to detail are apparent.
James Jean
Fables (Vertigo/DC); The Umbrella Academy (Dark Horse)
So, we've now arrived at James Jean. If you or I were to single out one artist to be considered the front runner for Best Cover Artist, James Jean would be that artist. Both dreamlike and realistic, atmospheric and ever so slightly detached, James Jean gives you a not just an image, but a story on every cover. Whether his covers are a flurry of activity or focused on one individual, they bring with them a sense of style that says, "I'm not just a cover image, I'm a work of art."
Make no mistake, you don't get on this list if the love you have for the medium doesn't show through consistently. But what sets Jean apart is that there never, I mean never, seems to be a drop-off in any part of his creations. At the beginning of this article I said that the cover art has to be "evocative of the story because comics, perhaps more so than any other medium, wear their souls on the outside as much as the inside." I could have just as easily said that cover art has to be like a James Jean creation.
Ready to see what I mean? Be sure to check out more of his art on his homepage (click his name at the top of this article) and comics-related art on this page, including sketch-to-publication walk-throughs of many of his cover images.
Fables:
Umbrella Academy:
Now you decide...
Read the rest of the articles in this series:
Eisner Shakedown: Best Cover Artist
Eisner Shakedown: Best Digital Comic
Eisner Shakedown: Best U.S. Edition of International Material--Japan
Eisner Shakedown: Best Comics Related Periodical/Journalism
Eisner Shakedown: Best Reality-based work, Short Story, Graphic Album-Reprint, Archival Collection-Comic Books, U.S. Edition of International Material, Publication Design, Painter/Multimedia Artist
Eisner Shakedown: Best in Teens, Humor, Limiteds, and Writer/Artist
The Actual Eisner Awards Shakedown Our Shakedown
James Jean does it for me. I am a huge Matt Wagner fan as I love Mage but James Jean is just too good!
Oof! This is a difficult choice! Jo Chen and James Jean are my faves, but if I had to choose I'd go with James. His covers have such beautiful imagery I could stare at them for hours. That's no joke.
Yeah, I don't envy the judges for having to pick just one. I mean, everyone on this list is so talented. That said, if I were to pick, I'd be leaning James Jean's way ALTHOUGH, I wouldn't be surprised to see Jo Chen leap up and snag this one either. She has some serious game.
I agree with Tillie, I'm going to have to vote for James Jean. Saw his work at a gallery showing recently and it's so strange and breathtaking that I feel like it's a level above any of the others. He's really able to make you stop and stare at something, which is rare these days.
Hi, great to read these rundowns, but a minor point there: the cover to Madame Xanadu 6 you put up there is actually the variant by Frank Quitely, not the Hadley, which is the one with the playing card riff. Just thought you may want to know.
@makyousei Oh my goodness! Thank you for pointing that out. I will replace that cover with another one and, though I am not sure they're reading, my sincere apologies to Quietly and Hadley for confusing their work. I'm quite embarrassed.
...And I have to admit, the more I look at Amy's artwork, the more it really grows on me. She does something with those eyes...