Mr`Orange
Comic books aren’t just about super heroes, there is a lot out there that transcends this genre, and some books published by the big two might contain super heroes, but are so far from the norm. These books are often so detached from the usual super hero beat’em up that the often fall under the radar of most comic book buyers. great books such as these really deserve wider recognition and thankfully in this case I’m not fighting against the flow as Silver Surfer: Requiem by J Michael Straczynski and Esad Ribic has already garnered a lot of critical praise and commercial success.
This book shows the depth of material available, even from a publisher like Marvel Comics that is so often seen just as purveyor of mindless, or even intelligent, super heroics. They sell the big guns, the high octane crash bang comics, good guys against the bad, even their imprints, though not traditional super hero books, are still based on the concept of the good guy versus the bad guy.
But this book is a departure from all of that; this is a personal book, an introspective of an alien, of an outsider that could so easily be one of us. A man who thought he would live forever has just found out that he is about to die, that his time has finally come to an end. He reacts just as we might. Though he is a man covered in silver, a man who can fly through the cold of space and do battle with beings with power beyond our comprehension, he is still a man.
The art of the book captures the mood of the story very well. At time it is immense, the sense of grandeur really comes through each page. The immensity of space, the power of the Surfer and the fragility of life, Ribic has captured the smaller moments with the same majesty and magic as he has the larger, and this is where the book really comes into its own, where it sets itself apart from the rest.
The combination of JMS’s writing and Ribic’s art bring to life the emotions felt by the people that the Silver Surfer interacts with, and each person has their own unique voice, unique view of life and each is impacted differently. JMS really is a brilliant character writer, he is able to tell this vast tale through so many small moments. Each moment slowly unfolds to show the bigger picture and though, at times, the message wasn’t subtle, the book didn’t bludgeon you with rhetoric and clichés. There was a poetry to the words written by Straczynski, a magic to the art by Ribic that did justice to the underlying tale being told.
We should take each day as it comes, we as a race need to look over the minor differences between us, we live an amazing life in an amazing world and we need to count ourselves lucky. When we know that the end is near, we all rush to do the things that we have always wanted, that we have been too scared to do or too stupid not to do. We don’t realise how much of our lives we have wasted until it is too late,
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12.11.2008
Waited for the trade: Silver Surfer Requiem
8.18.2008
From Top to Bottom #17: Gimmick Covers
by Matt
Last week, in celebration of Star Wars week, I looked at the Top and Bottom of Marvel's Star Wars comics. This week, after reading Brandon's fantastic Casualties of the 90's columns I decided it would be fun to look back at a trend that was so prevalent of the 90's. I do admit that I got sucked into the madness of gimmick covers. There was a time where I picked up almost every gimmick cover there was. In the 90's EVERY comic had a gimmick cover at some point, even Quasar. I brought out my longboxes and dug through them to unearth my Top and the Bottom Gimmick covers that I admit I picked up because of the covers.
I am a little embarrassed to find that I own a lot of gimmick covers. Well, kinda embarrassed. Some gimmick covers I thought were pretty cool and I guess they did make me try new books. I absolutely loved the Avengers series of gimmick covers that celebrates their anniversary and it also made some sense as well. They had foil-embossed covers of bronze, silver, gold and platinum. The glow-in-the-dark Ghost Rider cover (Ghost Rider #15) was also cool. My son and I tested it and it still glows in the dark. Some gimmick covers were not as imaginative and were quite boring. All of these books I owned because of the covers, Darkhawk #25, Dr. Strange #25, Secret Defenders #1 and the list goes on and on. It seemed for a time in the 90's that stories were made just so they can plaster a gimmick cover on them. We'll see an example of a cool gimmick cover that came out with no importance at all, it was just an excuse to slap a gimmick cover on it. And yes, I bought it anyway even though I don't collect the series. 
Sometimes a good gimmick cover will make me pick up a book. I was never into the Valiant universe and this was my first book into that universe. Joe Quesada's art really helped and the gimmick enhanced the art. The vibrant colors of the foil really made this book stand out. Luckily for me, the story inside was pretty good as well.
These gimmicks made sense and were cool looking. The foil-embossed gimmick is one of my favorite gimmicks and seeing the Silver Surfer all shiny and silver was cool. I also liked that it was only the Silver Surfer that was enhanced and not the whole cover. It made it stand out a little more. I prefer Silver Surfer #50 but I couldn't find a good scan of it.
When Marvel first tried the hologram gimmick covers with Spider-Man I was not impressed. The hologram was weak and grainy but I liked the idea. When the X-Men Fatal Attractions crossover came out celebrating the 30th Anniversary of the X-Men, they tried the holograms out again but this time they were successful. The holograms were smaller and much more detailed. All of the holograms were cool, but I especially liked the Magneto hologram on this issue.
Die-cut covers can be cool if they are used right. Wolverine #50 was kinda neat with the claw marks which made sense and it was a special issue as it revealed a little of his origin. This Punisher die-cut cover made little sense. The bullet holes I get and it would have been cool if that is all they did but they had this large piece cut out to show the skull in the background. They didn't need that, the logo had a skull and the Punisher himself had a skull. They only needed bullet holes and the Punisher with guns blazing. Again, I was lucky that the insides were so good.
The Fantastic Four had a ton of ugly gimmick covers. They have a name for these covers, prism-something I think but I just don't see the appeal. The gimmick does not enhance the art, it does the opposite. It makes the art muddled and ugly.
I love Valentino's run on Guardians of the Galaxy, probably one of my favorite runs of all-time. But this cover was hideous. I cannot tell what Marvel was trying to get with this cover. The people looked flat and pasted on and the Galactus was too dark and grainy. The gimmick looks dirty and not as clean and crisp as the other gimmick covers. I think I have seen this gimmick only on this cover.
Do gimmick covers still have a place in our industry? I still like gimmick covers but feel they should be used sparingly and only for real special occasions. I also liked the option that Marvel had where you had a choice of getting the gimmick cover or just the regular cover. I am glad that they are not all over like they were in the 90's but I wouldn't mind seeing one or two pop up on occasion.
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