The Artists Dumpster: March 2014

As anyone who has read comic books knows, the first factor in buying a comic is the cover, especially if it is a series you have never read before. In today's industry there are some amazing beautiful covers being produced, some of them so beautiful they would look at home in a fancy fine-art gallery. Heck, in today's world, there are artists who have dedicated their entire career to just doing cover art for comics. But part of me misses the days when a comic book cover was actually part of the story! I can remember being a kid, leafing thru the comic-spinner at the local walden's bookstore trying to find the perfect cover that would inspire me to open the book. Now as a much more mature comic fan I own several volumes of Marvel's Essential trades, and DC's Showcase presents trades, and falling in love with the older comics and the cover art that just screams "pick me up!". I am sure that people who actually work in the industry can argue why either type of cover art is a pro or a con, but i know i would love to see the return of the more story-based covers, even if they became part of the variant cover market.

it's hard to believe that one of the fan-favorites, Venom, is turning 30. I can remember being a kid and seeing the black costume, thinking that it was so cool looking. The stark contrast of the black and white costume was so beautiful, and drew my young eye. The black costume was introduced with in the miniseries Secret Wars and became a major hit for the company. Over time it turned out the costume was actually a symbiote that was planning to use Spider-man's life force. With the help of Reed Richards (and a giant church bell) Spidey was able to remove the symbiote because of a weakness to sound waves. Over time the costume was eventually bonded with Eddie Brock (a disgruntled co-worker of Peter's) and because of their mutual hatred of Spidey, they became a real thorn in Spidey's heroic side.

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