Another item from the library exhibition.The cover of a comic book does not need to illustrate the story within its covers. The job of the cover is to sell books, so it should be bold, clear, and give a general feel for what is inside. In this issue, the conflict between Dr. Fries (now Mr. Freeze) and the rest of the world escalates, and he becomes aware that Batman is among those who want him stopped. This image of the very close-up (large size) profile of Batman frowning in the direction of Mr. Freeze and his cryonic gun shows the grim purposefulness of both men, both of them crazy in their own way, both of them acting more on obsession than on reason, so probably with more in common than they would like to think.
2 comments:
Great image. I think you're right about covers not having to depict exactly what's inside. They're more symbolic, really, aren't they?
Good luck with the library exhibition. Your little descriptions that accompany each piece are always interesting and insightful, and always make me see something new. I'm sure it will be a success.
Thanks Gareth.
It was actually Seth who told me that about the covers. When he showed me the first cover for Vertigo Pop Tokyo, with the picture of a huge Maki holding Steve up with her chopsticks, and I said something like, "Is that in this comic book?", he said, "This is kind of an illustration of the relationship between them." And then all the Tokyo covers were symbolic rather than literal. And then I realized that the Batman covers were pretty much all that way too. And certainly the Fantastic Four ones. Hmmm...we seem to have a general rule of thumb here.
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