A reminder that comic book covers can be awesome… and also very, very goofy:










A reminder that comic book covers can be awesome… and also very, very goofy:










There are comic books I love as storytelling vehicles and those I dig as a pure visual object. I can put up with a weak script on an action comic as long as the art is dazzling (like Frank Espinosa’s work on Killing Girl) or vice-versa in, say, a mystery yarn – which is not to say that the experience isn’t even more gratifying when everything comes together smoothly. Regardless of the execution inside, though, sometimes there is much pleasure to be had in just contemplating the covers, which by themselves can conjure up the powerful flavor of an exciting two-fisted yarn in a single image…










A reminder that comics can be awesome… and yet another tribute to the gloriously pulpy covers of Strange Adventures:










Today’s reminder that comics can be awesome is a tribute to licensed properties. While the reliance on importing IPs across media can carry the stench of creative bankrupcy, some films and shows seem perfectly suited for an expansion into comic books, with which they share much of their original spirit – and you can often tell this in the covers, which are able to excitingly capture those work’s adventure vibe, not through mimicry, but by translating their imagery into the language of a whole other medium…










Another reminder that comic book covers with facial portraits can be utterly awesome:










Jim Aparo was especially good at ghost stories, even if he did solid work on all kinds of different comics, from war to romance… And, boy, did he draw some awesome covers:










…and today’s reminder that comics can be awesome is a tribute to the trippiness of old Marvel covers!










It’s time for another hiatus. I’ve been struggling to keep up with Gotham Calling’s longer posts for a while, mostly stitching together loose thoughts that I noted down here and there… Hell, I got a simple challenge in the comments months ago that I’ve been meaning to answer, but even that proved surprisingly tricky. At this stage, it’s just too hard to find the time and headspace to come up with something creative beyond recycling what I’ve written before (and, as they say, you can’t go back home). Plus, I suppose there’s a limit to how much I can think and read and write about this sort of stuff with an ongoing genocide on my mind.
Since this has always been a personal, non-commercial project, I see no need to force things further. So, yeah, I will keep up Monday’s awesome cover compilations because I still believe fun has a role to play even among desperate times, but I doubt I’ll be doing Thursday’s longer posts in the upcoming months, at least until I can put in the energy and excitement I feel the blog deserves.
That said, while I love endings, this is not one. Not yet, anyway.

2000 AD and Tornado #176