I’ve really started to get into DC’s 52. Actually, I’m very relieved that the concept is working as well as it is. Putting out a book every single week can’t be easy, and getting all the different artists’ work to fit together and still make the story work is impressive. Also, you have to admire DC’s guts on this one, putting out a weekly book whose very premise is that it doesn’t feature their three most famous characters.
I’m not one, you might say, who judges books by their covers. Flashy covers are there to get kids to read books and draw in the occasional news stand buyer, but I already know what I’m going to pick up before setting foot in the store, so the covers just aren’t all that important to me. However, I want to point out how absolutely outstanding the covers for 52 look. For me, it’s the masthead that really puts it over the top. That big, recessed “52” just pulls the books together so well. It looks so iconic.
Comicon’s The Pulse has two nice interviews with cover artist J. G. Jones, and Wizard runs a weekly feature that’s worth checking out:
From the 2nd one:
THE PULSE: How did you decide how to lend your own unique art style on these heroes and hat to tweak or what to leave as people might be more familiar with?
JONES: Well, my style sort of is what it is. I am definitely taking a lot of different approaches on the 52 covers to keep things from getting dull. I mean, there’s 52 of them, right? I’ll do one cover that’s sort of based on the style of WPA posters from the ’30s, are another one based on looking at film noir posters from the late ’40s. Sometimes I’ll go with a straight forward action scene from the issue. Other times I’ll take a collage approach with a lot of overlapping art elements. It just depends on how well I feel it will serve the storyline.
I figure that the way I draw, my style or whatever will be the unifying element over all 52 covers.
Looking at each book, this is what I love. The Lex cover for issue three looks like it might be a magazine é or something. It’s totally different than the other issues, but it works with them all.
Update: Here’s a cover gallery for all 52 issues.