Saturday, April 21, 2012

Same Story, Different Cover: Emergency Alert! Emergency Alert! Action, and then kissin'!


L: Legion of Super-Heroes v.3 #9 (April 1985), pencils by Steve Lightle and inks by Larry Mahlstedt
R: Tales of the Legion of Super-Heroes #334 (April 1986), pencils and inks by Steve Lightle
(Click any picture to Blok-size)

1 comment:

Erik Johnson Illustrator said...

Legion #9 is okay but looks like a generic poster. The team isn't even running at the viewer, they're just... there.

Tales #334 is a vast improvement and a fine example of how less is more. The kissing couple is in the left foreground and the text in the background guides our eye left to right, top to bottom, and hooks us on the suspense of danger going on outside this love nest.

It is nice to see expository text used in some form other than speech bubbles, but I think the curly cue "Reunion" banner softens the impact of the "Emergency". Then again it does reinforce that this is a "romance" rather than a "fling" that he's passing up for a mission, which makes the love birds much more sympathetic.

Its a very simple, but effective cover, and it tells a story, which is all I ask.

Really my only problem with the Tales cover is Element Lad's blond afro. It just serves to remind me of the recent bombshell I got when I discovered that Kirk's son from "Wrath of Khan", The Greatest American Hero, and the kid from "Blue Lagoon" were not the same guy.