Its no secret that newly installed DC Co-publisher Jim Lee and Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns are two of the more charismatic and popular comics creators out there, and there is every reason to believe they will continue to be charismatic comics creators-turned-executives. Sean T. Collins has a roundup of Johns’ “charm offensive” twitter hatchet burying with some notable former DC creators, such as Andy Diggle and Warren Ellis.

Likewise, Lee has been tweeting up a storm of activity and hype hints, such as:

Omg having dinner w/ writer JMS w/ Dan Didio & @GeoffJohns0. JMS just came up with brilliant idea which will revolutionize DCU & Twitter!


and

So @GeoffJohns0 and I are forming a readers club. 1st book will be next weeks FIRST WAVE by Brian Azzarello and Rags.


Lee also put up two versions of his cover for Icons, this one rejected for being “too generic”

Image-4

and the final one.

X2 Bf6317

Compare and contrast.

1 COMMENT

  1. About freaking time they started a book club.

    Oprah’s been doing it since 1996.

    Let’s hope DC does it right and issues reading guides (which can also be used by librarians and teachers). Also create leadership packets for stores who wish to host a reading group…

    For those who want to see what a graphic novel book club might be like, go read the Usenet postings from when the Watchmen comics were published (c. 1986).

  2. The rejected cover looks like Wild West-type heroes with feet of clay (AHAHAHAA YOU SEE WHAT ME DO THERE WONDER WUMUN). Stoic but stalwart. Also static.

    The approved cover, I don’t like at all. They look like unknowable deities – conquerors, rather than champions. These aren’t heroes, but icicles. Hard and cold. Boo and hiss.

    //oo/\

  3. They’re both well-rendered, but neither does much for me.

    Though I’ll note that I’m about as far from the target audience as one can get and remain on the same planet.

  4. I look the first one. If I pay $4 for a comic, I want the heroes looking at ME, darnit.
    Seriously, the second one, with the puffed out chests is not really stronger. Just more rubble on the ground. And Superman’s calves are even more exaggerated.

  5. Let’s see …

    In the first one, they’re all looking at me; in the second one, they’re all looking in different directions.

    In the first one, they’re situated on a generic, featureless orb; in the second, they’ve decided to tap the Rockies.

    In the second one, Batman and Superman appear to be sucking their guts in.

    Jim Lee got Gregg Toland to dig a hole in the ground (the rubble lying at their feet, natch) so he could get a more iconic shot of three titans in the second.

  6. Their chins are tilted up and they all share the same artistically brutal face! Clearly, this is far, far less generic.

  7. Whoa. Jim Lee’s really breaking his back these days doing variant covers in multi million dollar villa in Italy.

    One hard working dude.

  8. So these two are gonna run DC thru tweeting? so very hip. so revolutionary.

    Getting your egos stroked is not a business plan, guys.

  9. I like the rejected cover better (and yeah, it definitely has that “Wild West” vibe to it–all they need are some six shooters!).

  10. I like the first one because it feels more comic book-y. The second one looks too dark and serious. The older me likes the 2nd cover, but the younger me would really like the first one.

  11. “Let’s hope DC does it right and issues reading guides (which can also be used by librarians and teachers”
    Since when were comic books serious reading material to be used in schools? Ninety nine percent of DC’s reading material is aimed at forty year olds.

    I like comic books but there’s nothing more uncool than a medium or genre being promoted by a teacher. Science fiction in education has probably done more to hurt the genre than help it. People in education like to use their position to promote fringe or dying mediums, unpopular ideas, etc.

    Bendis teaching an expensive college course doesn’t do anyone any good. We don’t need more comic creators, we need more comic consumers.

  12. Leslie, DC’s pay rate is probably too expensive for DC. The guy brings in a lot of money, but he costs a lot of money too, I think. Warren Ellis was kicked off NextWave because he was too expensive for Marvel to keep him on a minor franchise. Why else do popular artists like George Perez produce work on a non-monthly basis? George’s not a slow artist.

  13. “Why else do popular artists like George Perez produce work on a non-monthly basis? George’s not a slow artist.”

    He is these days; the guy IS getting older, and his general output has noticeably slowed down.

  14. second one has bigger chests, bigger packages for the boys and more of wonder woman’s breast via side view. i prefer the first.

  15. I hate all sooperhero comics because I’m not a 40 year old man baby, and am also very smart and like smart things that aren’t mainstream sooperhero crap. You should all not like sooperheroes, so you can be as well informed about art as me. Remember, art rhymes with smart. I’m ArtSmart(TM).
    Also, that’s all.

  16. I like the second Jim Lee picture better. It’s basically a better cover. The first one looks like an early Image Comics cover. where do they find that round, smooth, bulgy thing to stand behind? The rubble, at least is something real to give a little bit of context. Though I do think that Superman, at least, ought to be looking at us.

  17. I get the sense from the way that the pencils are shaded that the final color version will have their chest logos (“icons”) colored in such a way that they stand out – perhaps more than the figures themselves. In the second version Superman and Batman’s bodies are almost entirely shaded other than their logos.

    Still not sure why Superman isn’t in the middle, though…

  18. I think the reason Supes aint in the middle is because as you read from left to right, the iconic trinity is spoken in proper sequence/cadence: Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman.