For quite a while, Marvel has had sort of a “generic iconic shot” approach to their cover images– but thankfully that seems to be loosening up a bit. The last few covers I’ve had to do for FANTASTIC FOUR have actually had something to do with what is going on in the interior of the book. (Imagine that…..). But when “ICONIC” was the rule of the day, it was very, very difficult to come up with something for each successive cover that would be distinct from the one before. Even with a team book like FF it was a hard thing to do. Just take a look at any ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN cover if you want the… well, ultimate– proof of that. I can’t tell one from the other. ANYHOO– I went through many variations of sketches for each cover when the old policy was in force. Here are a few rejected sketches that were all done for the same cover (although the issue number escapes me now).

Jeff Parker over at MYSTIFYING ORACLE has posted a couple more audio blog entries for us all to listen to. On these, Parker does what I was HOPING he would do, and he interviews (as best he can with new technology and lots of crowd noise) various comics luminaries. It’s funny to listen to as you can imagine trying to do the same thing under those conditions. Unfortunately, Parker didn’t win the EISNER for BEST NEW TALENT (I voted for ya, buddy…!)– but if Jeff couldn’t be the one to win it, I certainly can’t complain about Derek Kirk Kim being the recipient. His book SAME DIFFERENCE and OTHER STORIES is an amazing achievement of art and writing. Besides being a phenomenal illustrator, his writing has that sort of insight into the human condition that I wish -I- could have and do my own sort of comics in that mode. Amazing stuff.

You can get a full rundown of all the EISNER AWARD winners over at THE PULSE. I don’t think they have permalinks– but right now, the EISNER WINNERS item is at the top of the main page.

It’s Saturday, the biggest day of the show at COMICON INTERNATIONAL, so if there are going to be any huge announcements that will shake the comics world, today’s the day they’ll come out. So far, it’s been pretty quiet news wise. I’ve been scouring the comics news sites for any great tidbits, but the biggest story so far has been the sheer size that the show has become–and how much less of a comics show it has morphed into. Fortunately, I think that even though comics creators, publishers and retailers are getting squeezed to the edges, there are just so many fans attending that sales seem to still be quite prodigious from the accounts I’ve been reading. That makes me happy.

I just noticed recently that I’ve made it to the BLOGROLL at Kevin Melrose’s THOUGHT BALLOONS blog…! Thanks so much for adding me to the list, Kevin. I really feel like I’m becoming a part of the comics “blogverse” (if that’s the right term).

OK– that’s it for now.

Mike