These are possible covers for a short self-published comic I might have with me at Comic-Con. Please let me know which design you like best.
Thanks!
UPDATE: And a fifth option (variation on the first option):
UPDATE AGAIN: Option number six (variant on #4)
Lower left! I like that you can see both the guy and the the tinfoil men (or whatever they are).
I prefer the version on the upper right. But I’m really not the best comics reader so take it for what it’s worth.
Option 5 makes the Camp Adler sign look very scary.
I think I like option 5 best.
#3 (lower left)
I like option #6. It illustrates trying to figure it out, and you can see one of the prototypes, too. I’d open it with that on the cover.
I like #6, and I like both of the updates better than the first four. I like how the main image pops.
I agree with everything chingona wrote.
#1 and 5, at first glance, looked like a tentacle or a penis. Not sure that was intentional.
#2, absent the man, forces you to look at the background to see what the title is about. Otherwise it’s just a stressed out kid. So is this a comic about camp? Hard to say whether that’s good/bad without knowing what’s inside the comic.
#3 is good but the pose makes the kid look younger than the others. And it really puts the focus on the figures. How old is he supposed to be?
#6 is my favorite. I don’t know how much you care about the tinfoil man, but if it’s relevant you might want to stick it on a shoebox or something so it’s easier to see.
Number 3 as well.
I like #5. I’d offer a word of friendly caution about number two, also, as a dark haired guy with glasses and a lightning bolt T-shirt strongly reads as “Scott McCloud” to a lot of comics people.
I vote for #3, and agree with Sam L.’s caution about #2. That totally read as Scott McCloud to me.
Wow, that interpretation didn’t even occur to me. Okay, #2 is definitely NOT going to be the cover.
(This is why it’s good to show things to other people!)
Actually, aside from the lightning bolt, I like #2. It suggests some tension arising from making tin foil men and adds emotional depth to the cover.
#1 or #5. Ditto what Sam said at @10. Is the guy a character in the book? Because really, on some level I see the pictures with the guy as ‘hi, here’s yet another comic about a white middle-class nerd/fan and his angst’.
Thanks for responding, everyone.
Mythago, it’s not a book — it’s a short story. It’ll be appearing in an anthology of feminist short comics. The story is about sexism and boyhood, and yeah, it is “yet another comic about a white middle-class nerd/fan and his angst.”
But the covers with the hands are more intriguing. There’s a story here; why is this person making these little foil figures? Who is he? Even though the hands do signal ‘white male’ there’s a sense that this is more than the comicsland version of Fond Memories of Vagina. The covers with the McCloud look-alike….not as much.
Fair point. I’ll keep it in mind.
“Fond Memories of Vagina.” Heh. I’m quite positive this is not that story, at least. :-p