Jun 09 2010
Doing Comic Book Covers Well: 5 Tips
1. Market what you have. The genre should be clear at a glance and the artistic should be consistent with the mood and content. For example, if the story is a grim and macabre horror, you’d probably want something that suggested what danger(s) the protagonist will face. Some possibilities that come to mind include a creepy mansion looming in the background, fog obscuring something sinister behind somebody, some supernatural creature, etc.
2. It needs to stand out at a distance of 10+ feet. The single most important audience segment for most comic book covers is prospective readers browsing through a comic book store. Before they examine the product, you have to grab their attention. Bold color combinations are one effective way to do so. I find that scenes involving motion (particularly extraordinary motion, such as a Batman karate leap) tend to be more eye-catching. Obviously, it helps if something interesting and/or unexpected is happening. More on that here. Finally, the title/logo should be legible across the room (at least 10 feet).
