 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
TOP 10 COVER DESIGNS Top 10 is essentially a police drama with super-hero trappings. In fact, the concept is that everyone in the story, from police to criminals to the average man on the street has some sort of special power or talent, somewhat levelling the playing field for the Neopolis police department, nicknamed "Top 10." The design for this book is more traditional, with a strong, metallic logo that appears on most of the covers, though with a few twists here and there.
© America's Best Comics Alex Ross got us off to a fine start with his variant cover on the first issue. I'm not sure why the characters are all falling through the air, but it's certainly dynamic and attractive, with a subtle color scheme of gray/brown tones, and pale blue on a white background with spots of red on the main viewpoint character, Toy Box. I picked up the red for the titles and just tried to stay out of the way.
© America's Best Comics Issue three's action-packed cover by artist Gene Ha is probably my favorite as far as getting the viewer into the story. Here the logo is part of a sign helping to tell that story, something we did several times.
© America's Best Comics Another example of the logo on a sign, this one a poster which nicely contrasts the police PR with the sad reality of life on the streets. Alan Moore made great use of comics clichés such as the robots shown here to illuminate real world problems and situations, all the more ironic when viewed by the black police officer in the foreground.
© America's Best Comics Issue eight involved a hand-held video game version of some of the characters. I came up with the game design, and worked out what all the buttons were, and how the game actually functioned. I sent my rough sketch to Gene Ha, and he came up with this wonderful rendition, much better than I had imagined it.
© America's Best Comics For issue 9 we needed something different: the logo as part of a scoreboard sign, such as you might see at any sports stadium. It took quite a while to work it all out in dots of color, but I think the result is effective.
© America's Best Comics Issue 10 really captures the police drama for me, with Gene's effective art that focuses on the prematurely aged face of the police captain faced with a disaster among his charges. I pulled the logo and type color from the orange blood stain in this color scheme that subtly echoes the first cover. All text and images © Todd Klein, except as noted. All rights reserved. |
OTHER TOPICS Jump to one of these topics in Design: THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN Use the tabs at the top of the page to move to other areas, such as HOW TO for tips and information on how to do your own comics design. |
