Styles Over Substance

I see marvel's running their own "Cover of the Year" promo from their website. I'm going to go out on a limb of skepticism here, and bet that the winning cover will be a lushly illustrated one. Joe Jusko, Greg Horn, Mike Mayhew... somebody like that.

There's nothing wrong with any of those artists, certainly; they're all very talented illustrators. But I'm betting that anything that's more designerly in nature will be glossed over. This kind of stuff... ... where layout and structure are more important than photo-realism.

There's nothing that makes one approach better than the other, but the painted pieces have more flash, and tend to be less subtle in showcasing their creators' skills. And I won't be at all surprised to see people responding more to that than to a more nuanced approach.