Welcome back to the 2023 ComicBook.com Golden Issue Awards. Each year, the ComicBook.com staff look back at the year that was, picking the best of comics, movies, television, anime, games, and the rest of pop culture from the past year. In this new category, we’re spotlighting cover artists, an important role that requires a distinct set of skills. Nominees for this year’s Best Art of the Year Golden Issues award include She-Hulk cover artist Jen Bartel, Harley Quinn‘s Jenny Frison, Haining for their covers on Spirit World, Peach Momoko for Demon Days, and Alex Ross for his work on the covers to Fantastic Four.
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And the winner of the 2022 ComicBook.com Golden Issue Award for Best Colorist is…
Alex Ross!
It’s considered a cover artist’s job to grab a potential reader’s attention while they’re scanning the shelves at their local comics book store, or scrolling through new releases in an app. Once they have their attention, hook them with a tease of something that they just have to see so that they’ll, at the least, pick the comic and flip through (or scan the preview pages in the app), and hopefully purchase the book and take it home. For a long time, Alex Ross achieved this with work that seemed to be about making the nearly mythological heroes of superhero comics feel more human. The realism he used in depicting DC icons like Batman, Wonder Woman, and Superman, sparing no detail of their human form, made them feel real, transforming gods into human beings. The unconventional approach demanded to be noticed when juxtaposed with the impossibly fit figures found in most issues’ interior artwork.
More recently, Ross has taken a different approach. His work on covers for Marvel Comics has emphasized the legendary stature of their subject matter. His Amazing Spider-Man covers saw Peter Parker practically leaping off the page with dramatic energy. His Immortal Hulk covers seem to catch its monstrous characters in the act. Thor has rarely felt as godly in recent years as he does in Ross’s covers of Immortal Thor.
Ross has had some extra experience drawing Marvel’s First Family, since he put out the Fantastic Four: Full Circle graphic novel in 2022, also taking on storytelling duties in the book published by Abrams ComicArts. He changed up his style in that release, going for something more fluid and dynamic, and he brings some of that same energy to his cover work on the current run of Fantastic Four. His covers emphasize the adventurous aspects of the Fantastic Four’s stories, which makes sense as they are explorers. Whether it’s a group shot of the Fantastic Four in action, Reed Richards stretching in every direction, the Human Torch burning through the skies, or Doctor Doom riding a dinosaur version of himself, Ross manages to find the right amount of gravitas to make each cover feel spectacular and grounded at the same time and always imbued with a sense of fun and wonder. We expect he’ll continue that trend into 2024 and beyond.
The nominees for the 2023 ComicBook.com Golden Issue Award for Best Cover Artist are:
- Jen Bartel (She-Hulk)
- Jenny Frison (Harley Quinn)
- Haining (Spirit World)
- Peach Momoko (Demon Days)
- Alex Ross (Fantastic Four) — WINNER
