And when I say “the year” I mean since last year’s comic-con in San Diego.  That’s right, in honor of SDCC 2011, which I am, again, not able to attend I thought I’d do a list of my 52 favorite covers* since last year’s comic-con, so essentially July 2010 – July 2011.**

I’m not going bore you with lengthy descriptions about what I respond to in each image, but if you frequent this blog with any regularity, the choices will not surprise you.  My tastes skew to specific things like anyone, and I reward covers that cater to those personal tastes.  For example, as a woman, I tend to be interested in covers with female characters and at the same time you’re unlikely to see many covers with a lot of objectification and hyper sexualization.  As an artist (but only sorta, and a crappy one at that) I tend to be a bit of a snob about what I think is a good or bad cover – good often involves highly graphic images, lots of great negative space, interesting/solid composition, single figures, white space, and good integration of text into the image.

Whenever possible I’ve included the full cover, with text etc., as I feel that’s part of the whole.  I made a few exceptions if the covers were saddled with particularly horrible “event banners” or some such, or if I didn’t have access to a high enough resolution image including the text.

I’m sure I missed a bunch of great covers anyway and, as always, I never feel great about the order, but I tried my best! I hope you’ll enjoy, even if they’re not the covers you would pick, it’s a beautiful line up of cover gorgeousness.

If you’re new to the blog and haven’t seen my “100 Best Comic Covers” list, you can check it out: here, here, here, and here.  As well as my “already second guessing myself” modified list here.

Next year SDCC, next year!***

* This includes only monthly saddle stapled North American comics since that is what I have access to and did not include graphic novels, trades, etc. 

**Because comics are generally dated a month or two after they are actually released, there’s a bit of a fudging of the numbers/eligibility. It makes for a bit of grey area around the eligibility dates, but I did the best I could.

***Be advised, I say this every year. 

052.  BIRDS OF PREY #12.  Jesus Saiz

50.  ZATANNA #14.  Adam Hughes

50.  STREETS OF GOTHAM #15. Dustin Nguyen

49.  SUPERBOY #2.  Phil Noto

48. DEADPOOL PULP 4.  Jae Lee

47. THE LAST UNICORN 3.  Renae De Liz

46.  THE NEW YORK FIVE #1. Ryan Kelly

45. UNKNOWN SOLDIER 25. Dave Johnson

44.  HELLBOY/BEASTS OF BURDEN ONE-SHOT. Jill Thompson

43. BLACK WIDOW 4. Daniel Acuna.

42. SCALPED #39. Jock

41. DETECTIVE COMICS #872. Jock

40. UNCANNY X-FORCE #5. Esad Ribic

39. JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #625.  Stephanie Hans

38.  FF #1. Daniel Acuna

37. DEMO VOLUME II #5. Becky Cloonan

36.  SCARLET #1. Alex Maleev

35. AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #657. Marcos Martin

34. SCALPED 49.  Jock

33.  SECRET AVENGERS #6.  Chris Bachalo

32. GREEN WAKE #4.  Riley Rossmo

31. BATWOMAN #0 (VARIANT). Amy Reeder

30. STRANGE TALES II #3.  Ivan Brunetti

29. BATMAN INC #4.  J.H. Williams III

28. NORTHLANDERS #35.  Massimo Carnevale

27. STRANGE TALES II #1. Rafael Grampa

26. UNWRITTEN #16.  Yuko Shimizu

25. DAREDEVIL REBORN #3.  Jock

24. STRANGE TALES II #2. Jaime Hernadez

23. UNCANNY X-FORCE #4. Esad Ribic

22. WOLVERINE AND JUBILEE #1.  Oliver Coipel

21. DAREDEVIL REBORN #4.  Jock

20. BLACK WIDOW #7. Travel Foreman

19. SUPERBOY #1. Rafael Albuquerque

18. FABLES #97. Joao Ruaz

17. HELLBOY: THE FURY #1. Mike Mignola

16. DAYTRIPPER #10. Gabriel Ba

15. DMZ #66. John Paul Leon

14. OZMA OF OZ #6. Skottie Young

13. DMZ #61. John Paul Leon

12. MORNING GLORIES #2.  Rodin Esquejo

11. SUPERGIRL #58. Amy Reeder

10. I,ZOMBIE #10. Mike Allred

09. DAREDEVIL #1. Paolo Rivera

08. DAYTRIPPER #8.  Gabriel Ba

07. OZMA OF OZ #2. Skottie Young

06. I,ZOMBIE #5. Mike Allred

05. MAGUS #1. Fiona Staples

04.  DAREDEVIL REBORN #1. Jock

03. UNKNOWN SOLDIER #22.  Dave Johnson

02.  MADAME XANADU #28. Mark Buckingham

01. BATWOMAN #0. J.H. Williams III