And when I say “the year” I mean since last year’s comic-con in San Diego.  That’s right, in honor of SDCC 2012, 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 2011 – July 2012.** Check out previous years as well – here and here.

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.  Although there is a SLIM chance I’ll be going to NYCC this year – thanks to THIS.

52. SECRET AVENGERS #18 – DAVID AJA

51. DAREDEVIL #11 – STEFFI SCHUTZEE (AAA VARIANT – AVENGERS ART APPRECIATION)

50. THE UNWRITTEN #35 – YUKO SHIMIZU

49. THE DARK TOWER: THE GUNSLINGER – THE MAN IN BLACK #2 – ALEX MALEEV

48. BATWOMAN #10 – J.H. WILLIAMS III

47. THE PUNISHER #3 – BRYAN HITCH

46. SAUCER COUNTRY #3 – RYAN KELLY

45. INCREDIBLE HULK #7 – CHARLES PAUL WILSON III (AAA VARIANT)

44. X-MEN LEGACY #262 – MARK BROOKS

43. BATMAN #6 – GREG CAPULLO

42. X-FACTOR 228 – DAVID YARDIN

41. SCALPED #59 – JOCK

40. IZOMBIE #23 – MICHAEL ALLRED

39. GLORY #25 – ROSS CAMPBELL

38. SKELETON KEY ONE-SHOT – ANDI WATSON

37. THE NEW DEADWARDIANS #4 – I.N.J. CULBARD

36. NORTHLANDERS #50 – MASSIMO CARNEVALE

35. B.P.R.D. HELL ON EARTH: THE DEVILS ENGINE #3 – MIKE MIGNOLA

34. DOROTHY & THE WIZARD IN OZ #2 – SKOTTIE YOUNG

33. WOLVERINE 306 – CHRIS SAMNEE

32. B.P.R.D. HELL ON EARTH: YEAR OF MONSTERS #1 – MIKE MIGNOLA

31. BATWOMAN 5 – J.H. WILLIAMS III

30. THE MASSIVE 1 – KRISTIAN DONALDSON

29. CONAN THE BARBARIAN 6 – MASSIMO CARNEVALE

28. AVENGERS VS. X-MEN #7 – SARA PICHELLI

27. DEFENDERS #1 – BY ???  PLEASE TELL ME IF YOU KNOW, BECAUSE I LOOKED UNTIL I GOT PISSED AND THEN I GAVE UP!

26. SAGA #2 – FIONA STAPLES

25. DOROTHY AND THE WIZARD IN OZ #8 – SKOTTIE YOUNG

24. CREATOR-OWNED HEROES #2 – PHIL NOTO ILLUSTRATION

I DIDN’T FEEL LIKE I COULD PUT THIS UP HERE THOUGH, WITHOUT POINTING OUT HOW BADLY THEY BOTCHED THE ACTUAL COVER. I EXPECT MORE FROM YOU GUYS – YOU’RE TOO SMART TO RUIN THAT GREAT ILLUSTRATION WITH BAD CLUTTER.

23. JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #641 – STEPHANIE HANS

22. UNCANNY X-FORCE #17 – ESAD RIBIC

21. SECRET AVENGERS #16 – JAMIE MCKELVIE

20 FATALE #1 – SEAN PHILLIPS

19. SAGA #4 – FIONA STAPLES

18. WONDER WOMAN #10 – CLIFF CHIANG

17. WOLVERINE & THE X-MEN #2 – CHRIS BACHALO

16. JOHN CARTER: PRINCESS OF MARS 3 – SKOTTIE YOUNG

15. BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER: SEASON 9 #1 – STEVE MORRIS

14. BATWOMAN #1 – J.H. WILLIAMS III

13. HELLBLAZER #292 – SIMON BISLEY

12. BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER: SEASON 9 #5 – STEVE MORRIS

11. MIND MGMT #3 – MATT KINDT

10. AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #683 – MIKE DEL MUNDO (AAA VARIANT)

09. WINTER SOLDIER #4 – JOHN TYLER CHRISTOPHER (AAA VARIANT)

08. CONAN THE BARBARIAN #3 – MASSIMO CARNEVALE

07. BATWOMAN #8 – AMY REEDER

06. SAGA #1 – FIONA STAPLES

05. BATWOMAN #2 – J.H. WILLIAMS III

04. GLORY #23 – ROSS CAMPBELL

03. RAGEMOOR #3 – RICHARD CORBEN

02. BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER: SEASON 9 #2 – STEVE MORRIS

01. DETECTIVE COMICS #880 – JOCK

And it’s worth noting that if the below had been the cover to Wonder Woman #1, it would have easily placed in the top 5. Alas, it never showed as a cover and thus, it’s ineligible.

Okay, so that’s it for this year. Come back next for more. This is always harder than I think, and I never feel confident I got it right but there was some damn beautiful stuff this year. I believe J.H. Williams takes 1st place overall this year, with four books in the top 52 (all Batwoman covers). Steve Morris, Fiona Staples, Massimo Carnevale, and Skottie Young all tie for second with three books each.  Jock, Ross Campbell, and Mike Mignola all tie for third with two covers each, and everyone else only got one mention. It was a tough year, a lot of beautiful stuff. Dark Horse did surprisingly well with 9 spots and Image is just behind them with 8. Marvel took home the main prize with 19 spots, in large part thanks to their excellent “Avengers Art Appreciation Covers”, which grabbed them 4 spots – and 2 in the top ten – just enough to edge out DC at 15.

What about you? What were some of your favorites?