The best comic covers accomplish more than simply creating a visual doorway to lead the reader into the book’s interiors. In the following gallery, Paste sought out the jackets that managed to encapsulate an entire work’s story, tone and theme within one image. It’s a helluva Venn Diagram to straddle, but multiple artists pulled it off with flying colors this year. If you’ve been paying attention to our monthlycomiccovergalleries, you probably noticed that we’ve been fawning over creators like Jae Lee and Mike Del Mundo for quite some time. They star heavily in this gallery, as do Jock, Fiona Staples, and a few more. These illustrators and many more made it very easy to judge a book by its cover over the past 12 months.
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100 Bullets: Brother Lono #8, Cover Art by Dave Johnson
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Adventures of Superman #14, Cover Art by Jock
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All-New Doop #5, Cover Art by Mike Allred
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Arsene Schrauwen, Cover Art by Olivier Schrauwen
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Batman Black and White #5, Cover Art by Joshua Middleton
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Batman/Superman #13, Cover Art by Jae Lee
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Batman/Superman #14, Cover Art by Jae Lee
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Black Widow #13, Cover Art by Phil Noto
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Catwoman #36, Cover Art by Jae Lee
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Daredevil #1.5, Cover Art by Paolo Rivera