That Girl with the Curls – Bonus Episode – Darwyn Cooke Remembered

 

 

Darwyn Cooke Draws the Happiest DC Universe in Variant Covers for December

I’m not the biggest fan of variant covers, at least not ones that are purposefully used so the publishers can up the price on a comic by delving into the portion of our lizard brains that has a desire for collecting and hoarding EVERYTHING that ever existed of the thing we love most. In this case, it’s not unusual for readers to spend an awful lot of money getting variant covers for books they wouldn’t normally read because the artwork or the subject matter speaks to them.

I’ve been pretty lucky to not fall into that sinkhole…until now.

In December, DC Comics will release their books with variant covers by none other than Darwyn Cooke. The master writer and artist behind books like the Harvey, Eisner, and Shuster award-winning DC: The New Frontier, Batman: Ego and Other Tales, Catwoman, The Spirit, the graphic novel adaptations of Richard Stark’s Parker series, and a storyboard artist for Batman: The Animated Series, Superman: The Animated Series, and the opening animation for Batman Beyond, Cooke is most well-known for his signature retro style of art that harkens back to the Golden and Silver Ages of comics. He puts the “mod” is modern is what I’m saying. Cooke also has a way with composition and color. He frequently uses black but he’s not shy about using bright, bold colors to set the tone of a scene. Cooke creates worlds where dark subject matters can exist in the light and vice versa. There’s also a hopeful, inspirational quality to the way he draws his subjects, especially the characters of DC Comics.

Full confession, I didn’t start reading comics until I was in college. The first book I read was DC: The New Frontier and it remains my favorite book to reread or revisit over and over again. As a history major, it’s a beautiful time capsule of the changing society and politics from the 40s to the 60s, and as a comic book fan it’s an obvious love letter from a man to the heroes of his childhood who also went through huge transitions from the Golden to the Silver ages. Cooke makes the heroes of DC relevant by sticking them right in the middle of political and social uprisings, imagining and bringing to life how a world full of superheroes would deal with matters like racism, the Red Scare, and the Space Race. Plus, dinosaurs, and ancient alien monoliths. Though the animated adaptation, Justice League: The New Frontier, captures some of the same magic, it barely scratches the surface of what’s on the page, which shows how vital Cooke is as both an artist and a writer. He makes the heroes of DC look and act heroic without sacrificing their integrity or stooping to the lowest common denominator of storytelling.

So, to make a long story short (too late!), DC finally done good in featuring Cooke’s art on 23 of their titles in December. Luckily, if you’re not all that keen on spending a lot of money on variant covers so you can buy your family the holiday gifts they always wanted, all of the variants have been released online on various websites like Comic Vine, Comics Alliance, Comic Book Resources, Hit Fix, and Newsarama. And what kind of Cooke fanatic would I be if I didn’t show you pretty much all of them?

For my money’s worth, any time Cooke draws the trinity of Wonder Woman, Batman, and Superman is fine by me. Hell, I wish they’d just give Cooke an ongoing title at DC to do whatever he wanted: one-shots, ongoings, minis, I don’t care. But I must confess to having a soft spot for Catwoman whenever Cooke draws her. It was his redesign that took Selina out of the overly dramatic costumes and put her in a more practical, yet stylish catsuit (pun more than likely intended). One thing you’ll notice about most of the variants is that the characters appear to be happy, an emotion that’s been sorely missed in the DC Universe right now. God forbid the heroes crack a smile but, in Cooke’s version of the DCU, heroes are stoked to be saving lives, flying through space, and even being chased by cops with bullets flying at them.

Which one is your favorite?

 

Action Comics

Aquaman

Batgirl

Batman

Batman and Robin

Batman/Superman

Catwoman

The Flash

Grayson

Green Lantern Corp

Green Lantern

Justice League

Justice League United

Sinestro

Supergirl

Superman

Wonder Woman