Welcome one and all to a brand new feature on this site, a little bi-weekly show I'm going to be calling "Covers I Love/Covers I Hate" What I will be doing in this feature is grabbing several random covers of comic books and manga, whether they be new releases or back issues, and I'll be critiquing the quality of the covers. Why am I doing this? Because whether people want to admit it or not, covers are always the best and worst first impression you're going to get when you look at them. The cover will either make you want to read the series or it will make you pass it by. Likewise the cover can be very decepitive as it can either make the series look better then it really is, or worse then it really is. This show is supposed to be fun, and as a warning to those who might get this section mixed up with one of my reviews just keep this in mind: Just because I hate a cover to a series doesn't mean I hate the actual series. You can read my in-depth reviews for more information about the series. So without further ado, on with the show!

The Good

"Chrono Crusade"

One of the series that is giving birth to some of my favorite covers are the covers for ADV's hit series (one of the few they have) "Chrono Crusade." One of the things that I love about the "Chrono Crusade" covers is the colors. Just look at the cover above. The colors are balanced perfectly, with some of the best shading I've seen in my whole manga collection. The colors do a great job at setting the mood of the picture, and it just adds to the drama that you see on the cover. The other thing I love about the "Chrono Crusade" covers is that they tell actual stories, they set the mood for the volume you are about to read, and they are really just beautiful to look at. The cover above sets the mood for an action packed volume, with the suggestion that there is a battle within this volume that will be dark and grim. Then take a look at the cover below...

...and you get the feeling that there will be a tradgey within the book, possibly even a death (and no, at the time of this writing I haven't read this volume, so I have no idea if this is the case). The use of yellows is also remarkable, and despite the fact that yellow is in most of the cover it never dominates the cover, and is actually just one big supporting color to all the other colors. I love these covers. If they made posters of these covers then I would buy them and hang them everywhere in my house. These covers are proof to my art loving friends that comics can produce great works of art just well as all their "paintings."

The Okay

"Case Closed"

This cover is a bit of a tricky one to grade. There are a couple of good things to like about this cover, like the use of the simple, chalk-like colors, and the retro 70's style logo, but other then that the cover doesn't come off as being truly inspired. It's good for what it is, but it don't really do much artistically. It doesn't give you any real clue to what the series is about, Conan is just doing something completely random, and you get the feeling that the picture looks like it could have been ripped straight out of one of the pictures from a random chapter in the series. Add to the fact that the Japanese text (which is the series Japanese title "Detective Conan") looks completely out of place in the corner there, and the cover looks nice until you start to look closer and realize it's not doing much for you in any meaningful way.

The Bad

"Hikaru no Go"

"Shonen Jump" covers usually tend to be some of the best on the market. The cover for the first volume of "Hikaru no Go" is not one of them though. Looking at the cover it's hard to comprehend what is so great about it. Hikaru's stance says nothing about the series other then giving off the impression that Hikaru has the facial expression of a bored zombie. Unless you know what the game of Go is you won't know what the white spot behind him is. And due to some moron screwing around with the colors, the title logo is almost impossable to read. Not one of Viz's better efforts, not by a long shot.

The Ugly

"Boys Be..."

Boy oh boy, where do I start? First of all I should make a point that the color use on this cover is simply horrid. The color is not balanced in sort of way. All orange, some whites and blacks mixed in, and it just hurts the eye's. The artwork is also hideous to look at. While no one will ever mistake the artwork in "Boys Be..." as being great by any stretch of the imagination, it's better then whats portrayed on this cover. The confusing logo makes the title sound like "Boys...Be," the number on the side looks misplaced, and the girls pose is extremely wrong. I guess someone thought this pose would look sexy, but it merely looks silly. Call me crazy, but I never did find girls who danced to crazy beats to be very sexy, and this girl, combined with the aweful color and layout scheme, just proves my point even more. Just as a heads up, chances of future books of "Boys Be..." winding up in the "ugly" section is a very likely situation.

And that is all we have this time around for our show. Like it? Hate? Think I can improve it somehow? Let me know through e-mail, and I'll see you again in two weeks for our next show. Chow!

- -Kevin T. Rodriguez- -