COVER GALLERY: 1999

Even though Alex Ross was busy with Earth/Universe X, Astro City and Superman Peace on Earth, he was able to do all these other covers, this was probably his most productive year, yet.

BATMAN COVERS

BATMAN - HARLEY QUINN: Alex Ross liked so much to work with Paul Dini on the aforementioned Superman project that they decided to work together again on this one-shot that features the interior art of Yvel Guichet and Aaron Sowd. This book introduces to the Batman comic book, a character created by Dini himself for the widely popular TV show Batman: The Animated Series, none other that the Joker's insanely obsessive better half, the former Arkham Asylum psychiatrist-turned-psycho Dr. Harleen Quinzel, better known as the harlequin of horror, Harley Quinn. The story tells the origin of this character, but the cover captures the insanity of this couple, while she embraces him, he barely notices she's there, and they look as if they're dancing, lovely cover which clearly shows that sometimes less is more.


BATMAN - NO MAN'S LAND: This cover was Alex Ross' second attempt at making "animation" with his art, this time he used 4 images of Bats being caught by a spotlight and covering himself with his cape for a lenticular cover (right). Two of these 4 images were also used for the regular cover (left) and for the trade edition (not pictured), this images don't strike the same chord with me as the Superman ones, they look a bit average to me. Now the story is written by Back to the Future screenwriter Bob Gale and the art is handled by Alex Maalev, it is the aftermath of an earthquake in Gotham City and the goverment declared it "No Man's Land" so the villains start to fight for their piece of the pie, it's quite interesting!.

ALAN MOORE'S SUPREME

ALAN MOORE'S AWESOME UNIVERSE HANDBOOK: Any red-blooded, comic book-loving geek knows who Alan Moore is, if you don't you are totally missing out on the fun. He's the creator of such epic stories as V from Vendetta, From Hell and the classic Watchmen, considered by some to be the best graphic novel ever written.
Alan Moore worked for DC Comics for a long time until they had a falling out and he vowed never to work for that company again, but that meant never to work on Superman, a favorite of his either, so the opportunity came when publisher Awesome Entertainment, let him work on a character called Supreme, which, curiously, had the same feel and powers as Supes, with a super-dog and super-girl included. So, Moore took the chance and crafted some of the most excellent stories about the Man of Steel without having him on that book. Since he loved Kingdom Come so much, Alan and the publishers contacted Alex to revamp these characters' costumes and overall look, giving us this book, which is a sketchbook of said revamp.
This sketches were later used (sometimes digitally colored, which look HORRENDOUS) in variant covers and other books such as Awesome Adventures #1 and the trade Supreme: The Return.




ALAN MOORE'S AMERICA'S BEST COMICS
Famed comic book artist Jim Lee's publishing company Wildstorm, designed a line of comic books with this title, the cool thing was, they were all written by Alan Moore and the covers for all first issues were painted by Alex Ross, what more could you want?!?

TOM STRONG #1:This title, pencilled by Chris Sprouse, is a throwback to the old "pulp" heroes of the early 20th Century, guys like Doc Savage and The Phantom, who had no powers but relied on wit and gadgets. Tom Strong's adventures are a cool mix of Indiana Jones and sci-fi. The cover is a bit plain but the lighting and sepia tones in this one rocks!
PROMETHEA #1: Pencilled by J.H. Williams III, this is the title that handles mysticism, magic and myth. This book shows us how much Alan Moore is into these 3 subjects and the art is very experimental and psychedelic. Sadly, this very nice cover of the title character with her ancient egyptian garb is blocked by the titles, which cover the top AND both sides of the cover.

TOP TEN #1:This awesome book, the best of the "ABC" line in my opinion, is chock-full of sci-fi goodness. It features the story of the 10th police precinct in the city of Neopolis, a place where everyone has superpowers. The interior art is also amazing thanks to Gene Ha. And the cover gives you a sample of these weird characters, all jumping into action!
TOMORROW STORIES:This is a serialized compilation of short stories, also evocative of those old pulp magazines. In it you have many different genres mashed together, you have police drama, crazy science fiction, a masked vigilante, etc. The cover looks like one of those E.C. Comics titles like Tales from the Crypt where they show you the main story and the smaller ones on little circles, is nice for nostalgia's sake.



INDEPENDENTS

SHI - SPIRIT OF BENKEI. STREETS OF FIRE: The "Battlebooks" are a sort of role-playing game in comic book form. Shi is a character created by William Tucci, it's about a Japanese-American woman named Ana Ishikawa who is drafted into an age-old battle between the Sohei warrior monks of medieval Japan; here she's rendered beautifully by Alex on this cover which was a gift from him to Bill Tucci.
UNKNOWN QUANTITIES: Published by Funny Valentine Press, the Chicago-based company which makes Empty Love Stories, this anthology features a lot of artists from this city. This book was made for the March of the Americas charity and has this cool image of Uncle Sam, not the one from the Vertigo series, blindfolded, one of the few images Alex has made in black and white.


SUPERMAN / FANTASTIC FOUR

This "treasury-sized crossover between these premiere characters from DC and Marvel Comics is written and pencilled by Dan Jurgens, one of the orchestrators of the Death of Superman storyline, in it, Reed Richards and company, travel to an alternate universe to investigate the possibility of Galactus destroying the planet Krypton, Superman's homeworld. The wraparound cover was pencilled by Jurgens and painted over by Ross, I have it as a poster and I gotta tell you that Jurgens' and Ross's styles complement each other very nicely, the image is striking with very clean lines and vibrant colors, I love it.

IN MY COLLECTION: Batman Harley Quinn and the lenticular cover to No Man's Land. The Supreme sketchbook and 3 of the 4 ABC titles (I don't have Promethea)