COVER GALLERY: 2000

Another big year with a lot of cover work by Mr. Ross. Let's get right to it, shall we?

STARMAN #57 - 62: I gotta say that I love it when Alex paints interlocking covers that form this cool mural-like masterpieces, just like on Earth X, Universe X and Crisis on Infinite Earths. Well this time he's done this with a very obscure character(s) from DC's vault. Starman and its legacy go back to the 1940's and spans until today. This series of issues feature all the incarnations of Starman to that date. The first issues of this 6-issue affair started in 1999 and finished in 2000. The art is fantastic, as I told you and it was pencilled by Tony Harris and later used on a poster, without the logos of course.
Cool Tidbit: In the background of the art you can see the Starman from Kingdom Come which also currently appears on the Alex Ross / Geoff Jones written JSA title.


FLINCH #9: Flinch was a little know horror anthology book published by DC Comics through its Vertigo imprint, which was cancelled after only 16 issues. It had great talent enrolled into it. Guys like Brian Azzarello, Jim Lee, Frank Quietly and Javier Pulido collaborated on this book, yet could not save it. Now, the cover for Alex's issue is AWESOME, since it was published between December 1999 and January 2000, and this is a horror book, there's nothing scarier than seeing your future's death, and with the Y2K craze running around in that time, it was very fitting to see 2000 already dead. The image of a dead baby is really creepy. Alex Ross exceeded himself with the garishness on this mature-themed book.



AMERICA'S BEST COMICS - 64 PAGE GIANT #1: This "annual"-like issue contains several stories from the different books that make up the ABC line: Tom Strong, Promethea, etc. The cover is OK it crams a lot of information into one cover, very similar to those old 64-page giants from the 1960's and earlier.
SPAWN #100 A landmark issue in this character's career the 100th issue came with special covers by industry legends such as Frank Miller, creator Todd McFarlane and more. This is the first time Alex paints this character and it looks amazing, the scar tissue, the flowing cape, the protective pose of Spawn; the composition is just superb.


BONE #38: Jeff Smith created this series which has the record of being the longest-running, self-published comic book. It's about some cooky cartoon characters that are all white and hairless and look like they came out of a Disney movie. The cover is very odd for Alex 'cause these are kiddy-movie-type characters yet he makes them very real through the clever use of light and shadow, it looks fine.
THE GEAR STATION #1: This was a short-lived series (it only lasted 6 issues), it is a mix of medieval sorcery and magic with technology. Let me tell you, this cover is the most real character in the whole series, not only 'cause of Alex's art but because the characters in this story were kinda dull. Trust me the cover's beautiful "fairy girl" is the only cool thing of this issue.


LEGENDS OF THE DC UNIVERSE #28 - 29: This title contained stand-alone stories of DC's most popular heroes, this 2 particular issues were written by Steven Grant with art by the late comic book legend, Gil Kane. The 2 covers focus on Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) and the Atom, characters made popular by Kane. Both were pencilled by him and painted over by Alex Ross, which resulted in an even more realistic depiction of these heroes. I love both covers.

IN MY COLLECTION: Only one issue of the Starman set, #61