12 Days of Best Covers of 2013: Day #6

The sixth book cover that I pick for the “12 Days of Best Covers of 2013” list is Jon Sullivan’s superb illustration for Ari Marmell’s In Thunder Forged, the first Fall of Llael novel from Pyr Books, set in the Iron Kingdoms setting. I read the novel a few weeks ago and while its not among the best novels I’ve read this year, its certainly been one of the better ones and I definitely loved the setting and the characters book. It makes me wish that I knew more about Iron Kingdoms and that the next book in the series was already out. Now that would truly be amazing, especially if Jon draws the cover once again.

The sixth comic cover that I pick is the cover for writer Gail Simone and artist Walter Geovani’s first issue of the rebooted Red Sonja series from Dynamite Entertainment. The cover itself is courtesy of Nicola Scott, who is one of my absolute favourite comics artists. The first issue was rather remarkable in that Gail put together a team of seriously awesomely talented female artists and got them to do the cover and several variants, one each. The result was pretty fantastic, as was the rest of the issue itself. Gail and Walter have definitely put Red Sonja on the map for me, a dilettante with the character’s comics, and now I’m a full fan.

Without further ado, hit the break to see both the covers in all their glory! The full list of all these covers is available here.

*****

In Thunder Forged by Ari Marmell

Cover by Jon Sullivan

Why: Jon Sullivan is by far one of the best artists in the business right now. Clint Langley, Cheol Joo Lee, Gene Mollica, Steven Meyer-Rassow, Neil Roberts and the others all have their places sure, but Jon Sullivan is definitely in the top 0.1 % of artists. I’m a fan of all of his work for Black Library and this is the first of his covers that I saw that was not for Warhammer Fantasy or Warhammer 40,000. And it is just as great as any of them. He has a distinctive style and he’s pretty damn awesome. That’s all.

Helpful links:

• Publisher’s Link

Red Sonja Vol. 2 #1 by Gail Simone and Walter Geovani

Cover by Nicola Scott

Why: Red Sonja, sword in one hand, the head of a villain in another, walking the awesome badass walk. No more reason is needed. Great atmosphere, great contrast, great everything.

Helpful links:

• Review: #1
• Review: #2
• Review: #3
• Review: #4
• Review: #5