12 Days of Best Covers of 2013: Day #11

The eleventh pick for the “12 Days of Best Covers of 2013″ list is the cover for author Rachel Aaron’s latest release, Fortune’s Pawn, the first in her new Paradox space opera series, written under the pseudonym Rachel Bach to help differentiate from her epic fantasy series Eli Monpress, all of them published by Orbit Books. Sure, I’m a huge fan of Rachel’s books, and the covers for her novels have been quite good, whether the old covers or the new ones. Having read Fortune’s Pawn a few weeks ago, I can say with confidence that it is most definitely one of the best SF novels I’ve read in the last three years, right up there with the best of the best.

The eleventh comic cover that I pick is Andrea Sorrentino and Marcelo Maiolo’s cover for Green Arrow #25, written by Jeff Lemire and drawn by Andrea Sorrentino. I credit CW’s Arrow and fellow TFF reviewer Bane of Kings for getting me interested enough in this title to read it. Thanks to Jeff Lemire’s excellent storylines and Andrea Sorrentino’s amazing artwork, Green Arrow has become one of my favourite DC monthly comics and in the weeks that new issues of the series come out, Green Arrow is definitely among my first reads.

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.

*****

Fortune’s Pawn by Rachel Bach

Cover design by Kirk Benishoff

Why: I’ve seen the making of this cover, from its early concept and all the way to the finished product, and its fascinating to see how it all came about. What I love about the cover is how amazingly detailed it is. I mean, despite the helmet on Deviana’s face, you can make out her reddish hair and all the scrolling data on her helmet’s visual feed really pulls you in. After that, its all stars, stars, stars.

Helpful links:

• Review: Fortune’s Pawn
• Review: The Spirit Thief
• Review: The Spirit Rebellion
• Cover Story: Fortune’s Pawn by Rachel Bach

Green Arrow #25 by Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino

Cover by Andrea Sorrentino and Marcel Maiolo

Why: It was almost a toss-up between this cover and the cover for Green Arrow #24 which depicts most of the important characters of the Green Arrow comics-verse. But I went with this one because of how… primal it is, how… basic. Green Arrow aka Oliver Queen in Gotham at night-time, hunting a villain. Pretty damn badass that.

Helpful links:

• Review: Green Arrow #24
• Review: Green Arrow #25
• Review: Green Arrow #26