I’m sure most people have heard the phrase “make a good first impression.” I once heard someone reference this to comic book covers. Basically putting your best foot forward to draw in readers is the main goal. It’s certainly no secret that a really well drawn cover is going to catch a reader’s eye. One thing that would probably be a concern is that not everyone is moved by the same kind of art. Maybe this is one of the reasons we have so many variant covers these days? I think it’s more that they tend to artificially increase sales because people have a natural tendency to want everything. Clearly by my collection you can see that I will purchase variant covers from series I really enjoy.
However, the other popular saying “don’t judge a book by its cover” is also applicable, but in some ways a little less so. With literature unaccompanied by graphics we run the risk that the story may not be very well written or even remotely interesting. This is a damning feature for these kinds of work, for the only piece that could be visually appealing is the front cover. The literary aspect falls solely to the writer to keep the reader bound. Comics have a slightly different perspective that it is both the combination of art and story. If you quite enjoy the art displayed on the front cover there’s a decent chance you will enjoy the art within the comic. So regardless of if the story is weak, you will at least enjoy the art. This is precisely what happened to me with “Skies Afire”. The story, while decent, wasn’t exactly the kind that blows me away. However, Molenaar’s artistic prowess really draws me in a lot more. Don’t get me wrong, for people like me story is essential for my full enjoyment. In fact a strong story will make me overlook poor art. That, of course, is just me really. However, I suspect there are a lot of people that work this way out there. The combination of a great story coupled with phenomenal art is quite a rarity and those comics will always get high favor from me. Unfortunately BloodRayne has yet to truly achieve this feat, but they are definitely achieving that in their stories with Troy Wall, especially with “Red Blood Run”
“Visions of BloodRayne” isn’t really a comic book per se. It’s more of an art portfolio, or an art gallery if you will. I think this is a great issue if you want to get a high quality look at some of the variant covers that were released. It doesn’t have every cover released under the BloodRayne title, but it has most of them. It definitely has all the main covers for the series though. If you really are a die hard collector of the BloodRayne series then this is a worthwhile art book to pick up.