I still say it's basically the A-Team

December 17, 2007 3:57 PM

The Losers Cover Gallery showcases the bold design sense and unique art style of UK comics artist Jock, who also produced much of the interior art for the VERTIGO series. Losely based on a WWII comic of the same name it became a fast paced action caper with a political edge under writer Andy Diggle, and the covers reflect both the themes and the cinematic style of the comic.
posted by Artw (17 comments total)

It's hard to single any out, because i like them all, but issues 10, 25 and 21 are particularly nice.
posted by Artw at 3:58 PM on December 17, 2007

Link #3 is malformed.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 4:07 PM on December 17, 2007

Very cool.
posted by delmoi at 4:11 PM on December 17, 2007

Great.
posted by tkchrist at 4:50 PM on December 17, 2007

working VERTIGO link

Judge Dredd covers by Jock

2000AD covers by Jock
posted by Artw at 6:54 PM on December 17, 2007

This one reminds me of Power.
posted by cashman at 7:28 PM on December 17, 2007

Losers is, by the way, pretty good stuff. I think it's even good for propaganda purposes, it manages to indict the US administration and the CIA and whatnot while still very much "supporting the troops". It may have changed, though, I read all of what was published up to the time I read it, but that's a couple of years ago at least.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 7:56 PM on December 17, 2007

Joakim: The series has ended already, at least 9 months ago, if not longer? 5 tradepaperbacks is the complete series.
posted by papakwanz at 9:00 PM on December 17, 2007

papakwanz: Yeah, I saw that on Wikipedia just now, actually. Interesting, I might consider getting the TPBs. From what I can see about the total number of issues, I think I must have read a little more than half the complete series. Does it keep the quality up? Or even get better?
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 10:51 PM on December 17, 2007

Like a lot of Vertigo's recent stuff - Exterminators, Loveless, DMZ, and Scalped 50% of the time - I found The Losers too focused on premise, and it never really hooked me.

That said, I would have Jock's babies; Comics Should Be Good featured a mini-gallery of his covers last week.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 11:10 PM on December 17, 2007

As a Vertigo fan, and all around comic freak, the Losers was something I loved. You don't often get such "realistic" action in a comic these days (though seriously, they couldnt hit Jensen on that fire escape? Please.). Thoroughly enjoyed it.

If you want to read something at it's peak, dont miss Fables. Flycatcher's current story thread is wonderful! And it's a prelude to what I'm hoping is a great, interesting war between Fabletown residents and the Adversary.

Shame Y:The Last Man is ending...:( Poor 355. Rarely has any comic gut-punched me like at the end of issue 58.
posted by Dantien at 11:46 PM on December 17, 2007

Jocks one of the best cover artists out there... especially in terms of sheer graphic layout. A million miles away from one generic superhero punching another generic superhero. A pity he's always twined with the Diggler... it's like putting a VW Beetle engine in a Rolls Royce. I'll always have a twinge of regret that I could have had some of the original art for those Losers covers if I'd been a bit less skint at the time.

Here's his studio.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 4:20 AM on December 18, 2007

Losers is, by the way, pretty good stuff.

Seconded. Completely fun conspiracy theory stuff and didn't drag itself out for lucre. I'm happy/sad that Y is ending because I think closed arcs keep the story closer to the author's original intent.

If you want to read something at it's peak, dont miss Fables.

The nice thing about that statement is you could say it at any point in the series run.
posted by yerfatma at 6:05 AM on December 18, 2007

Since someone mentioned DMZ, here's a gallery of Brian Woods covers, which are also pretty awesome and have a strong graphic design sense not always seen in comics.
posted by Artw at 10:58 AM on December 18, 2007

I own the first two Losers trades, and something about the art and writing makes it unreadable for me. I just can't follow the story, and I've been reading comics for more than twenty years. I'll read a couple pages, then have to flip back because I can't even remember what I just read. I've noticed it with a lot of different titles in the past few years. I think Losers makes use of a lot of flashbacks and "jump cuts" which just confuse me.
posted by autodidact at 11:08 PM on December 18, 2007

Hey Alvy, Loveless actually causes me the same problem as Losers, only worse. I thought the first trade was decent, but I can't follow the second one. I've started reading it at least three times, and I simply cannot follow the story because of all the flashbacks and similar characters.

You're right about DMZ, I lost interest by the end of the first trade. Exterminators had a promising first trade but I stopped reading the second trade because it was just plain boring.

Apparently I have wasted a lot of money on comics I don't like in the past few years.
posted by autodidact at 11:11 PM on December 18, 2007

strong graphic design sense not always seen in comics

If we're talking about that, The Nightly News has to be in the discussion.
posted by yerfatma at 5:34 AM on December 19, 2007