Tmnt #18 (IDW)
 

...the covers for #18.

Cover A - Bates


Cover B - Eastman


Cover RI - Torres


Cover RE Dimension X - Eastman

This time I like all of them pretty much equally.

I'm psyched to have an interior artist whose covers I actually prefer over Eastman's! At least, for the two we've seen... This is going to be a good turtle month!

EDIT: These next 4 months are going to be good!

Hmm. The Eastman covers normally focus on a different story line than the A cover, but this is just a less exciting depiction of the Bates cover. Still nice art though.

And I frickin love the Nevermind cover.

Didn't we see all these covers already? I remember them all from other threads.

Nope, the Eastman one is hot off the press. The other two had been out for a tad though.

Oh man, I freakin' love the DimensionX cover!! :eek::teek:

It is great cover illustration.
especially Cover RI , parody of Nevermind CD cover.

What the crap!??!?

Where did this Dimension X RE cover come from? They aren't going to be making a ton of variants like JETPACK are they?!?!

Awesome covers. Gotta love the Nevermind parody. Bates cover > Eastman. I've been nothing but disappointed with Eastman's covers, save for the Splinter and Turtles pow-wow one. Even the annual is typical.

LOVE the parody cover!

i don't know donnie... Eastman's covers may be very typical and (as some have mentioned in the past) scratchy... but i like that they (somewhat) reflect some part of the storyline.

but on this particular issue... i'd have to agree. Bates's > Eastman's.
P.s. the Dimension X cover looks trippy but very Mirage-y.

Loving these covers.

anyone else bothered by Bates' raphael in cover A? it looks unfinished.

It does look like he is missing some detailing on the right side, but I don't think it was unfinished, just a stylistic choice.

I could be wrong though.

Donny too. It's pretty clear to me that he underestimated the necessary width prior to cropping. To fix that they'd have to stretch his work, lessening the quality. Drives me nuts too, Lampy.

if it went all the way up & down and wasn't just Donnie & Raph, it might have worked better... but just being the two turtles, make it definitely look... poor...

the reason Bates's Raph and Don are like that is because that's where the bleed margin is, when it's printed it won't show, that stuff will be cropped out. not all artists draw up to the edge because it'll just get cut off anyway, but solicits typically show the full image file with bleed included.

:twink:

oh ok... i thought it was the final draft of the cover already.
i kind of hoped they'd crop it out eventually before print. but wouldn't they be cropping out the entire left half of raph's body? either way... still an awesome cover. i'm not too bothered by don though. it's not as obvious as raph's.

i took a look at it again and yeah, it looks like there's not enough of Raph's body drawn to extend to the bleed/crop margin... hm, i don't know. the place where the other lines end is where the bleed will be, but Raph's stops short of that margin, not sure why. there are also some black-fills that look unfinished, so maybe it's all since been fixed. solicits have to be out 3 months in advance so sometimes tinkering and adjustments happen after the covers appear online. we'll see!

definitely an awesome cover, i love Bates's stuff! his Turtles look great and he's got a great sense of composition.

This may have come up in a different thread (though I couldn't find it), but preorders for the #18 Dimension X variant are active on eBay via the following link. They claim very limited quantities and a preorder doesn't guarantee a copy in the event they sell out at the signing they are intended for. This preorder listing has been active since at least the 20th of December, and thus far 13 of the 26 are claimed.

Thank you! I've been searching for where to get this thing; I even sent a message and never heard back from them.

That's an awesome cover! Wish I had an extra 20 bucks. I actually really like Bates cover for this issue and will probably pick it over Eastman's cover. Usually I go with Eastman.

When are we getting a real artist? The story is getting better but Bates is awful. Karai and April looked hideous in the last issue. I liked Kuhn, he reminded me of Mike Mignola.

You are a minority. Most people like Bates.

I'm sure you'll get used to Bates. I warmed up to Kuhn a little bit by his later issues. But yeah, I'm excited to see who comes in for #22. I figure they'll be doing at least 7 consecutive issues, whoever he/she is.

Kuhn has a problem with proportions, so do I, its actually why I'm not doing art in my own comic but I loved his art in blood brothers especially at the end when we saw him draw hob(in a badass trench coat!). I once had an art teacher tell me manga isn't really art and compare it to assembling paper dolls(as most characters have the same face).

What the hell does any of this have to do with anything?

That manga reference came out of no where for me too. This isnt manga... at all.

and Manga is an valid artform as any. The "bland" faces has a purpose, but apparently your art teacher don't do research in his/her own field.

Those kind of teachers are always fun.

What does art have to do with comics?

Yeah especially when they mark your art with a pen to show you mistakes. Didn't those "bland"(I didn't say bland, not sure who you're quoting) start out as racist cartoons making fun of western features? Hence the large eyes,small mouths and stuck up hair. I've heard this multiple times. Save for the fact that manga drawings only vaguely resemble human being, this is another thing that kind of turned me off to it.

Geez, there's no pleasing some people, huh? I like Bates better than Kuhn, much better, although I have to say that Kuhn did grow on me in his later issues and I like him now as well. A "real" artist? That's a pretty offensive thing to say.

I thought the same thing when I read that. Of the first 4 micros, Michelangelo was my least favorite not because of the story, but because I did not like the style of drawing. So I was disappointed when I heard he was chosen to take over for Duncan. That being said, I didn’t dislike it because I thought he was a poor artist, I just didn’t care for that drawing style. I also don’t enjoy listening to Michael Buble. Not because I think he’s a poor singer, but because I don’t enjoy adult contemporary in general. As far as Bates goes, I think he does a very adequate job and am satisfied with him. I like being able to associate a publication with a particular artist so I am currently not a fan of this jumping around artists after x number of issues. Though, the purist in me would love to see Eastman take over duties full time!

kuhn > bates > duncan. so far anyway. all the idw artists have a certain style to them to keep things consistent, so its not like it will matter THAT much with who is working on the ongoing. I miss the micro series, those were fun because the art was so damn varied. I really like what Santolouco is doing too. his "wolverine" kind of raph is pretty cool to look at.

Your teacher is an idiot. Manga is awesome and both tmnt creators are obviously influenced by it.

mine would be opposite that... but to each their own right? duncan's early turtles are still my favorite modern rendition.
i still don't see why manga suddenly got involved in this thread... nothing wrong with manga/anime style at all.

No, modern manga (especially the styles with big eyes) is influenced by Osamu Tezuka (Father of Manga) art style, which was inspired by Betty Boop, Disney movies, particular Bambi.

the bland faces Manga often uses are so the reader can easier see themselves as the hero. Hence why I used the term bland faces.

I actually meant Duncan > Bates > kuhn. Sorry very tired ha. I couldn't get into kuhn too much. Some of Duncans early covers were beast.

I did not hate Bates' art last issue. ( i was getting ready to hate it to be honest, tho i must say that i did not like his human drawings at all... espacially the face and eyes, turtles were ok and even cool in some panels ) I still like Kuhn's work way over Bates but i guess i will be able to live with Bates. What annoys me most is.. Kuhn left just as his art was starting to warm up.
And Duncan had left just as he found the perfect style... anyways.

This Bates cover is my least fave. cover in IDW TMNT issues so far. To be honest there is nothing that attracts me in it. Old Toon reference, over saturated colors, Old toon Krang...
Last issue's Bates cover was much better.
The other covers are cool tho. ( for me )

Is this issue coming next Wednesday ( January 18 ) btw? Midtown does not list it among next week's stuff.