Previously, I briefly wrote about the process of choosing a cover to parody for a specific Hatman issue. I will go into more detail on that now.Many times we have to really work on what covers would fit best with what stories. Granted, we could just arbitrarily pick something recognizable and go with that. However, I have tried to implement a few rules into our parody covers.
My first rule is that only characters that appear in that story can appear on the cover. For instance if its not a story featuring the Terrible Trio, you won't see Zapman on the cover. Now I say in the "story" meaning that if for instance the cover is for part 3 of a story and Leppy appeared in part 2 but isn't in part 3 its okay to have him on that cover. Because we look at each story as a whole and the parts just help break them up into manageable pieces.
My second rule is that it has to make sense somehow in relation to the source material we are parodying. Take "The Terrible Trio part 2" for example, we wanted to parody "The Avengers issue #4". It was an obvious choice to put Super Cold Frozen Man in the place of Captain America, because he has a shield (which was originally designed to feel some what like an icy version of Cap's shield). And then, because Indigo and Glomo can both fly we put them in the spots for Wasp and Iron Man, Indigo in the Wasp position because he has wings. Then looking at what was left, we decided since Hatman has a cape, he should be where Thor is and why not have him swinging a hammer as well. Finally, Zapman was put in the place of Giant Man.
My third rule is that any text that appears on the source material should be closely parodied if at all possible. Again, if we look at the above covers, you'll see "Captain America Lives Again!" and in the story previous to this, we had led our audience to believe that Hatman & Indigo had killed Super Cold Frozen Man, so we put "Super Cold Frozen Man Lives Again!" Also, a good reason this cover worked so well with this particular story was that the part 3 was the very first Ion Bunny so putting Ion Bunny in the box where Sub-Mariner is on the original was also a no brainer. Then we looked at the text for "Avengers" and decided to make ours say "Adventures" and we squeezed our Hatman & Indigo logo in after that.
I still have a lot to say about parody covers, so we'll continue this another time.
-Jason
I'd like to add that having done the art for several parody covers, I find these really fun to draw! It's an interesting blend of trying to mimic the source material while adding some personal creativity.
ReplyDeleteHello Everyone,
ReplyDeleteI am Steven Ware and I have had the priviledge to draw a few things for the unstoppable juggernaut that is 3twins.net.
A few of the covers that I have been able to contribute have been (and will be) parody covers and they are especially fun to recreate. Some of my bias comes from the fact that many of these covers come from the silver age and that era covered a good deal of my childhood in the 70's. The first cover I contributed to 3twins was for the second issue of the 'Mad Hatter' series and featured a takeoff of the classic D****y cover of the version of "Alice in Wonderland". Transposing the Hatman characters into a different venue than the audience, or at times the creative team is used to has really proven to be a suprisingly easy task. The characters lend themselves to malability and adaptation, which, for an illustrator like me, is refreshing when exploring the creative possibilities in previously established characters.
As a comic book illustrtor, pro tem, 3 twins has offered me a great opportunity to stretch my creative muscles for fun and profit.
But, I digress. Looking at the 'Mad Hatter #2' cover and comparing it to the D****y cover, one can see the fluidity of the characters created by Twinses, not only to take the 3Twins established 'SuperHero' cover and parodying it, but to take art associated in the American public psyche and to liberate it by means of the lampoon, the burlesque, the travesty ... um maybe not that so much (Though D*****y may feel that way)...
AnywayS, I am getting even futher off topic trying to stay on topic so, to make a long story even longer, Paraody covers are fun, fun for me fun for you fun for others blim blam boom! Exlaxior!
S. LaDon Ware (Steven)
President
The Lazarus Community Organization