Comics 

Comicon’s Best Cover Artists Of 2024

by Erik Amaya

Welcome to Comicon.com’s Best of the Year Awards, gathering the best comics and comics talent of the strange year that was 2021. This year we will be awarding in the following categories: Best Original Graphic Novels, Best Comic Series, Best Single Comic Issues, Best Writers, Best Artists, Best Cover Artists, Best Colorists, Best Letterers, Best Digital/Webcomics, and Most Progressive Comics.

Contributors to Comicon’s Best of the Year Awards this year include: Rachel Bellwoar, Richard Bruton, Scott Redmond, Tito James, Tom Smithyman, and Tony Thornley.

The following are Comicon’s Best Cover Artists of 2024.

5. Mark Harrison

Harrison’s work in 2000 AD is never anything less than excellent. We first came across it in the Dan Abnett-written Grey Area, but it’s really found perfection in the pages of the also Abnett-written The Out over the last few years. In a work that has roots in the sort of sci-fi soap opera of Halo Jones, full of the wonders of exploring the universe beyond our imaginings, The Out has become something we believe will be seen, in years to come, as a strip that’s up there with the finest in 2000 AD’s long history.
His art inside the Progs is complex, difficult even, packing so much detail and invention into every panel and page. It’s a dazzling display of how a great artist can make impossible things come to life in this wonderful medium we love.
But as incredible as his interior artwork is for The Out, his work on the covers of 2000 AD, two Progs this year, is something else. Where the interior work is dense and inventive, his cover work is more expansive and all-encompassing, distilling the huge ideas of his strip into one incredibly striking image.
Harrison understands that the essence of a great cover is to create an overarching idea of the work inside, a single image that has to summarise visually everything that’s incredible about a genuinely incredible series. And he does it again and again, creating cover images that are full of imagery and ideas, so much subtext beneath a so strong vision of all the delights to be found inside. Every one of his covers is a joy. The two he’s done this year are simply sublime.

— Richard Bruton

4. Skottie Young

It’s really not fair to the other artists, but Young is simply the cover guy for Marvel. He may depict little versions of heroes like Spider-Man and the Hulk, but they are big in the minds – and wallets – of collectors. In the June 2024 alone, Young pulled off his 27-issue “Big Marvel” project, featuring a wide swath of the 616 Universe. Add to that, covers for his own titles, as well as starting off his 8 Deaths of Spider-Man series. The word “prolific” doesn’t do justice to this guy – and his fans only want more.

— Tom Smithyman

3. Stuart Immonen

For the last few years, Immonen took a break from superhero comics. Luckily for all of us, he was brought in to do the first year of covers for the current volume of Avengers. Though the run has ended, and others have taken on the series, Immonen set the tone for the volume with gorgeous and iconic shots of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, reminding each and every one of us what makes the Avengers heroes we should aspire to.

— Tony Thornley

 

2. Peach Momoko

There is a major reason that covers featuring Momoko’s artwork are in the highest of demand. Just look at one of them. A rough exaggerated style of artwork with such dense detail and emotion. Creating truly iconic shots of characters old and new, whether it’s straight forward or body horror or a variety of other types of covers styles. Hopeful or terrifying, powerful or dangerous. Most books at some point, especially at Marvel, have a cover from Momoko for these very reasons. There is no way to debate whether Momoko is one of the best and most unique artists working in comics today. Go ahead and try.

— Scott Redmond

1. Declan Shalvey 

Shalvey could be up for a number of these awards, including interior artist as well as writer. Whether he’s writing or drawing – or both – excellence is sure to follow. That and crazy good sales numbers. It’s a testament to Shalvey that all of his talents are in demand. Looking at his 2024 covers alone, the Irish creator delivered stunning intros for ThunderCats, Deadpool, Wolverine, Mystique, Duke, and Displaced, among others. The guy must be doing something right!

— Tom Smithyman

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