DC Comics Covergirls by Louise Simonson

DC Comics Covergirls Reviews

• 
  Calista

  I wanted to see this. It does talk about the DC covers presented here and the woman on them. There is Poison Ivy to Wonder Woman. It's great to see covers of so many powerful women in one collection. It was fun flipping through this. Wonder Woman has been around forever.
  
  It’s amazing how many times they had wonder woman tied up spread eagle. This is proof how sexualized woman are in comic books. It’s better now than it was at one point it seems to me. Still, despite all that, it was fun to see all the DC woman that have made the cover of comic books through the years. There have been some interesting covers and characteres. I found Promethea by Alan Moore that looked interesting and I’m trying to get that ILL through the library.
  
  Well, this was at least interesting.
• 
  L. McCoy

  SUPER FAST REVIEW:
  This was very good.
  
  So this is a book that highlights various comic book covers featuring the stunning, bad-ass and interesting female heroes (and villains) of DC comics, ranging from Supergirl to Vertigo and many more. This book also gives some history on these characters.
  
  
  So I enjoyed this. The covers featured are (usually) very eye-catching, well drawn, exciting and even at times kinda sexy! The history, while I had known much of it before, it is fascinating and I did end up learning a few interesting things I either hadn’t known or forgot.
  I did find some editing problems that made this book kinda confusing at times. I also thought it was weird to include spoilers for comics that were recent at the time (this book came out in 2007, there were 2006 comic book spoilers). Also some of it is dated (example: saying Zatanna hasn’t had an ongoing series was true at the time, now she has had one (and needs another!)).
  
  So yeah, there’s a few minor problems here and there but to those interested in comic book history and maybe even feminism this is a very cool book. Highlighting some fantastic characters, interesting history and stunning artwork, this is a book that I highly recommend!
  
  
  
  4/5
  
  PS- I have not read all of the comics that I show covers for, I am not trying to recommend them, they’re just a few covers I liked that were featured in the book.
• 
  Kat

  Basic Premise: This book is a historical breakdown of some of the most famous female characters to grace the covers of the various DC comics.
  
  Overall, I enjoyed reading about the various characters, their histories, and how those histories intertwined with that of the comic company itself. The art was awesome, featuring some of the best, most iconic covers ever published. There was a whole, huge section about Wonder Woman, which I loved. Lois Lane even got her own section.
  
  Here's where the problems started: While Wonder Woman and Lois Lane each got their own dedicated section in the book, no other character did. They got mentioned in passing while being lumped in with other characters by arbitrary designation. Really arbitrary. ALL of the Gotham woman (heroes and villains) got lumped together. Surely Catwoman and Batgirl should have gotten their own chapters? Maybe she could have separated heroes and villains? There are too many women in Gotham to lump them together that way effectively. The whole Image/Wildstorm/ABC section was a flat-out joke, with the female characters barely even being mentioned. The whole section was mostly a history of those companies. It was completely off point. Then there was a whole section on "modern/new" characters. Again, they were all completely lumped together. Surely Black Canary, Huntress, Zatanna, and some of the others could have rated their own sections? I got very frustrated here. It was as if the author had really just wanted to write a book about Wonder Woman and Lois Lane, but somehow felt obligated to include the entire rest of the DC universe in it, but didn't really know much about them. The sections on Lois and Diana take up almost half the book, leaving the other half to cover dozens of characters that are barely mentioned in passing.
  
  The author mentions several cover girl tropes as writing, but never gives a definitive list of tropes and symbols, so those mentions seemed out of context as well. If this is going to be an art criticism book, there are conventions to observe and it didn't.
  
  Overall, the book had tremendous potential and there were things about it I liked, but I don't feel it was a good/effective treatment of the ambitious quantity of material it purported to cover.
• 
  Thomas

  This is a fascinating collection of female heros on covers from DC comics over the ages. Supergirl and Wonder Woman have interesting and checkered histories. What is so strange is to see the occasional juxtaposition of girl power with rankly sexist messages -- meaning dating and marrying messages and the like. As far as overall sexuality and the exposure of female flesh, that is a whole nother ball game and very strange to see alongside the repeated motifs of the female superheros. It's especially fun when covers feature Supergirl, Lois Lane or Wonder Woman, for instance, getting ready for dates. It's weird.
  
  The two sensibilities, girl-positive and patronizing, coexist in this oddly reactionary space that creates a complete mental meltdown when I look at it. A lovely slice of pop-culture history.
• 
  RoseAdagio

  There is a lot of artwork to be admired, but the point of this book felt unclear. It's about iconic female characters who have appeared on comic book covers, but it goes, many times, into explaining and summarizing plot points and character profiles and giving some history of the comic book industry. That information was interesting, but it didn't feel like it all belonged in a book about DC's "Covergirls". In fact, I'm not entirely sure why the book's focus is "Covergirls" when, apart from displaying various covers featuring female characters, it doesn't really go into exploring cover art, what makes cover art iconic/interesting, what the significance of these iconic female characters is in the world of cover art, etc., or other issues/topics pertaining to the art on the covers of comic books. There are sections in the book where female characters, the focus of this book, weren't even mentioned. Sometimes it felt like it wanted to go into critiquing something, but never got there. Sometimes a topic would be presented, then it'd move on to a different topic, and then suddenly return to the previous topic. Etc. Overall, I would say this book is interesting, but inconsistent. Not to mention, it also has one of the douchiest "forewords" I've ever read.
• 
  Rod Brown

  I own most of the comics that have their covers featured in this book, and it is nice to have them collected in one place and sorted by characters and themes, especially since it saves me hours of lifting and shifting comic long boxes to track down my copies. There is a ton of great art (and more than a smidgen of cheesecake) here. Adam Hughes carries the day, which makes me interested in tracking down a copy or Kindle download of
  Cover Run: The DC Comics Art of Adam Hughes.
  
  The author takes it upon herself to fill out the book with a history of the characters pictured, which results in a lot of laughable summaries of decades of plot developments as characters emerge, fall in love, die, resurrect, marry, get retconned as single, die, resurrect, pass the mantle, take the mantle back, die, resurrect, die, resurrect, etc. She at least has the decency to wink at the reader as she gets to the most outrageous and unfortunate points in the twisted continuity of the DC Universe.
• 
  Gary Butler

  25th book read in 2015.
  
  Number 84 out of 453 on my all time book list.
  
  Follow the link below to see my video review:
  
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3USj...
  
  
• 
  Kim

  If you're buying this book as a visual reference, to learn some interesting trivia about various DC covers, or as a quick retrospective of women on DC covers, I'd say it works pretty well. It was a little bare and probably wouldn't be the first thing I'd choose to get more detailed historical information or pointed discussion and critique. Oh well, it looks nice!
  
  The selling point of this book for me was the foreword by Adam Hughes, whose art I've been following for a while and still enjoy despite how disappointed I was by what he wrote. I wasn't looking for any sort of feminist critique or argument, just a nice bunch of images and some words from people who are passionate about making them (that would be Louise Simonson and Adam Hughes, theoretically). However, Hughes took the foreword to write about how "SEX SELLS" and tell the reader in a few sentences that there's no point to reading further into the covers or characters than that. It read like an unsolicited defense against accusations of sexism which just served to abruptly convince me that the book wasn't made for someone who felt that women are more than visual and sexual objects that only have artistic value as selling points for stories which are apparently more complex than their covers. I'm glad I read the foreword last so I didn't have massive buyer's remorse, but almost wish I'd read it first so I could put it back on the shelf so someone more interested in turning off their brain to salivate over Power Girl's tit window could buy it instead.
• 
  John Smith

  A fantastic look at the female characters of DC Comics. Fantastic art though out.
• 
  Eric

  Really great trip down history of DC with an emphasis on heroines from the Detective Comics cheesy stuff to the really cool 80s and 90s and new Gen, you get a lot of facts about comic book world in general, and what the writers and artists may have had in mind when creating the covers. Love the author writing this compilation book.
• 
  Liberty

  It was a very interesting and delightful read despite its age
• 
  Korynn

  DC covergirls appears to come with two alternate slipcovers, one for the direct market (i.e. comic shop) and one for the bookstores. I prefer the bookstore version which is a great Adam Hughes cover of current Wonder Woman meeting her earlier incarnation. The direct market version appears to be Alex Ross's very nice painting of Wonder Woman's face from the cover of his Spirit of Truth.
  I picked this book up because it features some of my favorite comic chick cover art, a great deal of it quite recent. The author Louise Simonson starts of with a basic history of comics overall, shifting to DC comics (I think Marvel is referred to only four times in the book and twice it is to glory over Dc's gaining Wildstorm from Image) personal history. Then we have nice rundowns of the most well-known women in comics, namely Wonder Woman, Supergirl and Lois Lane. This is nicely researched with a good history given for all the incarnations of the characters and good art thrown in and printed very well. Then we reach this spot where either Ms Simonson realized she was running out of space or realized she didn't want to be writing the Encyclopedia of the DC Universe's women.
  So she quickly shuffles through the Batwomen barely mentioning Birds of Prey and very, very carefully alluding to Stephanie Brown, the female Robin. She bypasses Huntress completely, mentions Power Girl briefly and definitely doesn't not do justice to either Batgirl or Black Canary. She also gives Catwoman short shrift. Then she suddenly switches gears and goes on and on about Vertigo for no obvious reason, giving rundowns of comics that don't really have anything to do with DC covergirls really, like say, Hellblazer? In fact the whole chapter reads as a pamphlet for why you should read Vertigo comics and at the end she shoves in a bit about Wildstorm and Image, as if, "oh yeah those women, whatever." Then out of blue she shoves in two desparate paragraphs like a teenager trying to finish their SAT essay before the bell to sum up her book but it falls flat.
  Honestly the art is amazing and well presented. I really appreciate the descriptions (although I wish she took the trouble to read the comic behind the art all of the time). I wish we could have stuck to the histories of each character with the art to exemplify their individual careers. I wouldn't have minded. She was doing it so well!
  
• 
  Martin

  As a fan of both comic books and history, it was a nice surprise for me to find this book. It showcases different leading ladies of the DC Universe from the 1940s up to 2007, highlighting their evolution. This book is a great way for readers old & new to understand the sometimes convoluted character histories. Even now, as I'm writing this review in November 2013, both Final Crisis and the New 52 have come and gone, and some information in this book is already outdated.
  
  No such book can always be current, given the nature of these characters to evolve, so it's only an observation and does not affect the book's rating in any way.
  
  Art-wise, this book is a treasure trove. Classic covers dating back, as well as more recent ones, give the readers a look at the evolution of the medium (for instance: captions, dialogue and thought bubbles on comic book covers have disappeared a looong time ago!), but also at a great range of artists: George Pérez, John Byrne, Alex Ross, Ed Benes, Dave Johnson, Damion Scott, and so many more...
  
  Art fans and comic book history fans will get a kick out of this book. Plus, its large size makes it ideal for the coffee table! We need more books like this. Highly recommended.
• 
  Geni

  Quick Relunctant Reader 3Q 2P MJS {Review} Better than Barbie! Darwin's Artistic Evolution of the Heroine. At first glance taking the book of the shelf, I thought the main focus was going to be only about Wonder Woman. I was pleasantly surprised to find out the book was extremely well organized to feature not only the evolution of Wonder Woman but the Female Villains of Batman and even the history of Birds of Prey. While there is SOME (I use the word loosely) text describing the history of each comic book character and the original artist, the bigger emphasis is on the Comic Book Covers themselves.
  
  I was delightfully surprised to find so many comparison's of comic books from 1959-2000. Whether you have a background in art, its obvious to see the computer influence.
  It is obvious to me, the books target audience is women, but knowing the comic world, men probably didn't mind the imagery so much either ;).
  I would recommend this book to girls or boys,I believe there are more girl comic book fans out there than people may think. Wonder Woman is and should be considered a better role model than Barbie... more parents should be aware of that.
• 
  María Eugenia

  Es una edición muy bonita... por las imágenes. Los textos o aportan poco o demasiado. La recomiendo si la veis de oferta. Yo la compré por 13 euros y sinceramente me sentiría estafada si hubiera pagado más de 20.
  
  Empezamos regular ya con el prólogo, a cargo de Adam Hughes. Ya os adelanto que de las portadas del libro las más bonitas, en mi opinión, son las de este señor (junto a las de Alex Ross, J. H. Williams III y Dave McKean), así que me dejó bastante decepcionada que todo lo que se le haya ocurrido decir en el prólogo a un libro de portadas de superheroínas sea: el sexo vende y además paga bien. 🤷🏻‍♀️
  
  No es solo que no haya aportado nada de valor al tema, sino que por la forma en la que lo dice parece que estuviera diciendo algo super impactante y que nadie se atrevía a decir. El sexo vende. Wow. Nunca había pensado que se utilizara el cuerpo de las mujeres para vender cosas. Me está explotando la cabeza ahora mismo con esta revelación.
  
  Está como un poco a la defensiva y, sinceramente, no entiendo por qué. Viendo lo que hay dentro hay dibujantes que sí deberían estar ya no a la defensiva sino pidiendo perdón directamente (en serio, si nunca viste una mujer humana en la vida, porque vives solo en un bunker o por lo que sea, no te dediques a dibujarlas sin haber recibido antes unas clases de anatomía).
  
  También dice que por muy horrible que sea admitirlo, las apariencias importan y eso no va a cambiar. Y que es más fácil que alguien compre algo que venga en un embalaje bonito. Ok. Díselo a Deadpool y a la criatura del pantano. ¿O lo del embalaje bonito era solo para mujeres? 🤔
  
  Dejando atrás el prólogo, el libro tiene una introducción y luego se divide en 6 capítulos:
  -Wonder Woman
  -Lois Lane
  -Supergirl
  -Gotham Girls
  -Vertigo
  -New generation
  
  Es decir, Lois Lane tiene un capítulo de 22 páginas solo para ella pero las Batgirls, Catwoman, Batwoman, Poison Ivy, las Robins, Harley Quinn y Renee Montoya entre otras tienen que compartir un capítulo de 40 páginas entre todas. No sé, a lo mejor se me está viendo el plumero (porque es verdad que Lois Lane tiene mucha historia) pero como fan de la batfamilia hubiera sacado por lo menos a Batgirl y a Catwoman con sus capítulos a parte.
  
  La parte de la nueva generación incluye personajes que yo no considero nuevos, nuevos, como Black Canary o Zatanna, pero supongo que si lo comparas con Wonder Woman y Lois Lane sí que son entradas posteriores.
  
  Me gustó que hubiera un capítulo dedicado a Vertigo y a la historia de las publicaciones de pasaron de Image o de DC a Vertigo. No me lo esperaba, así que fue una sorpresa positiva.
  
  Volviendo a los textos, me estaban poniendo un poco nerviosa algunas cosas como que Barbara Gordon ya no es Batgirl y las cero referencias a nada más allá de mediados de los 2000. Porque cuando compré el libro me había fijado en que estaba publicado en 2016 y repetidas visitas a la página del copyright me confirmaron que es del 2016. Y me estoy ya volviendo loca hasta que veo más abajo otra nota con un copyright de 2007. A ver. Si vais a sacar un libro en 2016 en el que faltan casi 10 años de información... PONEDLO EN GRANDE AL PRINCIPIO. No sé, me vale una frase: este libro fue originalmente publicado en 2007 y por eso no hay referencia a eventos posteriores, como los nuevos 52.
  
  Y luego está el tema de la información que sí viene en el libro. Cuando compro un libro sobre portadas de cómics me espero información sobre las portadas de cómics, su evolución, los principales artistas... Y un poco de eso hay, pero está mezclado con unos resúmenes sobre los personajes que sobran totalmente. Si no tiene que ver con la portada no me digas que tal personaje se murió al final de su serie o que se casó o que renació de sus cenizas. Si ya leí el cómic esa información me sobra y si aún no lo leí... me sobra aún más. Parafraseando: "Y aquí está fulanita con fulanito. Fulanito se muere en un evento unos años después". "Y este personaje descubre en un punto que su verdadera madre es fulanita. Que no tiene que ver en absoluto con esta portada pero ahí lo dejo". Y mis favoritas, portada de alguien haciendo algo: "Aquí no se ve pero en esta historia se muere". "En este número se muere. ¿O no? Uy, no lo sabemos, en los cómics puede pasar cualquier cosa". O sea, que se muere y luego revive pero por lo que sea esta vez prefieres darnos el 99% del spoiler.
  
  En resumen, en la era de internet si quiero saber todas las cosas que le pasan a Wonder Woman en la vida me leo la Wikipedia. O los cómics, no sé. Y si vas a dar datos de los personajes señálalo de alguna manera (secciones distintas dentro de cada capítulo) y si quiero leer todas las muertes de Supergirl las leo y si no, no. O pon al final una cronología con el año de aparación de cada heroína o una lista de publicaciones con protagonistas femeninas o listas de las editoriales que se mencionan (apertura y cierre, títulos), listas de principales dibujantes con mini biografía (años en activo, heroínas cubiertas) o el porcentaje de
  portadas femeninas frente a las masculinas. O un montón de datos más que no sean todas las bodas, bautizos y comuniones de cada personaje mencionado, aunque sea de pasada.
  
  También echo de menos un poco de análisis crítico o más referencias a la evolución del estilo (que sí que las hay, intercaladas entre la lista de decesos) o más información sobre el impacto o el recibimiento que tuvieron. Que, insisto, sí hay algo de esto, pero es poco y está escondido entre la lista de todas las cosas en las que se convirtió Batman o la lista de todas las veces en las que Lois Lane soñó en casarse con Superman.
  
  Al final del libro, Louise Simonson, la autora, dice que lo que venden las "covergirls" de DC no es un librito lleno de dibujos sino la entrada a una comunidad llena de aventuras y diversión. No sé si leyó la teoría del prólogo de Adam Hughes de qué es lo que están vendiendo estas mujeres, pero yo me voy a quedar con la versión de Simonson.
• 
  Shannon Kitchens

  A great brief beginner's look a DC's comic history.
  
  I really enjoyed this book. The cover choices and art looks are awesome. The actual text is interesting, albeit, a bit rushed towards the last 25% of the book. I would really have liked more history on other characters and maybe a section on more unusal DC girls. However, the unusal ones aren't usually covergirls, so, there's that.
  
  Anyway, I as a casual comic book reader, it was interesting to read about it as a industry over the last 70 years.
• 
  Camilo Guerra

  Una retrospectiva d ela mano de Lousie Simonson por la historia de DC Comics y sus personajes femeninos, como surgen,evolucionan y su papel actual. Desde las portadas de bondage de Wonder Woman hasta esas obras de arte que son las de Adam Hugues, tenemos un libro hermoso, eso si, muy, muy cortico...y en ocasiones extraño ,con relación a la elección, por ejemplo hay portadas hermosas de WildCats de Travis Charest, con Vodoo, en tamaño pequeño, y le dan paginas completas a Greg ¨ Google¨Land. Incomprensible.
• 
  Paul

  Beautiful book, ranks up there with the DC Absolute editions, but without the slipcase.
  Beautiful artwork taken from the Women of DC History.
  It's nice to see how the protrayal of Women in comics has changed and evolved... one hopes for the better... let's get another one of these in 25 years to see how the future treats their comic Women ;-)
  
  This book was published in 2007, 6 years ago, I'd love to see that 6 years covered as well.
• 
  Anissa

  The book delivers on its title. I learned a good bit about the origins of some of my favorite DC heroines and about the origins of the Vertigo line. The reprints of the covers are really lovely, and Simonson's discussions present fair critiques of why covers are so often exploitive. A lovely coffee table book for the comic fan.
• 
  Lisa

  i learned all kinds of cool crap about the comics and the actual characters. i love the WB series Birds of Prey i had no idea that it was based on the comics and that the characters where actual comic characters. i even learned new things about super girl and power girl and even wonder woman loved this book.
• 
  Donnell

  Liked being brought up to speed on the progress of these women; also great glossy illustrations--and many of them. Further, very cool the way the author was the model for a comics cover herself, back in 1971.
  
  The thing is, though, reading the comics themselves is better.
• 
  Nicolas

  This was really fun. I was hesitant to pick it up because I assumed it was just a cover gallery. It actually had a lot of interesting history aside from the great collection of covers. It spent way to much time on Vertigo & Wildstorm, but as a whole it was pretty solid.
• 
  Brian

  Yes, it acknowledges that sex sells.
  This book also covers the characterization and history of these 'pinups.' Not just that, but this book also provides a bare-bones history of the entire DC Publishing. Though it was a little skimpy on the history, I liked the history lesson nonetheless.
• 
  Christina

  Helpful back story to the many women that appear in the world of DC Comics. While I knew a lot of it going into the book the bits I didn't as well as the artwork made it a worthwhile book.
• 
  Kevin

  
  A really great looking coffee table book. If you love Superhero women, especially Wonder Woman, you'll love the images (and comic women histories)herin.
• 
  Jocelin

  Gorgeous book about the great super heroines of the DC Comic Universe. Loved it.
• 
  Jess Hennessey

  I loved seeing the covers and learning some behind the scenes things. I liked that Wonder Woman got her own section :)
• 
  Abigail

  YES!
  :)
• 
  20hrsinamerica

  Gorgeous art, smart and interesting background. Witty descriptions and commentary. I need more books like this! Great book for anyone a fan of art, comic art, and/or the DC women.