Vaingirls #371- 375

I thought that I would start listing the real comic covers I use to give sources in the various comics data bases to those who, perhaps, had not come across them yet: 371, True Love Pictorial, 372, My Secret Marriage, 373, Heart Throbs, 374, Katy Keene Pin-up Parade and 375, Katy Keene. Katy Keene covers were new to me this time.

#371 - This one just seemed to call for a magic theme.
#372 - The artist who drew the "woman" on this cover just had to be thinking "drag queen" - without the sequins.
#373 - It was the redheads's fingering of the guy's hair that inspired this one, plus you can probably guess what children's fable.
#374 - Of course, those pledges could have just joined my group, the Vanity Club.
#375 - The whole idea of wife and sis having husband and son practice for their "gurl's day out" was an afterthought; can't you just imagine them putting the boys through their paces at the practice dollies tea party? :-)

Malicious magic	The spirit is willing, but ...	A race to the femmish line	(VERY) pretty boys
Tea for two

LOL! I agree about #372.

Dee

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I like 'Bad Drag Days', it's very good, the self delusionment the hero(ine) is going under speaks volumes and the dialogue fits the pose.
May I add a point which this cap, to me, illustrates the adage that sometimes 'less is more' with captions on mag/comic covers.
It seems that the cover designs of comics are designed to entice the reader to buy it. If the story is revealed on the cover with lots of dialogue it oversells.
I think it is sometimes better to have less dialogue. What do others think?
This of course is in relation to covers, not captioned pictures which is a whole other item.
Keep up the good work,
Helen

Thanks for your comments, Helen.In regard to your "less is more" comment, this is how I feel about it.

If what we post here were covers of actual comics. I would agree that less is more because selling the comic IS the point of the cover, and when you open the cover there is where you have the actual story to read. In our case, most of the time there is no actual comic or story, so the cover's job is really to tell the story or hint at it, giving the viewer enough info to create the story in his/her mind. Given that, there are many times when more text is needed. I think this is more true, though, in my case as opposed to modified covers where there is a generally known backstory such as Altered Fates or Bikini Beach from TG fiction or superhero stories

For example, if Tea for Two was a real comic, I probably would have had the first man saying the same thing, the second man saying, in larger print, only "Oh, they're not mother and daughter, they're father and son!" The girls would either be saying nothing or I would have "Mommy" saying only, "The Cubs are playin' the Sox at Wrigley and we havta go to a frickin' tea party / fashion show!" with the "daughter" saying nothing.

However, since there is no actual Tea for Two story, I wanted to get across several points so that what a reader might come up with would be similar to what I had in mind, should I write it. So I needed to make the point that the story was the result of a bet that the whole neighborhood knew about, that the protagonists were made to openly practice for the big day, even to the pointy of having a dolly tea party under the supervision of the women, and that the son was enjoying the experience even if the dad wasn't.

Hi Jezzi, of course you are correct in your observations, I have to point out though that I wasn't actually making a comment about your covers. It was just a general observation and not meant as a criticism, please excuse my clumsiness
Helen

It is a tricky balance to strike between "telling the story" and looking like a real comic-cover that can leave the story-telling to the pages inside. I have long struggled against writing "walls of words" and trying to be too clever. Look at this shocker for example. It's got a blurb above the title, and a think-bubble the size of the Hindenberg. "Oh the humanity!"

Vaingirls #371 is a wonderful cover with lovely dramatic drawing. I wish I'd found it first, but I don't think I could have come up with a better story to go with it than Jezzi. Issue #372 is a very clever and imaginative use of the tacky "bad-girl" drawing of the woman in the foreground.

Since I love magic themed captions, my fave is 371. A great cover and a great teaser you wrote. I wonder too what will happen to them now...