Gabriel Hardman Should Have 'Hulk' Covered

I’m usually not a fan of one artist illustrating the cover of a comic book (it’s usually a huge industry name) and another artist completing the interiors. It makes me feel as though I’m being duped. Unless it’s Alex Ross or a Vertigo book, where the artist is not a monthly-title-guy or the cover is meant to set a tone, I prefer to immediately see the goods I’m purchasing.

The most immediate example has been the last two covers of Hulk, which former Hulk Artist Ed McGuiness has drawn (cover for Hulk #25, right). While McGuiness is no slouch, the current artist on the book is Gabriel Hardman and his Hulk is also something to behold (interior from Hulk #25 above). To be fair, Hardman did get one of the variant covers for the last issue—which, incidentally, moved me to pick up this title that I had not been reading.

My assumption is that Marvel wants to remove the Band-Aid slowly for fans of the successful Jeph Loeb/McGuiness run on the book. However, I have immediately become an enormous fan of Hardman’s and think that it has more than enough strength to sell this title. I’m hopeful Hardman will soon get to provide readers with covers that are as impressive as his interior work.

While we’re on the subject, some of Hardman’s amazing pages from issue #26 are on sale at Cadence Comic Art. A perfect holiday gift for any fan of the new Jeff Parker/Hardman run on Hulk (hint inserted here).