Cover Girl: Coady and the Creepies #1

Each month, we gather a team of WWAC contributors to analyze a new and notable comic book cover featuring a woman. This month Melissa, Alenka, Alexis and Rosie look at Coadie and the Creepies #1.

Coady and the Creepies #1

Written by Liz Prince and illustrated by Amanda Kirk, with colours by Hannah Fisher and letters by Jim Campbell
Cover by Kate Leyh
Published by BoomBox
Released March 15, 2017

What is your initial reaction to this as a piece of comic art?

Melissa Brinks: I love this! I keep coming back to this cover and finding something new to like about it. But if I take a step back and think about my very first impression, it was mostly an admiration for the facial expressions. There’s so much great personality in each character. The drummer looks like she’s lost in the music. The girl on the left has the perfect punk-rock sneer, and the girl on the right looks like she’s shredding away and having a blast. While this is obviously a bit better composed than my amateur concert photography from back in the day, the combination of the bright, unnatural colors, the varied facial expressions, and the audience’s framing of the performance give this cover great energy. I get an immediate sense of what Coady and the Creepies’ music sounds like–loud, rhythmic, fast–and the 16-year-old me that went to local hardcore shows and did stupid things for fun wants to be right where we’re situated where the cover’s point of view is. Third-ish row, center, just close enough that your ears will be ringing into the next day.

Alenka Figa: Colors colors colors! I’m totally in love with the colors. The lettering style and neon pink/yellow of the title reminds me of vintage horror movie posters, and the paranormal yellows, blues, and greens perfectly communicate the ghostly nature of the story. As Melissa notes, Leyh doesn’t sacrifice any punk rock ethos in favor of the horror elements; this cover is a perfect blend of punk rock and ghost story. I also like how the viewer’s eye scans up, ending at the drummer’s strange, partially see-through arm. In addition to creating the sense that you’re farther back in the crowd, staring up at a pretty awesome band, it alludes to some of the mystery of the comic. The drummer is a ghost, maybe? If I had noticed this out of the corner of my eye at my LCS, I would definitely have picked it up.

Alexis Sergio: My first reaction when I saw this solicited was, “Oh, this is going on my pull.” I gotta echo pretty much everything Melissa is saying, and I like Alenka adore the colors. I just think these girls look badass in a fun way. I want to read these punks adventures and I love the expressions that are just filled with their passion on their faces. Not to mention the really cool crowd just adding that extra level of cool.

Rosie Knight: This cover is amazing! This is the sort of book that would immediately make me pick it up off the shelf and likely buy it. The use of colour is just incredible, and like Alenka says, it really invokes that radical classic horror vibe. I love how cool this cover is; it makes me want to be a part of the story the comic is telling as well as a part of the band in the image! I adore that every time you look at the cover you see something new. At first, it’s just some rad girls playing some killer tunes, but you slowly notice that the audience is full of ghouls and demons, and maybe, just maybe, the drummer is a ghost? How rad is that?

What do you think Kat Leyh is trying to achieve?

Alexis Sergio: One of the most apparent things to me was the ability inclusivity. I mean, above trying to capture the spirit of ladies being kick ass punk rockers (and I think the cover achieves that), I think it wanted to show women were connected, but were clearly different. It does a great job of all it’s goals here.

Melissa Brinks: There’s a great sense of motion and excitement in the colors and postures, which gives me the impression that this comic will be fun. Not just funny or exciting, but a particular mix of adventure and character-driven story that’s right up my alley. Now, to be fair, I don’t actually know what the comic is like yet, but the combination of the facial expressions, the bright, vivid colors, and the assortment of supernatural audience members all make me want to pick it up. Each time I come back to it I find some new detail to appreciate, which I hope is how the comic will feel too.

Alenka: To echo Melissa, there’s a real dynamism to the cover. As it’s a first issue, I think Leyh is trying to emphasize that this will be fun and probably a bit wild. Each character also has a lot of personality, all communicated via fashion, facial expression, and even instrument. (We all associate certain kinds of personalities with certain instruments, right? That’s what TV and other media about bands has done to my brain!) I think Leyh is telling us that this will be fast and fun, but also character-driven.

Rosie: I think Kate Lyeh was probably going for a unique look that let the prospective reader know exactly what this comic is about, and in my opinion, she nailed it. I get non-stop cool girl punk rock vibes from this image, with a bunch of radical folk playing a bunch of instruments and having a whole bunch of fun in a slightly dark monster filled world.

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Alenka Figa

Alenka Figa

Alenka is a queer librarian and intense cat parent. When not librarian-ing they spend their days reading zines and indie comics and listening to D&D podcasts. Find them on Bluesky @uprightgarfield.

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