Sketch Cover Today, Published Cover Tomorrow?
Sketch covers are the people’s original art. Whether you commission your favorite established artist or grab something from an upcomer, blank variants have made it possible for us to enjoy original comic art on actual books themselves. I love my published covers and my larger commissions, but there is nothing like looking at OA at the same size and scale that forever that captured my imagination as a child.
I’ve always treated sketch covers as less labor intensive/more affordable commissions, or as calling cards for tomorrow’s art superstars. With that said, a single published issue from nearly two years ago changed all of that.
Far Sector #9 cover B by Meghan Hetrick
Far Sector #9 was published in December of 2020 and featured cover art by Meghan Hetrick. The cover, featured above, is not bad, but it’s nothing spectacular either. For published work, it’s pretty ho-hum. However, an original sketch cover by the same artist with similar composition was a must purchase earlier that year when I came across it on eBay.
Captain Marvel by Meghan Hetrick on an The Infinity Gauntlet blank sketch variant
The Far Sector incident made me wonder just how many published works draw inspiration from private commissions? Was last week’s hot variant basically an artist taking their favorite sketch concept from the last big con, and giving it professional polish and detail? For obvious reasons, it is very difficult to obtain visual evidence and objective information about this topic. Still, you best believe that I’ve kept my eyes and ears open anything relevant that I could find.
The following Alex Maleev Punisher sketches and their more well-known, published clones were just what I’ve been looking for.
Punisher Sketch Cover by Alex Maleev
Punisher #1 (2016) 1:25 Variant by Alex Maleev
According to a Comic Art Fans post, this sketch variant’s owner believes that Alex Maleev created this after the variant seen below.
Punisher #3 (2014) 1:50 Variant by Alex Maleev
These examples bring a couple of questions to mind.
Should these sketch covers be assigned any additional value if it can be proven that they were created before their published counterparts? Original sketch cover/preliminary art for a published cover sounds like it could be expensive.
Would it matter to you if it were revealed that the artist did not come up with the concept for a sketch cover that was reworked into a published cover?
The answers are obviously bigger than me or any particular individual in this hobby. However, we still want to hear your opinion on all of this. Fire away in the comments!