The Harbinger #2 Spotlight: Inside Front Cover

 

The Harbinger #2 Cover B by Nik Virella

On the inside front cover of The Harbinger #2, we see a Chicago backstreet, with the corner of a brick wall immediately before us.

The Harbinger #2: Inside Front Cover

Signs and flyers have been affixed to this wall. The one for The Harbinger seems to be wearing away, but was stuck there with pretty powerful adhesive. While the name is professionally printed, the emblem or logo resembles the graphiti likely sprayed on nearby walls.

The lettering atop the Wanted poster looks like it was printed on an old machine, and the red ink is fading. Either that, or the individual letter stamps had worn away, or simply didn't get enough ink on them.

In the photo, we see Peter standing before what looks to be enlargements from mugshots taken by the police. I wonder if he was standing in the police station when this photo was taken. Or did someone snap it outside, when Peter paused before a giant wanted poster of himself.

The latter possibility reminds me of when Livewire suddenly stopped in a Paris backstreet, and gazed upon a Wanted Poster of herself in Livewire #2.

Perhaps some might look at this lettering, and see a goblet, or merely two triangles with their points merging in the middle. Thanks in part to the central diagonal crease, I see a heart. But then, for all the bad things Peter Stanchek has done, he's still a man who yearns to do good.

You could definitely say he has a lot of heart.

The elements have given the Wanted Poster a beating. Perhaps the paper isn't top quality. But whatever they used to affix it to the brick wall isn't holding either.

I wonder if the poster beneath this one is for someone else. Then the police heard that Peter Stanchek was in town, and figured he was Chicago's Most Wanted.

Lastly, notice this glimpse of Chicago beyond the brick wall. I don't know if Robbi Rodriguez and Rico Renzi created it, but it throbs with the city's life and energy. The pink lighting reflecting off the wires suggest we're in Psiot City, that portion of Chicago which the psiot community has tried to make their safe haven.

Who else puts so much creativity and detail into a design for a comic book's inside front cover?

Only Valiant Comics, in my experience.

Dragon Dave