Niko Henrichon: Four Reasons He’s Fantastic

Here are four reasons why I’m impressed with Niko Henrichon’s cover illustration for Fantastic Four: True Story #1 which is due to hit comic book shops on Wednesday:

1. Draftsmanship: I always hate how so many comic book covers always feature overly tight artwork, in this case Henrichon does a great job of making the characters cartoony looking enough although while managing at the same time to make them look realistic. He manages to use a nice pencil technique which is very wild around the edges but held within a very tight structure. I love the fact that you can see the pencil line in this illustration.

2. Lighting: This cover has a sort of water color feeling to it which makes it pop out from the usual over saturated moody dark look that’s too common these days. On this cover Henrichon is giving the characters a believable dimension which makes them pop off the page. His light source is also coming off of the upper right of the illustration which is unusual. Also by having the background show a bit of white you get this ambient quality of being under water or in outer space.

3. Coloring: The entire illustration is held together with a cool palette of greens and blues with just a dash of yellow to warm things up. Henrichon is using color to pop each character out of the background. My guess is that Henrichon did the coloring on the computer but the illustration looks like it was done with water colors or even spray markers. With those light white streaks in front of Invisible Woman he cheats a little, but doesn’t over do it.

4. Composition: There is a dynamic triangle of characters which is frames by the rocks — you’ve got the Human Torch at the head of the arrow and Thing and Mister Fantastic anchoring the left and right sides. Invisible stands in the center of the composition with the exploration craft above her head (nice mecha by the way).