the best of 2010 - album art and packaging

first up for my "best of 2010" feature is my favorite album art and packaging from this year's music releases. simplicity is this year's big winner. be sure to click on the images to get a larger view of all the glory.

here are my top 5 album covers...

1 - deftones - diamond eyes

simple but at the same time majestic, powerful, beautiful, and graceful. an epic album deserves an epic cover. i will leave it at that.

2 - august burns red - home

ABR's live cd / dvd set, put together by my favorite design team, invisible creature. this art wins in every possible way. and it doesn't stop with just the cover, as the theme is expanded throughout the liner notes and packaging. great stuff.

3 - anberlin - dark is the way, light is a place

this cover probably fits the mood of it's corresponding album better than any other on my list. dark yet beautiful. once again simple wins here.

4 - my chemical romance - danger days: the true lives of the fabulous kill joys

not much to say about this one other than i love it. why? i don't know, i just do.

5 - four year strong - enemy of the world

the first selection that strays just a tad from the simplistic method. okay so maybe it's more than just a "tad", but who freaking cares, this cover kicks major butt! how could i not include it? only four year strong could pull off this much awesomeness in a 4.75" x 4.75" square!



these next two are more than just nice covers but superb overall packaging...

underoath - Ø (disambiguation)

 



while i feel like the album cover by itself is just ok, the package as a whole is fantastically mesmerizing (literally). a foldout digipak consisting of weird, trippy optical illusions... a booklet with intricately and beautifully placed vellum inserts... and plenty of great extras as well. very nice. check out the goods below.

te' vinyl set 
 




















released by denovali records based out of germany, this takes the cake for my favorite vinyl packaging of the year. te' is an instrumental rock band from japan, and this set compiles their three releases into a breath-taking tri-fold gloss jacket. i picked up the clear / blue haze vinyl and it turned out gorgeous. the above layout doesn't do this one justice, but i'm too lazy to take any pics. trust me though, its so much better in person.
 

comic book stash #16

it's the last week of comics for 2010 and boy the year certainly goes out with a bang!

batman: the dark knight #1 - an excellent first issue for yet another new batman title. nice cover but i feel like the logo kills it a little bit. nonetheless, david finch brings it with this new series.

batman: detective comics #872 - another fantastic batman cover. i love the batman.

carnage #2 - hands down, the cover of the week! crazy awesome! just wish this series came out more than once every three months. but it sure is worth the wait. great issue all around.

astonishing spider-man & wolverine #4 - this continues to be a great mini-series, but just like carnage, it would be nice if it came out once a month instead of once a year (a slight exaggeration).

spider-girl #2

osborn #2 - runner-up for cover up the week! love the style of this one.

daken dark wolverine #4

x-23 #4

iron man / thor #3

x-men to serve and protect #2 - i think this is a great cover featuring some of marvel's finest!

and last but certainly not least...
hellboy: the sleeping and the dead #1 - mike mignola does it again!

let's hope the comic world continues to bring the awesomeness in 2011!

the best of 2010

throughout the next week leading up to the new year, i will be posting my "best of" lists for 2010. the lists will predominately cover music and movies, with maybe a list or two for comics thrown in as well. i always look forward to putting these together, and i hope you will enjoy reading them just as much. keep checking back throughout the week, and please feel free to argue with me in the comments about my selections. i would love to read what your favorites were for 2010 so be sure to post 'em!

comic book stash #15

new books before the holidays. some quality stuff this week...

chew #16: flambé part one - it's been much too long since the last issue, but as always chew brings a big smile to my face

haunt #12

two new bat titles today. with so many different batman titles out right now, i'm thankfully getting my dark knight fix every week
batman incorporated #2

batman annual #28 - cover of the week!

put it together with the detective comics annual from a couple of weeks ago and you get this masterpiece...
two batmen in paris! dick grayson (left) and bruce wayne (right)

the traveler #2

more vampire stuff from marvel...
deadpool #30 - if anybody can make vampires (oops i mean draculas) worth reading about, it's certainly deadpool! funny and action packed! what else could you ask for???

x-men #6 - the curse of the mutants saga finally comes to an end for everybody's favorite x-group. while this arc was far from great, it wasn't as bad as it could have been considering the subject matter. but here's hoping the next arc steps things up a bit.

namor #5

comic book stash #14

wow this was a big week... plenty of comic goodness to enjoy!

so many fantastic covers this week, but my two favorite come from, duh, jae freaking lee! two more home runs with these...

wolverine #4

deadpool pulp #4

next up we have what has been one of my favorite mini-series so far this year...
iron man rapture #3

uncanny x-force #3 - a dream on-going series so far... great characters, great writing, great art, great everything!

amazing spider-man #650 - featuring spidey's new high tech suit

two thor titles this week...
thor: first thunder #4

 

loki #2 - another awesome cover

captain america: man out of time #2

strange tales 2 #3 - i love looking at all of the cute little marvel characters :)

soldier zero #3

darkwing duck #7 - this awesome cover pays homage to a certain batman issue from back in the day

and speaking of batman, two new dark knight titles this week...
batman #705

batman and robin #18

comic book stash #13

more goodies showed up in the mail this week...

these first two feature covers from the masterful jae lee, one of my favorite artists from the comic world. and thankfully they are both stand-alone stories, so i was able to enjoy them on their own.

batman: gotham knights #59 - one of my favorite covers of all time. it's perfect.

the incredible hulk #82 - not only did jae lee draw up this fantastic cover, but his talents were also used for the interior art. so much awesome in just one comic.

dead irons hardcover collection - jae lee also had his hands in this mini-series, drawing up the covers as well as being responsible for the character designs. can you tell by now that i'm kinda a fan of his??? haha

growing up, my favorite x-man was always gambit. so i had to get this four issue mini-series from 1995 featuring the cajun himself and his not-so-good buddy, wolverine. these covers have some very nice foil stamped logos.
victims #1

victims #2

victims #3

victims #4

next up is the over-sized spider-man / batman crossover from the mid-90's featuring an awesome embossed cover. they may be cheesy, but i wish we saw more crossovers like this in today's comic universe.

i've become a big deadpool fan over the past few months so i picked this one up in order to get some insight on the character's beginnings.
x-men origins: deadpool (one shot)

and lastly, being the huge 24 fan that i am, i had to pick up the 24: omnibus, featuring all of the comics IDW published featuring the almighty jack bauer. this collection includes four one-shots and the nightfall mini-series which acts as prequel to day 1.