Boom's Big Year: Looking Back At The 10th Anniversary Covers

Boom Studios had an impressive 2015, thanks to a stong roster of new titles by exceptionally talented creators --- with standouts that include Welcome Back, The Fiction, Cognetic, Curb Stomp, Diesel, The Spire, Wild's End, and... well, you get the picture. It was a good year.

Tthat must come as a relief to the publisher, because this was also Boom's tenth year in the business, and that put those folks in a partying mood. One notable way they marked the anniversary was with special variant covers that celebrated both their books and the artists working on them. As the clock ticks down on 2015, we've collected the covers together in one gallery for you to enjoy.

"The caliber of talent that contributed to our 10 Years cover program this year was really inspiring," Boom Studios editor-in-chief Matt Gagnon told us. "From Trevor Hairsine and Ramón K, Pérez, to Frazer Irving and Rob Guillory, I can't thank each of our artists enough for helping us commemorate such an important milestone. And I've gotta give a special shout-out to Felipe Smith who illustrated six of the seven covers in the final quarter.

"I'd also be remiss if I didn't give our Production Design Manager, Scott Newman, some recognition for creating the crisp, eye-catching template that formed the basis for all of these beautiful covers."

Shelli Paroline and Braden Lamb, who got their start in comics on Boom's Adventure Time comics, illustrated three of the covers. "Our favorite is the Giant Days cover," said Paroline. "It's never easy to draw a cover for the first issue of a series, but it was great to get a preview of the project, especially since I'm a big fan of John Allison's work. I'm happy that it's conceptual instead of being just a scene --- it reminds me a lot of a manga cover in that sense."

Working within Newman's template presented an interesting challenge, but one that the artists seemed to respond well to.

"All I really had to do was work within the designated space and find an interesting layout that would hopefully prompt the reader to open the book in order to see the full wrap-around image," said Felipe Smith. "I think some of my images give you a more complete story when you see what's drawn on the back cover." Smith's favorite of his covers was for Venus, though he's also especially proud of his Cognetic cover.

For Lamb, the biggest challenge was the Munchkin cover. "I got myself into trouble by trying to cram in everything I could. I wanted to include more references to specific cards, but decided that inventing new things was more in the spirit of the game."

We'll leave the final word on Boom's celebrations to Paroline; "In only 10 years, Boom has made such a big impact on the comic scene. Let's party!"