Feedback for My Webcomic Cover?

[thoughtbubbles]

I am working on my vertical cover for my webcomic Kill Your Darlings (for both webtoons and tapas).

Out of all of these color combinations, which one should I use (click on the images to see the full cover)? I was inspired by collages.

Feedback would be much appreciated! Thank you :))

[LunarScyphozoa]

The last two look the best in my opinion, the bright purple has a little too much contrast in the others

[thoughtbubbles]

Thank you! I really appreciate it :DD

[darthmongoose]

This is possibly going to sound a little harsh, so understand I have the best intentions to help here... I don't think you should use any of these colour combinations.

These colours are all extremely drab, lacking variety in both value (dark and light) and saturation. The text doesn't stand out and the overall impression the cover gives is a weak, murky brown. Maybe punching up the contrast for a sort of "dirty 90s Grunge" look would help keep that collage look intact while making it pop more?

The one with the coloured faces in the middle is probably the strongest in terms of popping visually, but it's also harder to read what the image is than the black and white one. Overall I'm on the fence about the collage theme. It's novel for sure, but when the intended use for the graphic is to arrest the eyes of somebody scrolling through a site or app, you may want to prioritise an image that the person doesn't have to stare at for a few seconds to work out what it is, and where the "active" part of the image isn't confined to a little blob in the middle of the page. You have strong anatomical drawing and appealing character designs, so I'd recommend putting your characters nice and big on your cover to show off both of those things.

[DualDragons]

I'll be honest here, and I'm not trying to sound like an ass, but... I don't like any of them. Atleast not as they currently are.
Reason for that being that the lower part (which says darlings I assume) is illegible for me, with the only exception being the s at the end. If you could maybe make a few more letters clearer like you did with the words above then I think it would be more readable.

I think the "kill" and "your" are slightly more solid (they could maybe be a bit clearer as well) but the main problem for me is the depiction of the word darlings. If I'd scroll through tapas and webtoon and see the cover as it is now I'd most likely skip.

Sorry if that sounded harsh

[Azifri]

I thought these were some standalone collages because I can't read the title on any of the images ._. Even knowing what the title is, I barely recognize "kill" and then a few scattered letters.

[sorible]

I agree with what everyone said above, personally I love neutrals and desaturated colors, but I'm not sure how well they would work for a cover. The lettering for your title sort of reminds me of p5 font:

Something like this that's bold and pops out will get a lot more clicks

[yumeryuu]

I can't read it. I think you should reconsider your design.

The reason being is,

my eyesight is not amazing as it is. It's not colorblindness but due to the color combinations you used, the lettering is very difficult to read for me.

[thoughtbubbles]

@sorible @DualDragons @yumeryuu @Azifri

First of all, thank you so much for the feedback! (And no, none of you are being mean, you're being honest and I really appreciate that :DD )

Regarding the lettering, it's illegible because all of these are drafts. In the first draft - which I have attached here:

You can see what the lettering is actually supposed to look like. For the final version the cover, I will be bringing this crisp version of the lettering back, but for now, I'm more concerned about the colors.

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@darthmongoose
I can definitely see where you're coming from! You're right that there isn't a lot of saturation or value, which is why I'm trying to get feedback from people to tweek the colors until they look right.

Part of the reason why I want to keep the cover a bit monotone is because my webcomic is in black and white, and I wanted to show a little of that in my cover as well (also because I heard from a couple of readers that it was a little frustrating how they would click on my current colorful cover and expect the webcomic to be in color, only to see that it's black and white).

I'll try increasing the character's size and see if that helps prioritize the "active part." I'lll probably also make the paper-rip texture a little bigger too. For the background, I'll try keeping it simple as blocks of color instead of lined details and see if that also help with the "active part" of the cover.

Thank you so much for the detailed critique!!

[DesiredUsernameTaken]

This is lovely! I don't have a big eye for professional art criticism, so all I can say is that it looks really nice. The colors are working for me. In a sea of covers that tend to have a lot of brighter, brilliant colors, the ones that don't end up standing out more. I'm also super biased toward wood tones. What the title says, and the imagery around the cover (the knife, the glaring eyes, "My Enemy", "War"), contrasts with the natural, calming colors in an interesting way. The boxed-in letters add in a feeling of "This is going to be a fun journey; expect some comedy" (but can also add more of a creepy feeling, because they look like children's play blocks almost. It's like how horror movies use lullabies, and suddenly those sound chilling), and the the rest is so artsy and creative.

As for the images in your original post, I don't see a whole lot of difference between any of the pictures so I'm useless there. The one at the bottom stands out a bit more. I think it'd be easier to tell if I saw the actual letters with the background comparisons (and, because of color relativity, the look of the background color can change depending on the color of the letter you put at the front, so seeing them with and without the letters may give different results).