Forum:Covering cover art
If this thread's title doesn't specify it's spoilery, don't bring any up.
Titled illustrations are valid on this wiki, but there's one set of illustrations I feel warrant coverage despite usually not having their own titles: cover art.
Various pieces of cover art have depicted unique scenes featuring DWU elements, whether they be solely focused on the DW-related parts, or if they're a crossover with other series. I feel these generally both warrant coverage. Some cover art is explicitly intended to tie-in to a singular story, in which case I see no issue with covering it as "part of" that story (as, as far as I'm aware, is current policy) - however, other cover art is intended to tie-in with the publication as a whole, and this cover art is often either not covered, or images from it are used to illustrate stuff from it, but without covering the whole scene surrounding the illustration, which seems bizarre to me.
Stuff relating to this has previously been discussed at Talk:Wild Thymes on the 22 (illustration), which I'd recommend reading prior to getting too far into this thread, as it details previous discussion on the topic.
TV Comic[[edit source]]
Several TV Comic annuals and holiday specials have depicted unique scenes featuring the various characters featured within the books. I feel that those of these that feature Doctor Who elements should surely be covered on this wiki, both for use on the pages for the DWU elements, and on pages for the elements that cross over.
Paul Hanley cover art[[edit source]]
A notable instance of cover art which is effectively its own instalment in an anthology of works is the various works by Paul Hanley. For example, the art of Iris Wildthyme of Mars features appearances by various Martian species from popular culture (such as Marvin the Martian), while Wild Thymes on the 22 features Jodie Whittaker, the book's in-universe counterpart, the debut of Janice Hoffman, and a crossover with The Unthinkables through an appearance by Bloody Mary. The latter case has been somewhat controversial, largely because cover art isn't currently considered coverable, but also because it was used as an excuse to cover Warp Hustler as a "spinoff" (Janice went on to star in said series) - whether we should consider series coverable, I think is its own can of worms, so I don't think that should be discussed here. Nevertheless, I do think these covers warrant coverage on the wiki as sources.
Other cover art[[edit source]]
Various other comic books have featured cover art that I feel should be covered. For example, TMBC 8 features cover art depicting the Doctor's TARDIS in outer space, alongside Scooby-Doo and ALF, among others. As with the previous examples, I do feel that this should be covered here, although I'm not certain on if it'd be valid. A more DW-oriented example that comes to mind is two variant covers for 15D 1, those being the SDCC and Strange Adventures variants. Both of these seem to depict wholly original scenes not featured in the comic books (although I've admittedly not read them yet). Notably, the SDCC variant seems to me like it'd be invalid, as it appears to break the fourth wall to a degree; I do however think it's something that ought to be covered on pages such as Fifteenth Doctor/Non-valid sources. The Strange Adventures variant, on the other hand, simply seems to be an original scene of Dr Who and his companion, which could easily be valid.
How would they be covered?[[edit source]]
I'm not certain of what naming scheme should be used for these, although I feel that titles such as "Wild Thymes on the 22 cover art (illustration)" would work - I'm unsure how I feel about titles like "TMBC 8 cover art (illustration)", but I suppose they get the point across. Naturally, these would be covered as illustrations, cited with the "GRAPHIC" prefix. An alternative to this was suggested in Talk:Wild Thymes on the 22 (illustration) (which, as stated earlier, is quite relevant previous discussion of this topic), where the cover art would be cited to the anthology itself - although I personally have a distaste for such mixing of coverage (with the source being on the same page as the anthology), this does seem to be an option which multiple people think is plausible, so y'know, make your own minds up.
If the interaction by Combat Colin is to be taken as part of the source, the aforementioned cover of TMBC 8 would perhaps more appropriately be covered as a "comic story", as with other single-panel art like Promposal [+]Loading...["Promposal (comic story)"]; the same would of course apply to other similar cover art featuring speech bubbles.
I don't feel that all cover art should be covered - some cover art, such as the surprisingly popular "heads floating in space" style, are generally not their own "thing". I feel this should be handled case-by-case, based on whether the art is really meant to be "its own thing" or not. Obviously, art created to illustrate a specific story (e.g. a Big Finish cover) should be covered as part of said story - this forum only aims to allow coverage of cover art not directly attached to a specific story. Cookieboy 2005 ☎ 23:35, 9 December 2024 (UTC)
Discussion[[edit source]]
I agree wholeheartedly with covering cover art! As for how to cover them… the best potential solution I can offer is to have the pages on the books or issues they come from double as source pages. For example: (GRAPHIC: TVC Holiday Special 1966). WaltK ☎ 16:00, 10 December 2024 (UTC)
