If you can properly define the problem, then you've already defined the solution as well.
I am all for the iPad, but trust me - smelling it will get you nowhere.
A book cover is a distillation. It is a haiku of the story.
I think too many comic book covers are way too busy, crammed with far too much information, both visual and verbal, that just becomes a dull noise.
Antisappointment. Anticipation colliding head-on with the certainty of its own doom.
Design is, literally, purposeful planning. Graphic Design, then, is the form those plans will take.