A Cover a Day

[Steve W]

Ok, how about this for an idea.  We take it in turns to post a favourite (British spelling) comic cover every day.  This went really well on the comic fan website that I used to frequent.  What we tried to do was find a theme or subject and follow that, until we all got bored with that theme.  I'd like to propose a theme of letters of the alphabet. So, for the remainder of October (only 5 days) and all of November, we post comic cover pictures associated with the letter "A".  Then in December, we post covers pertaining to the letter "B".  The association to the letter can be as tenuous as you want it to be. For example I could post a cover from "Adventure Comics" or "Amazing Spider Man".  However Spider Man covers can also be posted when we're on the letter "S".  Adventure Comic covers could also be posted when we're on the letter "L" if they depict the Legion of Super Heroes.  So, no real hard, fast rules - in fact the cleverer the interpretation of the letter, the better, as far as I'm concerned.

And it's not written in stone that we have to post a cover every day. There may be some days when no cover gets posted. There's nothing wrong with this, it just demonstrates that we all have lives to lead.

If everyone's in agreement I'd like to kick this off with one of my favourite Action Comic covers, from January 1967. Curt Swan really excelled himself here.

Date	Page/Reply	Theme (and clickable link)	Pages	Replies
Oct 2016	1/1	Letter A	19	228
Dec 2016	20/1	Letter B	17	207
Jan 2017	37/4	Letter C	18	214
Feb 2017	55/2	Letter D	17	208
Mar 2017	72/6	Letter E	15	178
Apr 2017	87/4	Letter F	15	184
May 2017	102/8	Letter G	13	157
Jun 2017	115/9	Letter H	16	195
Jul 2017	131/12	Letter I	12	133
Aug 2017	143/1	Letter J	16	194
Sep 2017	159/3	Letter K	19	237
Oct 2017	178/12	Letter L	24	285
Nov 2017	202/9	Letter M	24	280
Dec 2017	226/1	Letter N	19	236
Jan 2018	245/9	Letter O	21	245
Feb 2018	266/7	Letter P	25	295
Mar 2018	291/2	Letters Q & R	20	243
Apr 2018	311/5	Letter S	22	270
May 2018	333/11	Superman’s 80th anniversary	21	250
Jun 2018	354/9	Letter T	21	250
Jul 2018	375/7	Letter U	17	207
Aug 2018	392/10	Letter V	19	228
Sep 2018	411/10	Letter W	20	233
Oct 2018	431/3	Letter X	15	180
Nov 2018	446/3	Letter Y	13	156
Dec 2018	459/3	Letter Z	13	156
Jan 2019	472/3	Person being carried	16	190
Feb 2019	488/1	Real people	17	214
Mar 2019	505/11	Homages/parodies	19	224
Apr 2019	524/7	Green-skinned people	17	207
May 2019	541/10	Wanted posters	17	201
Jun 2019	558/7	Boxing rings	15	180
Jul 2019	573/7	Empty uniforms	15	177
Aug 2019	588/4	Beaches	25	297
Sep 2019	613/1	Apes	28	340
Oct 2019	641/5	Haunted houses/graves	21	250
Nov 2019	662/3	Motor bikes	21	254
Dec 2019	683/5	Foreign language covers	17	209
Jan 2020	700/10	Playing cards/tabletop games	23	275
Feb 2020	723/9	Valentines and Cupids	22	259
Mar 2020	745/4	Statues	21	256
Apr 2020	766/8	Elephants	22	263
May 2020	788/7	Heroes & villains cooperating	17	198
Jun 2020	805/1	The Moon	26	322
Jul 2020	831/11	Flags & patriotic symbols	18	215
Aug 2020	849/10	Foreign locations (non-US)	20	233
Sep 2020	869/3	MST3K (with commentary)	24	292
Oct 2020	893/7	Vampires and Werewolves	20	245
Nov 2020	913/12	Giants	24	286
Dec 2020	937/10	Snow & winter scenes	24	289
Jan 2021	961/11	Doppelgängers	32	377
Feb 2021	993/4	Movies	23	275
Mar 2021	1016/3	Cats/cat-themed adventurers	22	263
Apr 2021	1038/2	Dogs/dog-themed adventurers	25	305
May 2021	1063/7	Big guns/Heavy weaponry	25	302
Jun 2021	1088/9	Dinosaurs/Time Travel	28	338
Jul 2021	1116/11	Big Questions/Question Marks	28	330
Aug 2021	1144/5	Highways, Travel etc	19	232
Sep 2021	1163/9	Favourite Covers/Comics	28	330
Oct 2021	1191/3	Lineups	21	260
Nov 2021	1212/11	JSA 80th Anniversary	23	269
Dec 2021	1235/4	Logos in the action	26	317
Jan 2022	1261/9	Dynamic Duos	29	348
Feb 2022	1290/9	Romantic Scenes	26	313
Mar 2022	1316/10	Bridges	29	339
Apr 2022	1345/1	Unexpected Green	23	286
May 2022	1368/11	Neal Adams
Jun 2022		George Perez
Jul 2022		Parents
Aug 2022		Fairgrounds/Carnivals

[Dave Palmer]

[Peter Wrexham]

Steve W said:

Peter, your ingenuity knows no bounds!  May I suggest a career in programming/computing!  

Thanks, Steve, but it's too late for that - I retired from one about 7 or 8 years ago!

Anyway, onwards and upwards. Here's the Portuguese version of the Legion

That's a seriously off-brand version of Tharok and Validus.  And it looks remarkably as if they're menacing Marvel's (Carol Danvers) Captain Marvel, as well as Superboy, Cosmic Boy and - er - maybe Sun Boy?

My contribution for today is a Lebanese version of Batman.

Here's what the cover originally looked like.

[Richard Willis]

Hal Jordan in trouble again, from Spain

[Steve W]

In Danish, the Legion of Super-Heroes is Rummets Helte. Who knew?

[Dave Palmer]

I think this month’s theme is going to inspire some detective work.  The cover to the issue before the one Steve W posted was from Adventure #353 with the Fatal Five.

 The scene on the cover Steve W posted arguably is from page 21 (panel 3) also from Adventure #353.

The characters with Superboy would appear to be Princess Projectra with her costume and skin colored quite differently, Cosmic Boy, and Sun Boy—the mostly obscured character in the back has a collar like Sun Boy.  Interestingly, the artwork evokes John Forte to me.
  
Steve W said:

@PeterWrexham

Peter, your ingenuity knows no bounds!  May I suggest a career in programming/computing!  

I took your table, pasted it into a spreadsheet and sorted the columns so that we can see which are the most popular letters/themes.  If we assume that the 'replies' column is roughly equivalent of covers posted, then we have a clear winner.

Date	Page/Reply	Theme (and clickable link)	Pages	Replies
Sep-19	613/6	Apes	28	340
Aug-19	588/5	Beaches	25	297
Feb-18	266/7	Letter P	25	295
Oct-17	178/12	Letter L	24	285
Nov-17	202/9	Letter M	24	280
Apr-18	311/5	Letter S	22	270
Jun-18	354/9	Letter T	21	251
May-18	333/11	Superman’s 80th anniversary	21	250
Oct-19	641/4	Haunted houses/graves	21	250
Jan-18	245/9	Letter O	21	245
Mar-18	291/2	Letters Q & R	20	243
Nov-19	662/4	Motor bikes	20	242
Sep-17	159/3	Letter K	19	237
Dec-17	226/1	Letter N	19	236
Sep-18	411/11	Letter W	20	233
Oct-16	01-Jan	Letter A	19	228
Aug-18	392/11	Letter V	19	228
Mar-19	505/12	Homages/parodies	19	224
Jan-17	37/4	Letter C	18	214
Feb-19	488/2	Real people	17	214
Feb-17	55/2	Letter D	17	208
Dec-16	20-Jan	Letter B	17	207
Jul-18	375/8	Letter U	17	207
Apr-19	524/8	Green-skinned people	17	207
May-19	541/11	Wanted posters	17	201
Jun-17	115/9	Letter H	16	195
Aug-17	143/1	Letter J	16	194
Jan-19	472/4	Person being carried	16	190
Apr-17	87/4	Letter F	15	184
Oct-18	431/4	Letter X	15	180
Jun-19	558/8	Boxing rings	15	180
Mar-17	72/6	Letter E	15	178
Jul-19	573/8	Empty uniforms	15	177
May-17	102/8	Letter G	13	157
Nov-18	446/4	Letter Y	13	156
Dec-18	459/4	Letter Z	13	156
Jul-17	131/12	Letter I	12	133
Dec-19	682/6	Foreign language covers
Jan-20		Playing cards etc
Feb-20		Valentines and cupids
Mar-20		Statues?

Interesting to see that the letter 'P' was the top letter out of all the letters of the alphabet. Wonder why?

I would have thought "S" would have been more popular than "P". 

Fairly obvious why the letter "I" was bottom of the pile.

Anyway, onwards and upwards. Here's the Portuguese version of the Legion.

[Luke Blanchard]

My last for November

I don't know if you noticed, but they're both signed by Jack Keller, the long-running Kid Colt artist. He also signed Steve's cover Nov. 18 and your cover Nov. 25. He did a lot of gearhead material for Charlton. Possibly also the Charlton covers in Dave's posts Nov. 13 and 29, but they're not signed and I don't know what the GCD thinks. 

Dave's Nov. 8 choice, Sgt. Fury #47, blurbs the title as "Tea and Sabotage". That's a play on the title of a once-famous play, Tea and Sympathy.

[JD DeLuzio]

This isn't a translation, but an unauthorized French comic. I saw it on the newstands the first time I went there, but I was low on funds and traveling light, so I do not own a copy:

[Dave Palmer]

From Norway

[Peter Wrexham]

Steve W said:

In Danish, the Legion of Super-Heroes is Rummets Helte. Who knew?

According to Google translate, that means "heroes of the room".  I suspect that a more accurate translation might be "space heroes".

Here's another Danish cover, of a team-up between Batman og Grønne Lygte.

I assume that this is the original version (featuring Batman and Green Lantern, of course).

[Steve W]

This is fascinating stuff - I knew it would be.

"Nembo Kid" was one of the first Italian publications that dealt with US superheroes. Yes it is Superman, but they've renamed him 'Nembo Kid'. 'Nembo' is Italian for the cloud they call nimbus. The 'S' on his chest was painstakingly removed in every issue and from the covers. First his breastplate was made red and in later issues it became yellow. Instead of naming everything 'super' the Italians dubbed everything into 'ultra' to describe his powers. In the sixties, publisher Mondadori had Italian creators devise new stories to fill the weekly title. Under pressure from the moral guardians 'Garanzia Morale' (see their logo on some of the later comics) the writers cut back on the fantasy aspects of the comic. Their vision of Superman is weaker, he hardly flies at all and is often seen jogging to the rescue. The issues are small in size, some people complained the writing could hardly be read.

The first 527 issues bore the name Nembo Kid after which it was renamed Superman Nembo Kid which continued the same numbering. (Thanks to Wikipedia for this).

[Steve W]

[Richard Willis]

Even though "super" is a Latin word which means the same thing in English, French, Italian and Spanish, they chose to avoid the word. I once heard the explanation that the word "superman" was associated with the Nazis.