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	26	310
Jun 2022	1394/9	George Perez	19	227
Jul 2022	1413/8	Parents	30	356
Aug 2022	1443/4	Fairgrounds and Carnivals
Sep 2022		Joe Kubert
Oct 2022		First and last issues
Nov 2022		Classrooms?

[Dave Palmer]

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[JD DeLuzio]

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[Jeff of Earth-J]

FOR LOVERS ONLY #73: "Yet it carries the comics code seal of approval."

The CCA was nothing inf not inconsistent. 

FLASH #198: "Surely expressing opinions about religion was a no-no for the comics code?"

Man, I have never even seen that cover before!

[Dave Palmer]

What the Code said in 1970 was

“Ridicule or attack on any religious or racial group is never permissible.”

This didn’t change with the 1971 revision.

Here’s something we should ask:  “Mr. Kane, is that squiggle on Flash’s chest supposed to be a lightning bolt?”

Steve W said:

And while we're on the subject of the Comics Code, how the hell did this one get past them? This comic came out in June 1970, and would appear to insult both Christians and atheists. Surely expressing opinions about religion was a no-no for the comics code?

[Dave Palmer]

I would think this comic and its premise would be a tad more touchy under the Code

[Jeff of Earth-J]

"I would think this comic and its premise would be a tad more touchy under the Code"

...and this one. (Tony Isabella could tell you more about that.)

[Dave Palmer]

In the final analysis this story is 180 degrees from what Tony Isabella intended.  

[Richard Willis]

Flash #198(JUN1970) has two stories, the other being Flash's portion of the continuing Zatanna story. The cover has him praying to God. The synopsis of this 14-page story on dc.fandom.com/wiki says "The Flash's head is grazed by a bullet while he is performing for three orphans, regressing him mentally to an eight-year-old." Grand Comics Database agrees with this synopsis except that it says "a blow to the head."

So if someone prays to God the implication is that his or her mind is addled. That does seem to disparage all religions with a single supreme being (Christianity, Judaism and Islam). I guess it doesn't disparage a specific religion, so the Code wouldn't necessarily disapprove it. Code enforcement depended upon who was doing the review, what they had for breakfast and the phase of the moon. Atheists were not considered and were held in public contempt back then (In 1954 the words "under God" were added to the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance). I'm sure the rights of Atheists were not even thought about by the Code reviewers.

[Richard Willis]

This cover had Superbaby (oddly, in full costume) freeing a so-called "killer bear" from a bear trap. Did the bear just trigger the trap? If not, were the campers happily sitting there after the bear was trapped? Did they think that Superbaby would just watch them being killed and eaten rather than stop the bear? Inquiring minds want to know!

[Richard Willis]

I read this one in 1961, when I was 13(!), but surprisingly don't remember it. the DC Fandom synopsis tells me that aliens for their own reasons set up a carnival. The distorting mirror actually changes the JLA members as shown on the cover. Why would the aliens change them instead of just avoiding them? Apparently, JLA figures out how to use the mirror to reverse the effect after defeating the aliens while in their altered bodies.

  

[Dave Palmer]

“We decide to take a night off from evil doing, go to the discotheque and relax, AND still the Avengers won’t leave us alone.”

[Steve W]

And, judging by their hand actions, I would say they were almost certainly dancing to 'YMCA' by The Village People.  Which is strange because that particular record wasn't due to come out until 15 years later!

Dave Palmer said:

“We decide to take a night off from evil doing, go to the discotheque and relax, AND still the Avengers won’t leave us alone.”