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.

Fairgrounds/Carnivals

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
Aug 2022		Fairgrounds/Carnivals

[Peter Wrexham]

Two opposing groups lined up to fight.

Two opposing groups lined up to recruit.

Two opposing groups lined up to perform an "unholy ritual"!

A single group in two lines to form a gauntlet.

[Richard Willis]

My month-ending transition cover. A line-up of JSA members.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

[JD DeLuzio]

Gravely crossing over to next month:

This old Archie digest does not feature a line-up, but it does have a strange, Twilight-Zone-like quality suited to the season, as dim-witted Moose shows a vague awareness of the dark truth underlying Riverdale:

[Dave Palmer]

That was a fun month.  I have a bunch of left over covers.  I’ll see how many I can “repackage” as threes of a kind.

Some covers were good matches to the original theme (“two groups racing toward each other”)

Some were from different angles

a surprising number featured The Justice Machine, even when they didn’t

some weren’t real, although they should have been

some were a mess, although this one does allow for a transition to November

[Peter Wrexham]

Here's my final set of covers for the month.

Two opposing teams lined up: A-Next versus the Thunder Guard.

One group surrounding another: the Global Guardians vs Justice League America.  One of my favourite covers this month, but wouldn't it have been better if the replies were in multiple languages?

"Umm -- Can we talk?"

"Non!"; "Nein!"; "Nyet!"; "Nee!"; "¡No!"; "Nie!"...

Lots of people lined up as victims of "The Mad Piper of Camp Bravo".

I'll make my final selection in honour of the fact that the BBC starts broadcasting the new series in about two hours, by choosing a cover that showcases a lineup of Doctors Who.

[Philip Portelli]

Ending this month and starting next month: JSA VS JSA!

[Steve W]

Sorry, haven't been posting much this last fortnight - I struggled a bit with the 'lineup' theme.  However I'll leave you with this one and hope it hasn't already been posted.

One question about November's theme - are we just restricted to posting JSA covers, or can we post some JLA covers too?

[Lee Houston, Junior]

HAPPY HALLOWEEN FOLKS!

The monsters are all lined up for autographs, but disappointed Dean Martin isn't with him.

In any event, have my first JSA covers ready for tomorrow and personally, I think JSAers on other covers would be okay Steve W.; but I'll leave it to the judges to make an official ruling.

(Image courtesy of the Grand Comics Database.)

[Peter Wrexham]

Steve W said:

One question about November's theme - are we just restricted to posting JSA covers, or can we post some JLA covers too?

The theme was chosen to celebrate the JSA's 80th anniversary, so surely any cover that has a bearing on any part of their history should be acceptable?  JSA, JLA, All-Star, Spectre, whatever.  I have in mind a couple of covers that seem to me to be relevant, even though they don't directly involve any members of the JSA at all!  Heck, if Jeff can find a connection between Baby Huey and the JSA, or Dave can come up with a link with Little Audrey, why not go for it?

[Lee Houston, Junior]

Happy November, and HAPPY 80TH ANNIVERSARY to the legendary Justice Society of America!

At the dawn of comic books, all titles were anthologies. Some built around a theme (Action, Detective, More Fun, etc) while others had a lead character (Flash also contained Hawkman and Johnny Thunder, among others.)

All Star Comics started out as a traditional anthology...

But with issue 3 a radical (for its time) new concept was introduced: the SUPER TEAM!

Yet while the Winter 1940 issue of All Star debuted the legendary Justice Society of America, even the cover admitted that it was just their first meeting, as the characters only related their individual stories that were already slated to be published that issue.

The team's first true adventure (before retconning) wasn't reported until issue 4, going against spies and saboteurs at the request of the FBI, although America officially entering World War 2 after the bombing of Pearl Harbor was still months away.

And the rest is history. There would be roster changes along the way, with the next major development occurring in issue 8. Why that event didn't even get mentioned on the cover is beyond me, but I'll save that for either someone else or another day.

(All images courtesy of the Grand Comics Database.)

[JD DeLuzio]

Sing along with the JSA!

I suspect they're trying to indicate that Hawkman is standing in the darkness, but it rather looks as though someone forget to colour him in.