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?

[Philip Portelli]

And that Lana calls her husband "Superman-Blue" in private!

The Baron said:

I like how he says "Lois Lane", so that Lana knows he doesn't mean Lois Witkowski or Lois O'Halloran.

Philip Portelli said:

This is one of my favorite "Imaginary Stories". And I always felt sorry for little Kal-El II for not only NOT getting any super-powers but not even LOOKING like his famous Daddy!

[Jeff of Earth-J]

[Philip Portelli]

"NO WIRE HANGERS!!!"

Jeff of Earth-J said:

[Steve W]

How about I follow a milestone issue like "Superman #200" with "Superboy #100" - another milestone. It features what I consider to be the worst ever cover drawing of the Kents (especially Martha). She looks like she's conducting the traffic.

[Richard Willis]

I quoted the "No Wire Hangers" line to my wife soon after we were married. It made her think "I" was making a statement. She hadn't seen the movie.

Philip Portelli said:

"NO WIRE HANGERS!!!"

Jeff of Earth-J said:

[Richard Willis]

The comic title Space Family Robinson started in 1962. Although I never bought the title, I wondered about the masthead change. Here's an excerpt from its Wikipedia entry:

"In 1965, when Irwin Allen produced the primetime television show Lost in Space, Gold Key's publishers noticed the similarities between the comic books and the show. They considered filing suit, but decided against it, as Gold Key was also publishing an Irwin Allen title, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. The two companies reached an agreement that the comic could change its cover title to Space Family Robinson: Lost in Space. The new title appeared starting with issue #15 (Jan 1966)"

JD DeLuzio said:

The original family that was lost in space: Mr. and Mrs. Robinson and their offspring, "Tim and Tam." In this issue, they encounter the latest alien from central casting, along with.... crusaders and bats?

[Lee Houston, Junior]

Another long day, so I'm just now getting here.

Bruce Wayne and his youthful ward Dick Grayson...

(Image courtesy of the Grand Comics Database.)

[JD DeLuzio]

Richard Willis said:

The comic title Space Family Robinson started in 1962. Although I never bought the title, I wondered about the masthead change. Here's an excerpt from its Wikipedia entry:

I read the Robinson comic occasionally as a kid, but I mainly recall it with the "Lost in Space" title. There's always a story....

For those of you who might have missed it, there have been substitutes for each of the Brady girls (apart from the parody movies and comic and cartoon spin-offs). Eve Plumb was getting some traction on her career when the bizarre and ill-fated Brady Bunch Hour (1976-77) launched, so Geri  Reischl took her place as Jan. Jennifer Runyon played Cindy in A Very Brady Christmas (1988), which helped reinvigorate the long-standing rumour that Susan Olsen had died of an overdose.* Leah Ayres played Marcia in the short-lived dramatic reinvention of the series, The Bradys (1990).

* In fact, Anissa Jones did. Cindy was clearly modelled on Jones's character Buffy from Family Affair, still a hit when the Bunch made their debut. When old file photos appeared in articles reporting Jones's death, people became confused about which former child star had passed on. 

 

[Richard Willis]

Here's the dc.fandom.com synopsis of the cover story. You can't make this stuff up (but they did anyway):

"In order to help out his old friend Carl Grimm to impress a potential employer, Jonathan Kent and his wife Martha pretend to be Grimm's butler and maid, with Superbaby along to add to the excitement."

[MethodEng]

In the Silver Age  Odin would alternate rapidly between proud father praising Thor for his skill and courage to outraged and disappointed. His usual punishment was to halve Thor's power and then be sorry at the inevitable result.

As I approach my 70th decade I'm increasingly cranky so I can sympathize a bit with Odin.  After a few thousand years I'd be wildly unpredictable too!

Apologies if this a double post my first attempt didn't seem to appear.

[Steve W]

Great cover MethodEng.  I too am approaching my 7th decade (I'm guessing that's what you meant) and I too have a great deal of sympathy with Odin.

Here's some slightly different parents - not homo sapiens but still worried about their offspring being fed cookies by strangers.

[Steve W]

And here's the Kents demonstrating their skills as optometrists.