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	24	285
Sep 2022	1467/1	Joe Kubert	19	238
Oct 2022	1486/11	First and last issues	27	324
Nov 2022	1513/11	Classrooms and Education	22	264
Dec 2022	1535/11	Robots and Cyborgs	33	392
Jan 2023	1568/7	Trials and Courtrooms	28	330
Feb 2023	1596/1	Doctors, Nurses and Hospitals	24	292
Mar 2023	1620/5	Detectives & Murder Mysteries	34	411
Apr 2023	1654/8	Birds and Winged Creatures	35	419
May 2023	1689/7	Strength in Numbers	48	570
Jun 2023	1737/1	Horses, Centaurs & Equines
Jul 2023		Railways

[Philip Portelli]

There were the I.W. reprints of Plastic Man from1963-1964 that were illegal! 

Steve W said:

Next up, for me, Plastic Man.  He first appeared in Police Comics #1 (publisher Quality) cover dated August 1941, although he didn't manage a cover appearance until Police Comics #5. 

Interesting name, Plastic Man. Plastic doesn't necessarily conjure up images of stretchable limbs, unlike say, Rubberman or Elongated Man. Plastic is generally a fixed shape which doesn't alter unless you apply heat to it.

However, in 1941, plastic was a relatively new product, and people were amazed by the way it could be molded into all kinds of different shapes. I guess Jack Cole wanted to have his new character  associated with something new and exciting.

The final appearance of Plastic Man, under the Quality imprint was Police Comics #102 (October 1950). He wouldn't appear again until 1965, this time under the DC umbrella.

[Lee Houston, Junior]

I was saving the second Ka-zar series for tomorrow, because the last issue had a full wraparound cover.

Image courtesy of the Grand Comics Database.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

Whoops. I took the opportunity to post them back-to-back (as I did with "Marvel Legacy" yesterday) but, as it turns out, Steve W sneaked in ahead of me anyway. If you've got a good one, best not to hold back as competition is going to be lively this month. Incidentally, that 1974 series is Kazar's second, following Astonishing Tales [which ran for 20 issues (Kazar's feature)] and third if you count the earlier reprint series. 

[Richard Willis]

In the 50s, DC debuted several series in either The Brave and the Bold or Showcase. to see if they sold, with either one, two three or even six issues. Contrary to this, in the late 60s they debuted several series in a single issue of Showcase often followed the next month with issue #1 of its own title without any sales figures. The first appearance and the first issue are in conflict for this month's theme. I've been going with title instead of appearance.

[Dave Palmer]

I'd count this as Ka-Zar's first series (1970-1971)

[Richard Willis]

This is news to me. I didn't realize there were comics with the Dell masthead after Gold Key started. 

Dave Palmer said:

When Dell and Western (Gold Key) split, Dell started a whole bunch of titles to replace the titles that stayed with Western.  From 1962-1963 here are the first and second/last issues of Private Secretary.  

[Richard Willis]

I've read that old magazines and newspapers are sold using the cover date instead of the issue number. This is also my experience when visiting antique stores and shows. Comics have been, I think, unique in using the issue number as the reference. This has become a problem since issue numbers are now commonly being reused.

ClarkKent_DC said:

Is the issue number important for any kinds of publications that aren't comics? Other than being a way to distinguish one issue from another? 

I mean, I never knew or cared what the issue number is for Time or Sports Illustrated or People, or for mags with short stories like Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine or Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, or, really, anything but comics. 

[Richard Willis]

Using my criterion of title rather than first appearance. here's my take on Plastic Man.

First issue

Last issue

First DC revival issue

Last DC revival issue

[Jeff of Earth-J]

Richard Willis said:

The first appearance and the first issue are in conflict for this month's theme. I've been going with title instead of appearance.

FWIW, that was my intention when I proposed this theme (although I would say "series" rather than "title"; think "series of sequential numbers" regardless of title change). Any Showcase appearances (for example) would be considered another series. For example, Green Lantern would be...

FIRST:

LAST:

Even though the title changed from Green Lantern to The Green Lantern Corps with issue #201, it's still the same series, but Showcase #22 is not part of that series. (Showcase #1 & 104 would qualify, however.)

[Jeff of Earth-J]

Here's another (perhaps) even more extreme example. 

This long-running series was known by a different title for the better part of its run (#126-502).

FIRST:

LAST:

[JD DeLuzio]

The word plastic has been in English since the 1600s at least, with the same meaning as its sources, Latin plasticus and Greek plastikos, something you can mould or shape, like clay. Cole may have been using the word in that sense, though he lived at a time when plastic products were proliferating, so.....

Steve W said:

Next up, for me, Plastic Man.  He first appeared in Police Comics #1 (publisher Quality) cover dated August 1941, although he didn't manage a cover appearance until Police Comics #5. 

Interesting name, Plastic Man. Plastic doesn't necessarily conjure up images of stretchable limbs, unlike say, Rubberman or Elongated Man. Plastic is generally a fixed shape which doesn't alter unless you apply heat to it.

However, in 1941, plastic was a relatively new product, and people were amazed by the way it could be molded into all kinds of different shapes. I guess Jack Cole wanted to have his new character  associated with something new and exciting.

.

[Dave Palmer]

After Dell and Western split, Dell quickly rebuilt a line of comics.  Arguably it was a viable publisher well into the 1960s. Some of its tiles included, Kona, Thirteen, Beverly Hillbillies, Ghost Stories, Combat, Alvin, Bewitched, Ben Casey, Dr. Kildare, and  the superhero versions of Frankenstein, Dracula, and Wolfman (retitled Werewolf).

The chart is from Mike's Amazing World.

Richard Willis said:

This is news to me. I didn't realize there were comics with the Dell masthead after Gold Key started. 

Dave Palmer said:

When Dell and Western (Gold Key) split, Dell started a whole bunch of titles to replace the titles that stayed with Western.  From 1962-1963 here are the first and second/last issues of Private Secretary.