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 | ||
Apr 2023 | Birds and Winged Creatures | |||
May 2023 | Strength in Numbers |
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To think I once owned that JLA #1, and sold it in 1973 for 2p (approx 2 cents)!
Closer to home for me than Binky, was "Swing With Scooter" a DC title which ran from July 1966 to November 1972, a total of 36 issues. No Showcase tryout for this title; it was a (vain) attempt to cash in on Beatlemania. The irony is that, one month after this title was launched, Lennon's infamous comments "now we're more popular than Jesus" reached US shores and caused the Beatles' image irreparable damage, especially in Southern states. As an aside, in 1967, The Monkees sold more records in the US than the Beatles.
And why was Scooter closer to home for me? Well, he was from England, and, just to see our little island mentioned in a DC comic was Nirvana for me at the time!
Just now getting here after a VERY long day but despite the fact it's after midnight my time, here's my Friday post and I'll be back "tomorrow" with Saturday's. Yet to continue my science fiction trip down memory lane, courtesy of the Grand Comics Database...
Mystery In Space was the granddaddy of them all for DC. It started in 1951...
Before originally ending in 1966 with issue 110.
Okay, Ultra the Multi-Alien was pure Silver Age, but MIS got to come back in 1980 for six more issues to use up the inventory from DC's then latest attempt at a sci-fi anthology Time Warp, which is a post for another day.
I'm impressed with all these long runs. How about the opposite - the shortest run I can find (other than just one issue) is The Maniaks, who ran for two issues; they appeared in Showcase #68 and Showcase #71. Once again DC were trying to jump onto the gravy train as The Maniaks first appeared in May 1967, just 8 months after the first TV appearance of The Monkees, on which The Maniaks were obviously based. The second issue even featured a cartoon version of real-life director Woody Allen. Sales were obviously not good as the series was canned following #71.
Incidentally, those of you wondering about the origin of the word Maniak, apparently the word is of Hebrew origin, and I quote from the website WordReference.com...
The modern Hebrew word "manyak" has nothing to do with the English "maniac". Etymologically, it is an Arabic word meaning "f---ed"