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.

[Philip Portelli]

Came across this one by accident!

Having watched Battlestar Galactica when it first came out, I never got a "Star Wars" vibe from it. Oh there were some similarities but nothing that was too overt. I also saw bits of Star Trek, Lost In Space and Flash Gordon in it as well.

btw, they never did much with the Starbuck/Athena/Cassiopeia love triangle. I just assumed that Cassie won as being with Athena might have been a tad awkward as she was Apollo's sister. And shouldn't Athena have been named "Artemis"?

[JD DeLuzio]

Really?  It takes place a long time ago, possibly in a galaxy far, far away. The ships have Star Wars's"cannibalized model battleship kit" look, which was a new and distinct look in spaceships when it came out. The enemies wear metal outfits that make them indistinguishable targets, and they themselves are terrible shots. Apollo is Luke Skywalker. Starbuck is Han Solo. We have a cute robot. The first episode features a Mos-Eisley-type casino. We have WW-I style fighter pilot scenes... in space! The studio sued, though not, as I recall, successfully. How does it not give a Star Wars vibe? I'm actually curious.

Of course, Lucas himself drew on many sources, though in a more original manner.

And I cannot hate the show that birthed the twenty-first century re-envisioning. That Galactica was excellent, at least until the final season.

Yeah, we never did figure out Starbuck's preference. Vente? Tall?  

Philip Portelli said:

Came across this one by accident!

Having watched Battlestar Galactica when it first came out, I never got a "Star Wars" vibe from it. Oh there were some similarities but nothing that was too overt. I also saw bits of Star Trek, Lost In Space and Flash Gordon in it as well.

btw, they never did much with the Starbuck/Athena/Cassiopeia love triangle. I just assumed that Cassie won as being with Athena might have been a tad awkward as she was Apollo's sister. And shouldn't Athena have been named "Artemis"?

[Peter Wrexham]

Philip Portelli said:

Sorry about that but then again, the whole month can't be Action Comics #1 pastiches! 

There seem to be so many versions of Action #1 out there, that it probably is possible to fill the whole month with them.  However, it would be rather repetitive - as if we'd had only American presidents in February!  So here's something different.

A parody of the Beatles Red (1962-1966) and Blue (1967-1970) album covers:

 

[Richard Willis]

Here's one-of-a-kind, as far as I know. A parody cover featuring Donald Duck and Gladstone Gander in a take-off on a Crime Suspenstories cover, below.

[Steve W]

And here's a great parody of the iconic Avengers #4 cover.

[Steve W]

Artist Kerry Callen created a series of funny comic book covers in 2010 that imagined what it would have been like if DC Comics had published Marvel characters in the 1960s. He came up with an overweight Spider-Man, Captain America eating his shield, a melded Iron Fist and Power Man, and wild variations of Ghost Rider.

[JD DeLuzio]

Okay, I'll put aside the Action #1 parodies and pastiches for now.

How about Fantastic Four #1?

Peter Wrexham said:

Philip Portelli said:

Sorry about that but then again, the whole month can't be Action Comics #1 pastiches! 

There seem to be so many versions of Action #1 out there, that it probably is possible to fill the whole month with them.  However, it would be rather repetitive - as if we'd had only American presidents in February!  So here's something different.

A parody of the Beatles Red (1962-1966) and Blue (1967-1970) album covers:

 

[Richard Willis]

Two tributes to the cover of Amazing Spider-Man #50. One from their Howard the Duck title and another (not-real) cover reflecting Ryan Reynolds' moving on from Green Lantern to Deadpool.

[Philip Portelli]

A takeoff on Meet the Beatles.

[Peter Wrexham]

Richard Willis said:

Two tributes to the cover of Amazing Spider-Man #50.

Here's what may be another, published four months later.  Spider-Man #50 was dated July 1967, and Superman #201 was November 1967.

[Steve W]

Second in my Kerry Callen tribute. Here's Spidey as DC might have portrayed him in the 60s.

[Steve W]

Another great publisher of parody covers is "Super-Team Family" with a number of covers depicting the meeting and pairing of DC and Marvel heroes.