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]

That was Malleable Man, the villain of the story with a surprising link to one of the heroes!

Richard Mantle said:

Ok....I'll bite......

who were the Four?

I recognize Elongated man and Plastic man and I presume that's one of Jimmy Olsen's personas (Elastic lad?).....

....but who was the fourth?

[Steve W]

Ha - good one! I'd never heard of Malleable Man either, nor did I recognise the character in green.  Also very kind of DC to plug Marc Bolan's biggest selling album in the bottom left hand corner. Wonder if Marc had to pay for that!

[Steve W]

El Arsenal - Unknown Enemy  #1 (2005). Publisher Arcana.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

"The End of Infinity"

[Steve W]

Ok, not wishing to split hairs with Stan Lee - but how can there be an end to infinity? I think Stan may need to go on a 'Basic Science' course!

[Richard Willis]

I'm sure I read it in 1971 but I don't remember the story. According to GCD, Infinity is the name of whatever that is behind Odin. So Infinity is ending, not infinity. 

Steve W said:

Ok, not wishing to split hairs with Stan Lee - but how can there be an end to infinity? I think Stan may need to go on a 'Basic Science' course!

[Richard Willis]

From Charlton, Top Eliminator

[Philip Portelli]

All Star Western #3 starring El Diablo!

[Dave Palmer]

To complement DC Comics Presents #93 (May 1986) with the Elastic Four here is an earlier Jim Starlin cover -- Dreadstar #21 (October 1985).  It is from Epic Comics; that's quite a stretch (sorry) to fit it into the "E"s.

I wonder if this cover inspired someone at DC to do something silly like the Elastic Four and to get Jim Starlin to "recreate" the cover scene. 

[Steve W]

@ Philip Portelli - love that "All Star Western" cover. The outlaw's face looks so ... believable!

I'm struggling a little to come up with any fresh "E" so late in the month, so I'll fall back on the Eighty Page Giants. Here's 80 Page Giant #4 featuring the Flash.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

I remember that Dreadstar cover. That issue came out at a time Starlin was following Shooter’s edict that any issue is potentially a reader’s first and should recap the previous issues. For three or four issues in a row, Starlin recapped the opening of the story. I’ve read this entire run of issues in a sitting before, and it is extremely repetitious. The first 15 or so issues have been collected in a hardcover edition, but none of the rest for, I suspect, this reason. Way back when when Starlin started the “Metamorphosis Odyssey” he said he had an ending in mind. I doubt will ever get to see it at this point, but I sure would like to.

[Luke Blanchard]

Dave Palmer said:

I wonder if this cover inspired someone at DC to do something silly like the Elastic Four and to get Jim Starlin to "recreate" the cover scene. 

The issues came out so close together, you've got to be right. According to DC Indexes they went on sale Sep. 85 and Feb. 86.