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
Jun 2022		George Perez
Jul 2022		Parents
Aug 2022		Fairgrounds/Carnivals

[Dave Palmer]

Let's see, hmmm, ten different covers at $3.99 each, oh yeah, I'm in.  No I'm not.  Do people really buy multiple issues?  I'd rather buy ten different comics.

I like looking at the multiple covers and do appreciate when they are included within the comic.

Lee Houston, Junior said:

We still have some gimmicks, like multiple cover choices to anniversary and other issues, but I wish the publishers would print a cover gallery within each issue of what's available like IDW used to. Or are they still doing that? It's been a while since I read anything from them.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

Each issue of Robin III: Cry of the Huntress also had standard covers.

Those are the ones I bought.

[Peter Wrexham]

Steve W said:

When I was 10 I was a mad, obsessed Adam Strange fan.

Conversely, I never really got into his adventures (though, years later, I did enjoy Alan Moore's take on the character in Swamp Thing #57 & #58 from 1987).  However, when I learned that the JLA had co-starred in one of his stories, I decided I had to get hold of the tale.  It would have been getting on for ten years after its cover date of May 1962 before I finally managed to acquire a copy of Mystery in Space #75, "The Planet That Came to a Standstill".  It's another beautiful cover from Carmine Infantino and the peerless Murphy Anderson, for a story by Gardner Fox.

Notice the amazingly understated way in which the JLA's appearance is announced on the cover, seemingly almost as an afterthought.  I wonder if this could be an example of cover art being produced before the story is written?  In such a case, the production department might have been able to modify the cover copy to mention the JLA, but not make any changes to the finished art.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

A facsimile edition of Mystery in Space #75 was released a year or so ago. 

[Richard Willis]

Peter Wrexham said:

Notice the amazingly understated way in which the JLA's appearance is announced on the cover, seemingly almost as an afterthought. I wonder if this could be an example of cover art being produced before the story is written? In such a case, the production department might have been able to modify the cover copy to mention the JLA, but not make any changes to the finished art.

I think they pretty much intended for the JLA to appear in the story because Kanjar Ro (the other guy on the cover) had previously only appeared in the JLA book.

[Richard Willis]

Dave Palmer said:

Let's see, hmmm, ten different covers at $3.99 each, oh yeah, I'm in. No I'm not. Do people really buy multiple issues? I'd rather buy ten different comics.

Depending upon the print runs of the alternate covers, they must be selling more comics or they’d stop doing it.

[Lee Houston, Junior]

All the recent DC anniversary issues were $9.99 per copy with a different cover for each decade and a DC regular issue with a variant cover has gone from the original $3.99 to $4.99 at times for the other image(s) because they started printing them on different stock.

It can really add up.

Remember the big to do over the original Legends of the Dark Knight #1? And all it had was one of five different pieces of colored paper around the actual issue. Was one shade worth more than another?

Did it actually matter?

Personally, I think not, but that's just me.

[Steve W]

Philip Portelli's posting of "Among Us Walks a Goliath" reminds me of the first Avengers comic I ever bought.

"Four Against the Flood-Tide". The only Kirby cover in my top 30.

Gosh, looking at this now, brings back so many memories.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

I think there is a certain type of collector (one who doesn't read the comics, likely) who goes in for the miltiple covers. Regarding the recent anniversary issues, the HC collection is the best deal, as it includes all the covers an usually an additional feature or two. And, yes, I remember the original LotDK (ugh), the comic that started the whole furshlugginer trend. And I remember how they explained it, too: "And the four colors? That's just for fun." Yeah, right. 

[Richard Willis]

LotDK #1 was the first comic I bought after a 10-year break. I bought it at the 1989 San Diego Con. 

I only bought a single copy. It was a great series.

[JD DeLuzio]

Another Gold Key, with Joe Average Guy stepping into unexpected territory. They later reused this as a digest cover, which is where I first saw it.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

This was my second Superman comic, but my first Action Comics. I wish DC would release an anthology of comics from this era.