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.

[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.