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	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	34	411
Apr 2023	1654/8	Birds and Winged Creatures	35	419
May 2023	1689/7	Strength in Numbers
Jun 2023		Horses, Centaurs & Equines
Jul 2023		Railways

[Steve W]

I agree 100% - great idea JD.

Not sure why this guy who's risen from the dead is a vampire, but according to the blurb he is.

And she doesn't sound very shocked, does she?

"Wait - Harry's come back from the dead!"

"He does that from time to time."

[JD DeLuzio]

Mystery, Inc. has met a number of werewolves and vampires, but this one has to have the most original sartorial sense. Fred and Shaggy seem especially clueless here, intent as they are at looking for... Daphne and Velma, maybe?

[Dave Palmer]

[Peter Wrexham]

Steve W said:

Not sure why this guy who's risen from the dead is a vampire, but according to the blurb he is.

Perhaps the cover illustration isn't for "Terror of the Vampire's Teeth", but for an entirely different (non-vampire) story in this issue?

The Joker is scary enough as he is.  The Joker as a vampire is positively terrifying!

[Philip Portelli]

This may seem like me breaking my own rule but there are THREE werewolves in WEREWOLF BY NIGHT #21 (S'74) which the first issue of it that I had (and it was coverless)!

The third wolf-man was Lt. Hackett, a corrupt cop who had a ring that turned him into a blonde werewolf but in control! When I was a kid, I found a costume-jewelry wolf's-head ring with "ruby" eyes that I would imagine doing to same to me when I was angry!

[Richard Willis]

The Cajun legend, Loup Garou, is a werewolf.

[JD DeLuzio]

Dave Palmer said:

That Tales from the Crypt lycanthrope is scarier than this Vault of Horror shape-shifter, who seems to presage Michael Jackson's make-up in "Thriller." This guys is definitely not like other boys. Cue Vincent Price.

[Dave Palmer]

[Jeff of Earth-J]

[Peter Wrexham]

"Avoid covers where the vampire or werewolf is the protagonist."

I've never seen the "Dark Shadows" TV show, and I'm unsure whether it has even been broadcast in the UK.  However, I understand from Jeff's discussion of the show that Barnabas is a vampire, and must be the protagonist of this comic.  Therefore, you may say that this cover shouldn't appear here.

I can only suggest that it also features a werewolf who isn't the protagonist, so it's all good!

[JD DeLuzio]

Peter Wrexham said:

"Avoid covers where the vampire or werewolf is the protagonist."

I've never seen the "Dark Shadows" TV show, and I'm unsure whether it has even been broadcast in the UK.  However, I understand from Jeff's discussion of the show that Barnabas is a vampire, and must be the protagonist of this comic.  Therefore, you may say that this cover shouldn't appear here.

I can only suggest that it also features a werewolf who isn't the protagonist, so it's all good!

I would agree with your argument (grumble was going to post it Monday grumble) entirely. Apart from the werewolf, it's not entirely correct to say that Barnabas Collins is the protagonist. Infamously, he did not appear until episode #211 (unless you count the clutching hand from the day before, which we subsequently learn is his). He was intended as a one-story-arc character, but became the show's central draw. However, he was one character in an ensemble cast (which includes Quentin), and he was occasionally sidelined. I've read a handful of issues of the Gold Key comic. While Barnabas is generally the central figure in those, some issues focus on other show characters to at least an equal degree.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

"I can only suggest that it also features a werewolf who isn't the protagonist, so it's all good!"

I would argue that both Barnabas and Quentin became the protagonists.

When first introduced (as JD correctly assets), Barnabas was definitely the villain.

When Quentin was first introduced, he was Barnabas' antagonist. 

But both characters eventually became so popular that they were both protagonists. 

You know all of those Target paperbacks titled "Doctor Who and the..."?

Well, the Dark Shadows paperbacks were all (eventually) titled "Barnabas, Quentin and the..."