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.

[Ronald Morgan]

In Iron Man she was just a villain.

[Fred W. Hill]

And one who likely would have been long forgotten if Starlin hadn't re-conceptualized her.  I haven't read what prompted him to do that, but he significantly changed her personality and made her a prominent supporting character in the initial Thanos epic.  As to what ideas Everett or Friedrich may have had for her it's hard to say, as Everett died right around the time (or maybe even before) IM #54 was published but it seems Friedrich did have some plans for her.  Friedrich scripted and co-plotted Starlin's first few issues of Captain Marvel and maybe he suggested incorporating her into the storyline and Starlin worked with Gerber in creating her origin story, images of which appeared cryptically in Starlin's famous psychedelic freakout page in Captain Marvel #28, wherein Thanos attempted to destroy Drax's mind.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

Man-Thing by Berni Wrightson. Berni Wrightson and Len Wein co-created Swamp thing at DC a few years earlier. Len Wein was writer/editor of Hulk at this time. I wonder if he wrote Man-Thing into the plot just so he could commission this cover...?

[Jeff of Earth-J]

While I'm at it, here's Man-Thing by John Totleben (also better known for Swamp Thing).

[Dave Palmer]

Tom Terrific With Mighty Manfred The Wonder Dog

[Richard Willis]

Meet Mr. Meek, the Most Dangerous Man in the World

[Jeff of Earth-J]

[Philip Portelli]

The Monster of Frankenstein #1: "The Most Famous, Most Fearsome Monster of All!"

[Dave Palmer]

First appearance of Mon-El

[Jeff of Earth-J]

[Richard Willis]

Marvel Mystery Comics #7

[Steve W]

Mystic Comics #9, May 1942.  Hitler takes on  the Destroyer.