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.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

Two more with the Mandarin...

[Philip Portelli]

Adventure Comics #345: "The Execution of Matter Eater Lad!"

It must be noted that covers featuring the Chewing Champion are rare and while he didn't die, he didn't go unscathed either!

And how did an alien dictator know so much about baseball?

[3]

Damn. I missed that Mandarin vs. Hulk issue. That cover's going to make me go find it.

Meanwhile, how about a trio of Man From U.N.C.L.E. comics covers from the World Adventure Library...

covers from The Man From UNCLE World Adventure Library (1966)

[Richard Willis]

Steve W said:

Did the editors at Archie just give Jerry free reign to write whatever he pleased without imposing any sort of rules/guidelines?

If you look at Archie superheroes earlier (The Double Life of Private Strong, The Fly) you will see comics that are trying to be good and generally succeed. When they came up with the Mighty Crusaders, the publishers/editors were the problem, not the writers. The Batman TV show and the (hated by me) "camp" craze were interpreted to mean that the worse you made a comic, the better it would sell. I'm sure that Jerry Siegel would have turned in much better material if he hadn't been directed to write garbage. They were writing for the non-comics readers who were chasing the latest trend. I wonder if any of them even bought any.

[Steve W]

That would be a great quiz question for my Xmas quiz for the over 60's - "What do the letters U.N.C.L.E. stand for?

[Richard Willis]

The wrap-around cover of a collection of Bill Mauldin's WWII cartoons. The cartoons originally appeared in the 45th (Infantry) Division News. It was published by them while in Italy. After the cover picture, I've added a sample of his work in case everyone doesn't know of him.

[MethodEng]

Ten rings but he only ever wears eight according to that cover!

Jeff of Earth-J said:

Two more with the Mandarin...

[Luke Blanchard]

Jeff of Earth-J said:

"He absorbed too much power from the sun through his bands and was killed.":

Yeah, but he got better. :)

I see Philip had already described the story. Sorry, Philip.

The corner box image of Marvel Boy on the Marvel Super Action cover is from Kirby's cover for Fantastic Four #164.

The one on the What If issue is from the cover's main image. So are the other heads, except for the Human Robot's.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

First appearance of Moon Knight.

[Dave Palmer]

The Legion of Monsters with Manphibian

[Philip Portelli]

I fondly recall the MAN FROM ATLANTIS TV show and really enjoyed the comic as brief as it was. It lasted only 7 issues from 1977-78 with great art from Frank Robbins and some really imaginative stories!

And it ended on a cliffhanger....to nowhere!

[Jeff of Earth-J]

Monsters Unleahed featuring "The Mark of the Man-Thing."