Nominations, Themes and Statistics for A Cover A Day

[Peter Wrexham]

This thread is a companion to the "A Cover A Day" discussion.  Click here to visit that discussion.  It is intended for the discussion of potential new themes and topics for "A Cover A Day", voting on these themes, and the gathering and reporting of statistics.

The following index lists all the themes that have been chosen to date.  The clickable link takes you to the first reply of the given theme, so that you can browse through the posted covers for that month.  "Page/Reply" gives the page number in the thread where the topic starts, and reply number (1 to 10) within the page.  The index also gives the total number of "Pages" and "Replies" occupied by each theme, as a rough indication of their relative popularity.

Ning 3.0 website update

As a result of the move to the new version of the website:

• It seems to be impossible to create a fixed link that always takes you to the last reply of a thread
• Links to a specific reply generated on the old version of the website are no longer valid
• There are now 10 replies to a page, rather than 12.

Since the old links that used to take you to the first post of a theme no longer work, they have been removed, and replaced with new links that take you to a newly-added reply at the start of the month in question.  The "Page/Reply" and "Pages" columns have been updated because of the change from 12 to 10 replies per page.  The numbers in the "Replies" column was still accurate, apart from needing to be updated to include the newly-added "start-of-month" replies.

The "Page/Reply" column gives an alternative way to locate the beginning of any theme, by going to the appropriate page, then counting through the replies.  This is, however, a significantly more inconvenient process than using the clickable link.

Date	Page/Reply	Theme (and clickable link)	Pages	Replies
Oct 2016	1/1	Letter A	23	228
Dec 2016	23/9	Letter B	21	208
Jan 2017	44/7	Letter C	22	215
Feb 2017	66/2	Letter D	21	209
Mar 2017	87/1	Letter E	18	179
Apr 2017	104/10	Letter F	19	185
May 2017	123/5	Letter G	16	158
Jun 2017	139/3	Letter H	20	196
Jul 2017	158/9	Letter I	13	134
Aug 2017	172/3	Letter J	20	195
Sep 2017	191/8	Letter K	24	238
Oct 2017	215/6	Letter L	29	286
Nov 2017	244/2	Letter M	28	281
Dec 2017	272/3	Letter N	24	237
Jan 2018	295/10	Letter O	25	246
Feb 2018	321/1	Letter P	30	296
Mar 2018	350/7	Letters Q & R	24	244
Apr 2018	375/1	Letter S	27	271
May 2018	402/2	Superman’s 80th anniversary	25	251
Jun 2018	427/3	Letter T	25	251
Jul 2018	452/4	Letter U	21	208
Aug 2018	473/2	Letter V	23	229
Sep 2018	496/1	Letter W	23	234
Oct 2018	519/5	Letter X	18	181
Nov 2018	537/6	Letter Y	16	157
Dec 2018	553/3	Letter Z	16	157
Jan 2019	568/10	Person being carried	19	191
Feb 2019	588/1	Real people	21	214
Mar 2019	609/5	Homages/parodies	23	225
Apr 2019	631/10	Green-skinned people	21	208
May 2019	652/8	Wanted posters	20	202
Jun 2019	672/10	Boxing rings	18	181
Jul 2019	691/1	Empty uniforms	18	179
Aug 2019	708/9	Beaches	30	298
Sep 2019	738/7	Apes	34	341
Oct 2019	772/8	Haunted houses/graves	25	251
Nov 2019	797/9	Motor bikes	26	255
Dec 2019	823/4	Foreign language covers	21	210
Jan 2020	844/4	Playing cards/tabletop games	28	276
Feb 2020	871/10	Valentines and Cupids	26	260
Mar 2020	897/10	Statues	26	257
Apr 2020	923/7	Elephants	26	264
May 2020	950/1	Heroes & villains cooperating	20	199
Jun 2020	969/10	The Moon	32	323
Jul 2020	1002/3	Flags & patriotic symbols	22	216
Aug 2020	1023/9	Foreign locations (non-US)	23	234
Sep 2020	1047/3	MST3K (with commentary)	29	293
Oct 2020	1076/6	Vampires and Werewolves	25	246
Nov 2020	1101/2	Giants	29	287
Dec 2020	1129/9	Snow & winter scenes	29	290
Jan 2021	1158/9	Doppelgängers	38	378
Feb 2021	1196/7	Movies	28	276
Mar 2021	1224/3	Cats/cat-themed adventurers	26	264
Apr 2021	1250/7	Dogs/dog-themed adventurers	31	306
May 2021	1281/3	Big guns/Heavy weaponry	30	303
Jun 2021	1311/6	Dinosaurs/Time Travel	34	339
Jul 2021	1345/5	Big Questions/Question Marks	33	331
Aug 2021	1378/6	Highways, Travel etc	23	233
Sep 2021	1401/9	Favourite Covers/Comics	33	331
Oct 2021	1434/10	Lineups	26	263
Nov 2021	1461/3	JSA 80th Anniversary	27	270
Dec 2021	1488/3	Logos in the action	32	317
Jan 2022	1519/10	Dynamic Duos	35	348
Feb 2022	1554/8	Romantic Scenes	31	314
Mar 2022	1586/2	Bridges	34	340
Apr 2022	1620/2	Unexpected Green	29	287
May 2022	1648/9	Neal Adams	31	311
Jun 2022	1679/10	George Perez	23	228
Jul 2022	1702/8	Parents	36	357
Aug 2022	1738/5	Fairgrounds and Carnivals	29	286
Sep 2022	1767/1	Joe Kubert	24	239
Oct 2022	1790/10	First and last issues	32	324
Nov 2022	1823/4	Classrooms and Education	27	266
Dec 2022	1849/7	Robots and Cyborgs	39	393
Jan 2023	1889/3	Trials and Courtrooms	33	331
Feb 2023	1922/4	Doctors, Nurses and Hospitals	29	293
Mar 2023	1951/7	Detectives & Murder Mysteries	41	412
Apr 2023	1992/9	Birds and Winged Creatures	42	420
May 2023	2034/9	Strength in Numbers	57	571
Jun 2023	2091/10	Horses, Centaurs & Equines	38	382
Jul 2023	2130/2	John Romita, Sr.	30	301
Aug 2023	2160/3	Railways	30	303
Sep 2023	2190/6	Title Character Not Featured	30	301
Oct 2023	2220/7	Halloween Characters	31	306
Nov 2032	2251/3	Pyramids and Mummies	30	304
Dec 2023	2281/7	Santa Claus	27	274
Jan 2024	2309/1	No. 1/States of the Union	31	309
Feb 2024	2339/10	No. 2/Leaps and Jumps	28	278
Mar 2024	2367/8	No. 3/Anniversaries	32	318
Apr 2024	2399/6	No. 4/Versus Mother Nature	24	241
May 2024	2423/7	No. 5/José Luis García-López	29	292
Jun 2024	2452/9	No. 6/Stars	26	260
Jul 2024	2478/9	No. 7/In the Water	34	339
Aug 2024	2512/8	No. 8/Wally Wood	33	331
Sep 2024	2545/9	No. 9/Jails, Prisons & Cages	37	367
Oct 2024	2582/6	No. 10/Floating Heads	41	408
Nov 2024	2623/4	No. 11/Presidents & Other Leaders	31	308
Dec 2024	2654/2	No. 12/Snow People	-	-
Jan 2025	-/-	No. 13/Non-Human Monsters/Aliens	-	-
Feb 2025	-/-	No. 14/Curt Swan	-	-
Mar 2025	-/-	No. 15/Mention of Super-Powers	-	-

Themes with the greatest number of replies:

• 571 replies - May 2023 - Strength in Numbers
• 420 replies - Apr 2023 - Birds and Winged Creatures
• 412 replies - Mar 2023 - Detectives & Murder Mysteries
• 408 replies - Oct 2024 - Floating Heads
• 393 replies - Dec 2022 - Robots and Cyborgs
• 382 replies - Jun 2023 - Horses, Centaurs & Equines
• 378 replies - Jan 2021 - Doppelgängers

Suggestions for possible future themes

• Chess & Chess Pieces.  "Pieces" could include Oliver Queen, the Dark Knight, X-Men's Bishop etc.
• Mention of super power.  "My spider-sense", "My super speed", "My power ring", "My split power", "My Shazam powers", etc.
• Shrunken/tiny covers.  Not the Atom, Ant-Man, Wasp, Yellowjacket etc.
• Heroes as Menaces.  Not just acting evil, but being turned into something dangerous like a monster or radioactive or such..
• Sports & Games.
• Deaths & Resurrections.
• Short-lived Series.  Series of 12 or fewer issues, no Specials or Annuals.
• Character anniversary celebration.  Like "Superman's 80th Anniversary" from May 2018.  We should pick which character (or characters) to honour BEFORE voting starts.
• Artist Homage.  We've already done Neal Adams, George Perez, Joe Kubert, John Romita Sr, José Luis García-López & Wally Wood.  As with the "Character Anniversary", we should pick who to honour BEFORE voting.  Curt Swan was born in Feb 1920, so we are honouring him in February 2025.
• Gimmick Covers.
• Painted Covers.
• Cancelled... But Continued.  Series cancelled midstream but continued elsewhere.
• TV Shows/Movies.
• Cartoons/Animated Series.
• Family Reunions.
• Construction Sites.
• Pride covers (intended or accidental).  Possibly for next June?
• Ancient Weapons In Modern Times.  Swords, maces, spears, bows, shields, boomerangs etc.  Not characters who regularly use these weapons, like Green Arrow or Hawkeye (bows), Captain America (shields) etc.
• Supporting Characters As Focal Point.
• Guest-starring Superman or Spider-Man.  Either one guest-starring on the cover of someone else's book.
• Crosstime meetings.  Batman & the Three Musketeers, Dr Strange & Ben Franklin etc.
• Sleeping/unconscious characters.
• Super-heroes vs super-heroes.
• Snowmen and Snow-people. *
• Renewals.  Titles starting in new directions because of new creative teams or major story changings without the benefit of a new issue 1.
• Christmas presents/Giant boxes. *
• Winter sports. *
• Nazis and/or Commies.
• Covers without supervillains.  On a superhero comic, not horror, western, romance etc.  (Also non-superhero comics with supervillains, though that would be much harder!)
• Non-Humanoid Monsters/Aliens.  Originally suggested for October 2024, as we didn't have anything more "Halloweenish" pending.

Suggestions marked * were originally put forward as being particularly suitable for December/Christmas, but they could still be considered for other months.

Voting is normally done using up to three ranked votes, with three points for your first choice, 2 for second place, 1 for third.

[Peter Wrexham]

I don't think we need to change the voting system this month.  Currently we have two themes with 6 points each, four with 3 points each, and everything else with 1 point or none.  However, it might a good idea to switch to two-round voting next time.  Give it one more day for any late voters to participate before we annouce January (and perhaps February)?

[Philip Portelli]

Can we see where we are at this point?

Another variant for January could be the first appearance of a super-hero NOT in a #1 issue. Example Batman in Detective Comics #27.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

That's a good one.

[Peter Wrexham]

Here's the voting by my reckoning.  We've had votes from me, Lee, Jeff, Steve, Richard, and Eric.  Irma, Philip and The Baron haven't voted, and Dave and JD have specifically abstained.  Please correct me if you see any errors in my count!

The themes chosen by more than one person are:

• States of the Union - 2 voters - Peter & Steve (3pts each) - total 6 pts
• Leaps and Jumps - 3 voters - Peter, Steve & Lee (2pts each) - total 6 pts

The remaining themes that scored anything, each chosen by a single voter, are:

• Winter Sports - Richard - 3pts
• Anniversary Issues - Jeff - 3pts
• Cartoons/Animated Series - Eric - 3pts
• Renewals - Lee - 3pts
• Versus Mother Nature - Richard - 2pts
• Super-heroes vs Super-heroes - Eric - 2pts
• Short-lived series - Lee - 1pt
• Supporting characters as Focal Point - Richard - 1pt
• Guest-starring Superman/Spider-man - Peter - 1pt
• Cross-time meetings - Eric - 1pt

I suggest that, unless any of our non-voters wants to cast a late ballot, themes for the first two months of 2024 should be:

• January - "Number 1" or "States of the Union"
• February - "Number 2" or "Leaps and Bounds"

Each month, you can post covers that match either of the month's dual themes (or both, if you want to show off).  Note that "States of the Union" could be extended to accept any identifiable real-world US location, as a complement to the theme of "Foreign locations (non-US)" from August 2020.  It might be preferable, however, to avoid certain locations that have already been extensively used, such as the Statue of Liberty, Mount Rushmore, the Washington Monument etc.

We'll revisit ideas for changes to the voting system later, once we've had time to recover from this, and also from Christmas.

Is that acceptable to everyone here?

[Eric L. Sofer]

I find this an acceptable conclusion and I approve.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

I suggest that, unless any of our non-voters wants to cast a late ballot, themes for the first two months of 2024 should be:

• January - "Number 1" or "States of the Union"
• February - "Number 2" or "Leaps and Bounds"

 Make it so!

We'll revisit ideas for changes to the voting system later, once we've had time to recover from this, and also from Christmas.

Agreed.

Is that acceptable to everyone here?

It is to me.

[Peter Wrexham]

• January - "Number 1" or "States of the Union"

Make it so!

 

I think you meant...

 

 

 

 

[Irma Kruhl]

This has been a super busy time for me, so I haven't had much time to post or check out the current topic.

What Peter & Jeff are proposing for the next couple of months is fine with me.  

[Philip Portelli]

I'm not convinced that States of the Union is viable but I'll go along with it as well as the #1 concept.

[Lee Houston, Junior]

I like the basic concept of dual themes because like Philip said, there may not be enough states covers to split between all of us over a month, but we'll see how it goes.