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.
Discussion and voting on future monthly themes takes place on the "Nominations, Themes and Statistics for A Cover A Day" thread. Click here to view the thread.
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Batman #14. The second cover appearance of the Penguin. The first was in Detective #67 (a nicer cover) a couple of months earlier.
Ultra Boy by Curt Swan (pencils & inks)
What is going on in this cover? I didn't notice at the time, but it's not just Curt Swan work. Ultra Boy, for example, is in a Swan pose (the hand is a giveaway) and looks like he was drawn by Swan. But Cosmic Boy looks like Keith Giffen drew him. And Mon-El looks like Gil Kane drew him. Proty is pure Giffen, and most of the other characters look like Giffen had a hand in them. Superboy looks like a Kurt Schaffenberger swipe. Supergirl is in a Gil Kane pose, but unlike Mon-El, doesn't look like she was renedered by Kane. Blok looks like he was drawn by a 3-year-old, completely out of proportion. Really, Ultra Boy is the only character that is recognizably by Swan. Why does Wildfire have his legs crossed? Why is Dawnfire leaning so awkwardly on Colossal Boy?
Is it possible this is a Swan layout finished by Giffen, utilizing various styles? Or a D. Hands production? Maybe a collage?
Justice League of America #14 --The Atom Joins, Aquaman can barely be seen and everyone loves to bowl!
For LSH #300 this is what the GCD lists
Holy Moley!
I got some of the artists right at the time. I was surprised that Mike Grell wasn't involved.
Action #246, November 1958. Note the descending Supes. A typical Swan pose - one arm pointing forward, whilst the opposite leg points backwards. If it were possible for a man to fly, this is exactly how I imagine he'd land.
Among the many that have inked Curt Swan's pencils over the years, Jack Abel hasn't been represented yet. (Image courtesy of the Grand Comics Database.)