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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I'm really curious about this cover story. The DC Finest Superboy volume arriving in May cuts off before this issue and I can't find a synopsis anywhere. Arrgghh!
I found a way to read it online, although I fear I may have gotten a virus from it. Lots of naughty ads kept coming up as I read it.
Anyway, it's exactly as the cover shows. The block of Krypton where Kal-El grew up lands near Smallville. His house is in it, which he can tell, because his super-vision shows a framed photo of Jor-El on the wall, signed "Jor-El." Superboy cant go in because Kryptonite, but reg'lar Earth people can. He builds a lead suit, but some scientists show up and say that the kryptonite is too concentrated, and that won't work. But he does look at everything with his super-vision, and sees a note from Dad. "In case you ever see this ..." It gives him three directives: 1) Build a great memorial to Krypton, 2) Save some other planet about to be destroyed, and 3) read all of Krypton's great books. The last is the mystery of the story, because he can't see any books anywhere on the city block. He completes the first two tasks, and in the second where he saves a planet from a comet, he sees mysterious molecules that protect him from kryptonite. Amazingly, the block on Earth passed through those same molecules, and it's safe for him to enter! (Somewhere in here, he discovers Earth people wandering around his memorial dressed up as Kryptonians, because Smallville has decided to have a "Krypton Memorial Day" because Superboy is so awesome.) Anyway, Superboy enters the city block safely, and searches for books. In his old home he trips some sort of switch where a projector projects an image of Jor-El telling him that the books are all on the recording he's watching. Mystery solved! He memorizes all the books, but then falls ill, because the molecules are wearing off. Those scientists somehow note this, and rush in and save him. The end.
I may be off on a detail or two, but I'm not going back to that site. I'm kinda worried about my hard drive now.
Sorry that I neglected to mention that there was a site where the story was available to read, probably the one you encountered. By the time I got to the cover it was opening site after site, including naughty stuff. I bailed on it and (as is my practice) cleaned out all of my cookies, etc, requiring me to sign in to the pages I normally access. I'm also scanning for viruses, just in case.
So, this wasn’t a dream or imaginary story? In 1957 this was canon? Reading the GCD summaries immediately following this tells me that there was only canon within a single story and then the slate was cleared. It’s like there was a contest to write a Superboy story with no connection to anything else. I started reading Superboy books in 1958 with Adventure Comics #247(APR58), the debut of the Legion of Superheroes. GCD tells me that this issue went on sale on February 27, 1958, 67 years ago today (I was 9 1/2). I think this is when they began paying attention to continuity.
No, there was no disclaimer. It was just ignored subsequently, I guess. It's a lot of little ideas packed into one story that don't amount to much. The Krypton Day thing seems like a cover idea that didn't go anywhere. The other planets Superboy investigates, and the one he saves, could all have been expanded if they weren't so generic. The mystery of the books isn't much of a mystery. Jor-El's prescience in leaving an "in case you see this" note with challenges, and a projector -- camouflaged untill Superboy trips it, for no obvious reason other than to further the "mystery" of the books -- is pretty hard to swallow, no matter how old you are.
One thing I noticed is that Superboy was still drawn as a boy (a big boy, but a boy) and not, as in the later Silver Age stories, as a shorter, but still muscular, version of his adult self. Maybe 13-ish? I guess I haven't seen a story like this in a very long time. I'm so accustomed to Curt Swan's teenage Superboy from the Silver Age that this younger version just jumped out at me.
Oh, and speaking of Superboy, Action Comics is going to switch from adult Superman stories to stories of Superman when he was growing up in Smallville. They probably can't say "Superboy" for legal reasons, but that's what the concept sounds like. Lana Lang fans rejoice!
Also, the Aquaman story in this issue was "Aquaman Joins the Navy," which is available in the recent DC Finest: Aquaman book!
Captain Comics said:
The mystery of the books isn't much of a mystery. Jor-El's prescience in leaving an "in case you see this" note with challenges, and a projector -- camouflaged untill Superboy trips it, for no obvious reason other than to further the "mystery" of the books -- is pretty hard to swallow, no matter how old you are.
When did Jor-El have the time to include all this info in the spaceship? I guess the comic book canon was that baby Kal-El’s spaceship was totally destroyed. The movie and TV idea has become clearer, having tons of information accessible in the surviving ship.
One thing I noticed is that Superboy was still drawn as a boy (a big boy, but a boy) and not, as in the later Silver Age stories, as a shorter, but still muscular, version of his adult self. Maybe 13-ish? I guess I haven't seen a story like this in a very long time. I'm so accustomed to Curt Swan's teenage Superboy from the Silver Age that this younger version just jumped out at me.
This fits with the earlier discussion of the several ways that Pa Kent was drawn. Maybe it was Uncle Mort’s growing influence that standardized the look of Superboy and Pa Kent around the time that they introduced the Legion in Adventure #247(APR58). I never saw the younger-looking Superboy until recently because I wasn’t buying his comics earlier.
Also, the Aquaman story in this issue was "Aquaman Joins the Navy," which is available in the recent DC Finest: Aquaman book!
Still waiting for the DC Finest: Superboy volume in May. I keep hoping they will announce a second volume.
Another Curt Swan milestone was getting to draw the first cover appearance of Brainiac with inks by Stan Kaye, although Otto Binder and Al Plastino are accredited with creating the character since they did his debut episode inside. (Image courtesy of the Grand Comics Database.)
I agree that Curt did a great job of drawing Supergirl. Here's another fine example.
Little Lulu #14 and Hot Stuff #14
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