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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Cover dated January 1967, the only issue of Neutro. It ends on a cliffhanger
May I recommend the analysis of Neutro made in the latest posting on Mister Kitty's "Stupid Comics" blog? It would appear that this was a more-than-usually stupid comic, in which all that happens for thirty-odd pages is a lot of discussion of the dreadful things Neutro might do if the bad guys managed to take control of him.
That's pretty stupid, all right.
Thank you for the link. Back in 2023 I presented a paper at the Comics Studies Society confernce. The CSS is an academic organization devoted to studying comic books and graphic narrative.
I made the argument that if you strip out the riduculous 777 plot and the many (!) pages of exposition describing what Neutro can do and do a bit of rearranging that you are left with an almost cohereent (12 page) story. It is very "Outer-Limits-y" in tone. It is cautionary--"sometimes you get the bear and sometimes it gets you." Neutro is cover dated 1/1967. With Outer Limits #12 (cover date 4/1967) it transitioned from one story per issue (30-31 pages) to three 10ish page stories per issue. Also Flying Saucers #1 can out (April 1967) then with flying saucer themed stories.
I conjecture that Neutro was originally a short story planned for Outer Limits or Flying Saucers. (Jack Sparling was the artist for Neutro as well as Outer Limits.)
For 1966 Dell publishied a number of "Superhero" comics: Nukla, Super Heroes (Fab 4), Frankenstein, Dracula, Wereworlf, as well as three licensed animated properties: MIghty Mouse, Mighty Heroes, and Sinbad, Jr. Additionally, Kona and Toka were included in the in-story references to the Dell Hall of Heroes in Super-Heroes #1.
I think Dell said "maybe there's some gas left in the tank of superheroes. Let's give it another go." This had woked out pretty well with "The Man in the Ant Hill!" from Tales to Astonish #27 for Marvel, so who knows. So a fairly competent 12 page story was then padded with an additional 19 pages of what Mister Kitty describes as "stupid" stuff. These pages are even looser and more rushed appearing than Sparling's usual work for Dell.
The name "Toka" sparks thoughts of a very different kind of comic book character, rather than the "Jungle King" pictured above.
It's the Dell Justice League!
Beowulf--Dragon Slayer lasted six in the mid-70s. To say that it veered from its source materual is an understatement of huge proportions!
Doorway to Nightmare: five bi-monthly issues, from February to October 1978. The GCD adds this information:
Black Cat (Western) #16. See! I told you there would be more horses coming up.
This may look like two one-shots, but, by actual title, they're the first, last, and only two issues of Harvey Pop Comics:
The first issue focuses on the Cowsills, with an account of their origin, some rather banal stories involving the adventures of, mostly, the boys, and a few non-comic features. They apparently couldn't get a real band for their second ish (though "America's favorite DJ, Hal Jackson"makes a cameo. The colourist presumably hadn't seen him in real life) , so it features Harvey's attempt at teen comic stars, Bunny Ball and her kid sister Honey Ball. Their adventures take them to Palisades Park, among other destinations, and involve various fictional bands: four British lads called "The Beagles," a Motownesque band named "The Soular System", and a psychedelic group called "The Marmalade Mirage" with a lead singer clearly inspired by Mama Cass.
According to Wiki and Markstein, Bunny Ball was created by a separate company and intended to be a doll in the fashion of Barbie. Harvey licensed the character in an attempt to reach the Archie audience. The doll never materialized, but Bunny's own comic lasted twenty issues and then, five years later, received an unsuccessful #21. Quoth Markstein: "Bunny was to teenage humor what Brother Power the Geek was to superheroes."
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