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.

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.

 

 

[Lee Houston, Junior]

An appropriate image I came across while Kindle e-book shopping on Amazon today.

[Richard Willis]

Batman #134

[JD DeLuzio]

You've always been two-dimensional people, Batman. You just needed the Rainbow Creature to show you the truth.

[JD DeLuzio]

Our second Scooby cover of the month:

 

 I think it's in the Scooby Doo and Guess Who? ep with Wonder Woman where Velma mentions that she'd like to go to Themyscira / Paradise Island.

[Peter Wrexham]

I don't know anything about this comic, but a team that seems to include Infectious Lass, Anthro, I...Vampire, J.E.B. Stuart and a gorilla looks interesting, to say the least!

Note that voting is now open here to pick themes to follow the end of this month.

[Dave Palmer]

[Eric L. Sofer]

[Philip Portelli]

Did anyone get this? There are a few classic Marvel heroes and debuts but is it worth it for the rest?

[Jeff of Earth-J]

I did not, but here is the solicitation (from May 2022) plus what Cap had to say about it:

Where were you in June of 1962? We know where Spider-Man was: making his historic debut in Amazing Fantasy #15. But that wasn't the only thing going on in that all-important month in Marvel history and the MARVEL: JUNE 1962 OMNIBUS highlights these Marvel milestones including:

• Thor first held aloft the hammer Mjolnir.
• Hank Pym donned his cybernetic helmet, becoming Ant-Man.
• The FF squared off against Namor and Doctor Doom.
• Kid Colt mixed it up with the Circus of Crime.
• Millie the Model got mixed up in more Hanover hi-jinks.
• Patsy and Hedy worked on their frenemy-ship.
• Star-crossed lovers dealt with the ups and downs of romance, all while tales of horror and fantasy stories crept from the pages of titles like Strange Tales.

In the tradition of the recent MARVEL: AUGUST 1961 omnibus which celebrated the Fantastic Four’s debut, the MARVEL: JUNE 1962 OMNIBUS will collect every comic from this month of Marvel milestones: JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY (1952) #83; AMAZING FANTASY (1962) #15; TALES TO ASTONISH (1959) #35; KATHY #18; LIFE WITH MILLIE #18; PATSY WALKER #102; KID COLT, OUTLAW #106; FANTASTIC FOUR (1961) #6; LINDA CARTER, STUDENT NURSE #7; MILLIE THE MODEL #110; STRANGE TALES (1951) #100; TALES OF SUSPENSE (1959) #33; LOVE ROMANCES #101; INCREDIBLE HULK (1962) #3; GUNSMOKE WESTERN #72; PATSY AND HEDY #84 and RAWHIDE KID (1955) #30.

• I honestly had no idea that Spider-Man, Thor and Ant-Man all debuted in the same month. Same year, yeah, but same month? (And yes, I know that Hank Pym debuted in Tales to Astonish #27. He didn't become Ant-man until Tales to Astonish #35.) I looked up the other big debut of '62, but Incredible Hulk #1 came out three months previous to the other three. Wasp and Iron Man didn't debut until early 1963.
  
• Like with 1961, this will scratch an itch I've always had to see the context of seminal issues.

[Captain Comics]

I bought 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964 and 1965, but haven't read the last one yet. As I said above, it scratches an itch for me, adding context I've always wondered about. I don't know if it will do the same for anyone else, especially since most of us have already read the superhero stuff, which is the best part. Which I know from reading these books! I mean, I assumed it was true, but by reading everything else that Marvel produced that month, it's apparent that the Spider-Man, Thor, Ant-Man, Fantastic Four and Hulk stories are superior. (Although the Western material uses many of the same artists and writers, and is good for what it is.) I've always wondered about the Patsy Walker and Millie the Model material, which is in its "Archie" phase here, drawn mostly by Stan Goldberg. And now I know: It's terrible. (Read real Archies from the same time period, and they're much better.) It has made me curious about earlier takes on the characters. I think Patsy was always classified as teen humor, but early on Millie was by Ruth Atkinson.