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.

[Richard Willis]

Couldn't you see the cover with the ants?

JD DeLuzio said:

Richard Willis said:

Insect people were popular then (yes, I know that ants aren't insects)

Huh?

[JD DeLuzio]

Richard Willis said:

Couldn't you see the cover with the ants?

JD DeLuzio said:

Richard Willis said:

Insect people were popular then (yes, I know that ants aren't insects)

Huh?

That's not the part of the statement I find baffling. How are ants not insects?

Speaking of taxonomy, what on earth are those things? Okay, I've read the comic and could answer that question, but this is perhaps the most visually incoherent cover on which Spidey has ever appeared-- and it's a second part following one that had a decent cover, for an educational giveaway. But this? It looks like the artist may have been using the drugs this comic wants to warn kids about. Complicating matters is the star design on the curtain, which make it look like Spidey's really squeezing that giant worm. The mouth of the monster on the left appears to contain a landscape, suggesting it may be a portal creature.

In addition to battling substance abuse, Spidey also battled illiteracy, encouraging children and dinosaurs to enjoy reading and reap its benefits!

[Dave Palmer]

Insects, bugs, ants, spiders, who can say?  George drew and Pablo inked eight legs on each of these critters. Seems like a bit of extra work if you’re doing a cover of a story about the Avengers being attacked by Ant Man and not, maybe, Spider Wrangler.

[Peter Wrexham]

Concerning the insecthood of ants, Wikipedia has this to say:

"Ants are eusocial insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera."

Interesting.  I never realised that wasps, bees and ants were so closely related.

Meanwhile, let's consider other icky creatures.  I'm not completely sure what the thing climbing in through the window is, but it's clearly not a vampire, because she can see its reflection in that mirror.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

Todd McFarlane used to draw not-so-hidden spiders (class Arachnida, order Araneae) on his Spider-Man covers. The number beneath his signature was the number of spiders on that particular cover.

[Steve W]

Talking of spiders and spider-men, this cover demonstrates the worst ever example of a person kicking his leg in the air that I've ever seen.

[JD DeLuzio]

Steve W said:

Talking of spiders and spider-men, this cover demonstrates the worst ever example of a person kicking his leg in the air that I've ever seen.

The Flash is just following in the time-honoured tradition of superheroes whose fight moves make them look like they're auditioning for a dance ensemble:

[Richard Willis]

Here's another spider cover

[Richard Willis]

This cover might have helped Fredric Wertham recognize that Batman and Robin are straight

[Dave Palmer]

Really, for snide commentary, it’s tough to top what Bonnie is saying.  What is Rip thinking?

[Peter Wrexham]

Another giant spider!

Notice the cover tease about "insects as large as dogs".  Thinking about dogs, and what they traditionally do to fire hydrants, this seems a really unwise location for two people the size of Doll Man and Doll Girl!

(Also, have any of these artists ever actually seen a spider?)

[Dave Palmer]

Ick!  Doll Man's a "mite"