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]

Speaking of Supergirl

The most well-adjusted teenager, ever. Everyone she knew is dead, including her parents, but she still has a big smile. Any other issue would have cover-featured Metallo.

After hiding out for years, she is finally revealed to the world. I guess having her wear that brown wig was a good sign that one day he would do this.

[Peter Wrexham]

Dave Palmer said:

My parents assured me that this really wasn’t the Captain Marvel, or Plastic Man, that they remembered.

In other comics, this Captain Marvel also met Dr Fate (not the one you remember), Dr Doom (not the one you remember) and The Ray (not the one you remember)!

[Peter Wrexham]

...apart from a few tiny cameo appearances, [Nightmaster] vanished for a quarter of a century

One of the "tiny cameo appearances" was in Showcase #100.  This features (almost?) every character to have appeared in the first 99 issues.  The story by Pauls Kupperberg and Levitz was great fun, and Joe Staton pulled out all the stops on the art

[Philip Portelli]

Nightmaster's appearance in Showcase #100, though listed, is a bit debatable. He's supposed to be on Page 8 but which figure is him. I have no idea!

The guy with the googles on the bottom is Jason from "Jason's Quest"!

Edit: Maybe he's the dark-hair guy behind Jason? Though why he wouldn't be in costume is beyond me!

[JD DeLuzio]

Ahoy, Mateys! It be Talk Like Robert Newton a Pirate Day! Arrr! And here be a fine cover set on the high seas:

[Dave Palmer]

Pirates, I can work with that.   An artist whose work fascinates me is Alex Nino.  He is literally the only artist that I will buy a comic he drew simply for the art.  Okay, maybe Alex Toth as well.  

After Supergirl left Adventure, Joe Orlando leaned into “adventure” in a big way for a few issues, before returning to superheroes (e.g., Vigilante, Black Orchid, Spectre).  The first non-Supergirl issue saw the introduction of Captain Fear by Robert Kanigher and Alex Nino.

Captain Fear never appeared on a cover as best as I know, but here is the cover to the issue where he debuted.   It is a stunning cover by Michael Kaluta.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

"Captain Fear never appeared on a cover as best as I know..."

He appeared on the cover of The Art of Walter Simonson tpb. :) 

[Philip Portelli]

By a strange coincidence, I've been rereading those early 70s Adventure Comics and Captain Fear appeared on-and-off for about two years though he never wore the Simonson outfit.

He did, however, reappear in the early 80s as a feature in Unknown Soldier of all places!

[Dave Palmer]

Thanks.  Here’s one more.   He’s under Captain Marvel’s right elbow.

[Steve W]

Sorry, been away for a couple of days again (short holiday in Hay-on-Wye).   It's my birthday today (63, if you're asking) so I'm posting my favourite Action Comics cover. I always thought this was a Curt Swan cover, but having done the briefest of research, I find that it's actually drawn by Carmine Infantino.  I loved the whole idea of 'world peace' and this cover seemed to epitomize it. I was 11 at the time and world peace was an ideological objective for all 11 year olds (in my school) at that time. 

[Jeff of Earth-J]

Happy birthday, Steve!

I always thought these two (purple) covers by Steve Rude complemented each other.

[Steve W]

Thanks Jeff. Great covers.  This is not on topic but i'd just like to point out that I share my birthday with the late, great Adam West who was born OTD 1928. I watched every episode of Batman in the mid/late 60s. He died in 2017 aged 88.  Still miss you Adam!