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.

Date	Page/Reply	Theme (and clickable link)	Pages	Replies
Oct 2016	1/1	Letter A	19	228
Dec 2016	20/1	Letter B	17	207
Jan 2017	37/4	Letter C	18	214
Feb 2017	55/2	Letter D	17	208
Mar 2017	72/6	Letter E	15	178
Apr 2017	87/4	Letter F	15	184
May 2017	102/8	Letter G	13	157
Jun 2017	115/9	Letter H	16	195
Jul 2017	131/12	Letter I	12	133
Aug 2017	143/1	Letter J	16	194
Sep 2017	159/3	Letter K	19	237
Oct 2017	178/12	Letter L	24	285
Nov 2017	202/9	Letter M	24	280
Dec 2017	226/1	Letter N	19	236
Jan 2018	245/9	Letter O	21	245
Feb 2018	266/7	Letter P	25	295
Mar 2018	291/2	Letters Q & R	20	243
Apr 2018	311/5	Letter S	22	270
May 2018	333/11	Superman’s 80th anniversary	21	250
Jun 2018	354/9	Letter T	21	250
Jul 2018	375/7	Letter U	17	207
Aug 2018	392/10	Letter V	19	228
Sep 2018	411/10	Letter W	20	233
Oct 2018	431/3	Letter X	15	180
Nov 2018	446/3	Letter Y	13	156
Dec 2018	459/3	Letter Z	13	156
Jan 2019	472/3	Person being carried	16	190
Feb 2019	488/1	Real people	17	214
Mar 2019	505/11	Homages/parodies	19	224
Apr 2019	524/7	Green-skinned people	17	207
May 2019	541/10	Wanted posters	17	201
Jun 2019	558/7	Boxing rings	15	180
Jul 2019	573/7	Empty uniforms	15	177
Aug 2019	588/4	Beaches	25	297
Sep 2019	613/1	Apes	28	340
Oct 2019	641/5	Haunted houses/graves	21	250
Nov 2019	662/3	Motor bikes	21	254
Dec 2019	683/5	Foreign language covers	17	209
Jan 2020	700/10	Playing cards/tabletop games	23	275
Feb 2020	723/9	Valentines and Cupids	22	259
Mar 2020	745/4	Statues	21	256
Apr 2020	766/8	Elephants	22	263
May 2020	788/7	Heroes & villains cooperating	17	198
Jun 2020	805/1	The Moon	26	322
Jul 2020	831/11	Flags & patriotic symbols	18	215
Aug 2020	849/10	Foreign locations (non-US)	20	233
Sep 2020	869/3	MST3K (with commentary)	24	292
Oct 2020	893/7	Vampires and Werewolves	20	245
Nov 2020	913/12	Giants	24	286
Dec 2020	937/10	Snow & winter scenes	24	289
Jan 2021	961/11	Doppelgängers	32	377
Feb 2021	993/4	Movies	23	275
Mar 2021	1016/3	Cats/cat-themed adventurers	22	263
Apr 2021	1038/2	Dogs/dog-themed adventurers	25	305
May 2021	1063/7	Big guns/Heavy weaponry	25	302
Jun 2021	1088/9	Dinosaurs/Time Travel	28	338
Jul 2021	1116/11	Big Questions/Question Marks	28	330
Aug 2021	1144/5	Highways, Travel etc	19	232
Sep 2021	1163/9	Favourite Covers/Comics	28	330
Oct 2021	1191/3	Lineups	21	260
Nov 2021	1212/11	JSA 80th Anniversary	23	269
Dec 2021	1235/4	Logos in the action	26	317
Jan 2022	1261/9	Dynamic Duos	29	348
Feb 2022	1290/9	Romantic Scenes	26	313
Mar 2022	1316/10	Bridges	29	339
Apr 2022	1345/1	Unexpected Green	23	286
May 2022	1368/11	Neal Adams	26	310
Jun 2022	1394/9	George Perez
Jul 2022		Parents
Aug 2022		Fairgrounds/Carnivals

[JD DeLuzio]

This 1964 collection of written and comic stories is probably the first time anyone showed individual Daleks flying-- an effect not realized until the twenty-first century revival of Doctor Who. The cover also features the Mysterious Ringed Planet that wandered through that era in comics and space illustrations.

[Dave Palmer]

I think I was with my grandmother while she was visiting somebody.  Wherever we were I came across a stack of comics.  I knew the Challengers and read this one.  It was scary.  The Challs getting absorbed by the monster stuck with me.  Twenty or so years later I bought my own copy.

And their uniforms were purple back then.

[Peter Wrexham]

I seem to remember that DC announced the1984 launch of Blue Devil with the slogan "making comics fun again".  Despite thinking "you mean that you think your other comics aren't fun?", I still decided to pick up the first issue.  And I enjoyed it enough to keep on collecting it right through until its cancellation with #31.

[Richard Willis]

I don't remember the story, but I really love this cover

[Richard Willis]

Like Marvels before it, many of the Astro City stories were person-on-the-street POV.

In this case, no doubt that this isn't a bird or a plane.

[Steve W]

I've been through the balance of my 'Top 30 covers' but alas, none of them are purple, so I'll have to give the the purple mini-theme a miss. However I found this one, with a purple car (and purple title), so I guess it kinda qualifies. Cover drawn by Mike Sekowsky.

[Steve W]

And, given that I've got a bit behind again, I'm posting two today.  

I absolutely love this cover. The perspective is terrible, and the fact that that the car's front fender should be behind the van, rather than in front of it, shows a distinct lack of application to detail on the artist's part, but, for all that it's wonderful.  Of all the comic covers I've redrawn, I've drawn this one more than any other. Cover art pencils and inks by Sheldon Mayer. 

[JD DeLuzio]

This cover was the first time I'd heard of the Challengers. I knew nothing about them, and thought maybe "Rocky" was made of rocks but would die if he became "pure carbon." Anyway, a great Silver Age cover (with bonus amaranthine shadings).

"...and all I'm going to do is stand here narrating."

[Dave Palmer]

I picked this up when it hit the stands in very late 1972.  A wonderful cover by Alex Toth and Sy Barry.

Here is the original from 1951

which do you prefer?

[Jeff of Earth-J]

The Purple Surfer...

[Philip Portelli]

Fantastic Four #166 (Ja'76) was my first Thing Vs Hulk comic despite it being so different from the rest. I missed #167 and got the aftermath in #168 for Christmas that year!

[Richard Willis]

A purple cover that looks like the end of The Chameleon (Nah!)