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]

Spider-Man's Tangled Web was, to say the least, an uneven series. This cover remains a favorite, even though it's unlikely the bad guys would be relaxing somewhere in full costume.

[Steve W]

There's a coincidence. Following on from Dave's (excellent) choice of two silver-age Action Comics, one of my choices is just two issues later - Action #363. Both 361 and 363 were Neal Adams covers.  And, as a bonus - the girl's skirt and socks are purple!

[Lee Houston, Junior]

One artist whose work I like but unfortunately I do not have much of in my personal collection is Gray Morrow. In this case he illustrated all of the Lois Lane mini-series below, which was supposed to be a try out for giving the lady her own series again.

The story is a more serious and worthy adventure for the intrepid reporter than trying to prove Clark Kent is really the Man of Steel or con Superman into marrying her. Alas another victim of the Crisis On Infinite Earths. In this case Lois was swept into the post Crisis Superman reboot, hence a four issue solo condensed into a two issue special.

But the creative team hit a home run on this tale and if Lois was to get her own book again instead of becoming a co-star once more, Newell and Morrow are who I would have wanted on the series.

Highly recommended, and there is some noticeable (background) purple on the first cover.

(All images courtesy of the Grand Comic Book Database.)

[Richard Willis]

I enjoyed Gray Morrow's art in the Warren magazines (Creepy, Eerie). I don't think I ever saw his art in anything else..

[Lee Houston, Junior]

He did a couple of Zatanna stories back in the early 1970s, although I've only seen them in reprints.

There was also some comic strip work for Best Sellers Showcase (a newspaper version of Classics Illustrated), where he illustrated the adaptations of Terry Brooks' The Sword of Shannara and Richard Bach's Illusions.

Wikipedia has a more detailed bibliography.

[Peter Wrexham]

Jeff of Earth-J said:

"I think you're referring to Officer Sung Li and Sergeant Kemlo Caesar, aka Girl One and Hyperdog?"

The one who's having the "wardrobe malfunction" is Toy Box, dead center, behind the hand. (Note the expression on her face.) The one "getting the eyeful" is the woman between the "0" in the title and the border. (Follow her line of sight.)

Ah, right.  It didn't occur to me that the "wardrobe malfunction" was on the cover.  The one I described took place inside the comic.

I can still remember my sense of shock when estimates for the world's total population hit six billion toward the end of the last millennium.  All the time I was growing up, the generally-accepted figure had been in the region of three billion.  One of my favourite issues of Action Comics (#342, October 1966) emphasises this.  It's also a mere two issues after the first appearance of The Parasite which Dave has just selected, a choice with which I thoroughly agree!

[Dave Palmer]

Richard,

I don't know how easy (or expensive) these would be to find.  Gray Morrow was a big part of Archie's short lived 1970s Red Circle line.  Not all of the interior artwork is by Morrow.

I find #96 amusing in that there is a topless woman on a Code approved comic, and one from Archie to boot.  (See also Kamandi #6.)

And from Pacific

Richard Willis said:

I enjoyed Gray Morrow's art in the Warren magazines (Creepy, Eerie). I don't think I ever saw his art in anything else..

[Dave Palmer]

In 1979, Morrow contributed an 8 page Black Hood story to

As well as contributing to the 1983 Black Hood series.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

"...where he illustrated the adaptations of Terry Brooks' The Sword of Shannara and Richard Bach's Illusions."

Waitaminute... Gray Morrow illustrated a comic strip version of Illusions? Damn, I would love to see that! (I always thought Eric Shanower would be the perfect artist to adapt Illusions, but Grey Morrow would be ideal as well.) I remember that Lois Lane mini-series very well. Morrow also provided interior art for the Green Arrow "Year One" series The Wonder Year (although Mike Grell did the covers). 

[Jeff of Earth-J]

Illusions comic online.

[Dave Palmer]

How could I forget.  Gray Morrow is one of the co-creators of Man-Thing (Savage Tales #1).  Here is a cover he did.

[Philip Portelli]

Gray Morrow also penciled, inked AND colored DC Comics Presents #65 (Ja'84).

The coloring part I vividly recall as he gave Superman "grey" hair instead of his normal "dark blue".