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
Jun 2022		George Perez
Jul 2022		Parents
Aug 2022		Fairgrounds/Carnivals

[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".