Nothing about the size relationships on this RAWHIDE KID cover by Jack Kirby makes any sense–but the cover works anyway, because it’s about a giant ape hoisting the Kid over its head! Rawhide is perfectly framed by the yellow background, and the light grey of the tiny town also causes the ape to pop. Me, … Continue reading Great Covers – RAWHIDE KID #39
Here’s another brilliant and beautiful classic cover from the dawning days of super heroes–so much so that the Batman’s utility belt has a pistol holster. As was typical of the period, that huge logo masthead is like a spotlight, drawing in the eye. And the blues of Batman pull your attention right to him, since … Continue reading Great Covers – DETECTIVE COMICS #33
Is this Gil Kane cover to STRANGE ADVENTURES #75 the greatest comic book cover ever produced? Could be! I mean, it has everything! A gun-toting gorilla! Who’s robbing a library of books! So that he can conquer the world! And (of course) he talks! This is one where the concept itself is more important than … Continue reading Great Covers – STRANGE ADVENTURES #75
It doesn’t completely work, but this Jack Kirby cover to FANTASTIC FOUR combines a photographic collage with hand-drawn figures. Throughout much of the 1960s and 1970s, Kirby experimented with incorporating collages into his comics work–he apparently produced them often, to relax. But the printing technology of the time, especially on the interior pages, wasn’t really … Continue reading Great Covers – FANTASTIC FOUR #33
Another ridiculously over-detailed (and fundamentally racist) cover from the WWII era by Alex Schomburg, this one for USA COMICS. There’s almost too much going on here, though it all promises thrills aplenty within the pages. My favorite detail, apart from Bucky gunning down Japanese soldiers like a fiend, is the fact that Cap can’t be … Continue reading Great Covers – USA COMICS #13
It’s a homage to the movie poster for The Exorcist, but regardless, this JUSTICE LEAGUE AMERICA cover by Kevin Maguire pops. The greytone work is lovely, the red logo offsets it perfectly–and they even went to a different typeface for the logo on this issue, so that it wouldn’t detract from the mood of the … Continue reading Great Covers – JUSTICE LEAGUE AMERICA #27
This MISTER MIRACLE cover by Jack Kirby really shouldn’t work, and yet somehow it does. Especially at the start, Kirby’s assorted Fourth World covers received some horrific coloring, as though the DC production staff couldn’t figure out quite what to do with them. (They typically emphasized the wrong elements.) but here, the coloring works nicely. … Continue reading Great Covers – MISTER MIRACLE #2
If you can put aside the flagrant racism sprawled all over this Alex Schomburg CAPTAIN AMERICA cover, it’s another excellent example of the sort of piece that he routinely generated during the golden age of comics. The sheer number of actions and details is staggering, in that none of them repeat. Cap both machine guns … Continue reading Great Covers – CAPTAIN AMERICA COMICS #38
A much emulated Jack Kirby cover, this THOR image is the earliest example I can find of one hero holding the dead body of somebody else (though the pose comes out of classical sculpture and painting.) The deep purple background sets a somber mood, but the white glow around the figures silhouettes them perfectly and … Continue reading Great Covers – THOR #127
From the days when Nick Cardy was DC’s house cover artist, doing most of the covers in a given month. This FLASH cover was pretty clearly laid out by editorial director Carmine Infantino, which is something he did for a lot of Cardy’s covers. That cloudy ghost figure is so clearly Infantino-based. The strong diagonal … Continue reading Great Covers – FLASH #224
The Tom Brevoort Experience 