Great Covers – FRONTLINE COMBAT #7

wonderful-strange: fantasy-ink: Frontline Combat #7, July-Aug. 1952. Cover art by Harvey Kurtzman. Source: wonderful-strange

Great Covers – PUNCH COMICS #12

What a lurid cover–what kid could resist taking a look through this one? This PUNCH COMICS cover is credited to Paul Gattuso, about whom I know very little.

Great Covers – FALLING IN LOVE #121

The Grand Comics Database credits this FALLING IN LOVE cover to Tony DeZuniga, but they’re not certain of the attribution. Regardless, it’s very much of its era, with good use of design and color.

Great Covers – AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #665

Here’s an amazingly realistic AMAZING SPIDER-MAN cover by Paolo Rivera that references the then-current difficulties at the Spider-Man Broadway musical. Even the banner that marks this as the lead-up to the Spider-Island event integrates well.

Great Covers – DETECTIVE COMICS #143

Here’s a very fun Dick Sprang cover for DETECTIVE COMICS featuring an early confrontation between Batman and the Riddler.

Great Covers – FANTASTIC FOUR #276

Great conceptual FANTASTIC FOUR cover by John Byrne. What really works about this one is that all of the elements of the trade dress cast shadows as well.

Great Covers – SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #2

It was a rare thing to see a painted rendition of a super hero in 1968 when this John Romita cover for the second issue of SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN magazine hit the stands, to say nothing of one that was so well done. Romita channels a little bit of Ditko influence in the positioning of Spidey … Continue reading Great Covers – SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #2 →

Great Covers – MARVEL 75th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION #1

It’s maybe a little bit of a cheat to include this one, as I did the original concept sketch for it, but this excellent painted cover by Paolo Rivera for the MARVEL 75TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION does an incredible job of communication three-quarters of a century’s worth of wonder and imagination in a single evocative image.

Great Covers – STRANGE TALES #79

Great sense of scale on this Jack Kirby STRANGE TALES cover. Most of these prototypic Marvel monster stories tended to tout the creature-of-the-month fully visibly on their covers. This piece takes the opposite tact, concealing most of the monster and creating intrigue.

Great Covers – THE FALCON #1

This FALCON piece combines the Badass and the Hero In Trouble cover approaches for a piece that delivers the best of both. For his first solo series, Paul Smith gives us a Falcon who can take a beating, and still be ready to dish one out.