Well, it’s hard to top this one, isn’t it? But even putting aside its historical significance, this Joe Shuster cover to ACTION COMICS #1 is excellent. First off, it’s got a great logo, and that classic DC banner area at the top, which always screams 1930s design. Then within the image area itself, the focus … Continue reading Great Covers – ACTION COMICS #1
For whatever reason, comic book publishers in the 1970s seem to have favored cluttered covers, packed to the gills with blurbs and copy, often to the detriment of the artwork, which was forced into a tiny space. This AMAZING ADVENTURES cover by P. Craig Russell suffers from this, yet the drawing is so delicate and … Continue reading Great Covers – AMAZING ADVENTURES #39
Despite the visual clutter of that list of titles down the left side, here’s the great Joe Kubert telling an entire story in one dramatic image on this cover for SUPER DC-GIANT #S-14. That mirror lets us see both combatants, as well as the confederates of the bad guy who are about to massacre the … Continue reading Great Covers – SUPER DC GIANT #S-14
A positively spooky HOUSE OF SECRETS cover by Bernie Wrightson, whose use of light and deep shadow would become a trademark. There really isn’t much to this image, but it’s nevertheless creepy–it looks like the image of a skull within the wafting smoke is almost covered up by the logo, which doesn’t help. Good, simple … Continue reading Great Covers – HOUSE OF SECRETS #103
Another Jack Kirby piece, this KAMANDI cover really shouldn’t work at all–and yet it does. The tiny figure of the hero with his back towards the camera, lots of dead space and only sparse wreckage to give it all a sense of place. But the two bits of Kirby cover copy cement the whole piece … Continue reading Great Covers – KAMANDI #20
It’s almost got more of a feeling of the flavor of World War One than the then-current WWII conflict, but this cover to MASTER COMICS #16 is another great example of the bold and clean simplicity of some of the early comic book covers. This piece is credited to Charles Sultan. That bold yellow-orange background … Continue reading Great Covers – MASTER COMICS #16
Boy, they don’t make ‘em like this one anymore–if they ever did! This is the cover of PREZ, one of the most insane series ever produced by mainstream comics. And this cover by Jerry Grandinetti defies you not to pick it up and look inside. I’ve got a few qualms–I don’t love the balloon lettering … Continue reading Great Covers – PREZ #3
Another Kirby. No story in the world is going to live up to the potentials imagined by this cover image. It’s also an early example of Stan Lee’s hyperbolic cover copy, albeit in a restrained way. It’s a bit dicey to refer to your own work as a ready-made classic, after all–though Stan could usually … Continue reading Great Covers – TALES TO ASTONISH #34
Let’s talk about Jack Kirby for a moment. Kirby is pretty much the greatest creative force in comics. But as a cover artist, his efforts could be a bit uneven. Now, he did some marvelous covers, but also his share that were cluttered, oddly-composed or just ineffective. Given the number of covers he produced over … Continue reading Great Covers – THOR #155
An acknowledged classic, for obvious reasons, this SUPERMAN #233 cover features a Superman who is lean, powerful, dramatic and realistic (at least within the context of a super hero comic book cover.) The yellow-orange background silhouettes and pops his figure perfectly. This is also the first time that the trick of the “Big #1” is … Continue reading Great Covers – SUPERMAN #233
The Tom Brevoort Experience 