Great Covers – JOSIE #34

Great use of color on this JOSIE cover by Dan DeCarlo. Everything pops, and the typography combined with the color treatment conveys the mood of the era well.

Superhero Merchandise

Before the wide spread availability of comic book retail stores, access to comic book merchandise was very hit-or-miss. While most big stores stocked some things, not every single thing that you might want was readily accessible. Beyond that, you might not even be aware that certain things existed. One operation that closed that gap was … Continue reading Superhero Merchandise →

Smith Haven Mall Crafts Fair

As a kid, when I was first getting into comics in a big way, there weren’t yet any comic book stores, not that I was aware of, not that were anyplace that I could ever get to. So opportunities to come across older comics were slim, limited to stores that might not rotate their stock … Continue reading Smith Haven Mall Crafts Fair →

Great Covers – KAMANDI #23

Another Jack Kirby cover, this one for his KAMANDI series from the early 1970s. This piece just screams for attention. The shark-as-monster who dominates the image to the inclusion of virtually everything else is powerful enough, but the fact that he speaks, and his line is at once so obtuse and yet also so provocative, … Continue reading Great Covers – KAMANDI #23 →

Great Covers – WITCHING HOUR #45

Variations on this WITCHING HOUR cover by Nick Cardy were common on the weird/mystery titles published by DC in the early 1970s. But on this one, the stark red face of the demon as well as the expression on the boy’s face and the white of his turtleneck really help to sell it. The red … Continue reading Great Covers – WITCHING HOUR #45 →

Great Covers – FANTASTIC FOUR #82

A very basic but very dramatic FANTASTIC FOUR cover by Jack Kirby, emphasizing the scope of the cast and implying the energy and excitement of the story within. In rare restraint, this cover features no copy whatsoever, allowing the image itself to do the work of selling it. A white background here was almost a … Continue reading Great Covers – FANTASTIC FOUR #82 →

Great Covers – BATMAN #194

Carmine Infantino experimented a bit in the 1960s with covers that incorporated the series logo, in the manner of Will Eisner’s SPIRIT sections. This BATMAN cover was one of the first, if not the first. At the time, DC was beginning to lose sales traction to newcomer Marvel, and was looking for a way to … Continue reading Great Covers – BATMAN #194 →

Great Covers – BATMAN #230 follow-up

kurtbusiek: A Tumblr post yesterday suggested that a “person of color” didn’t appear on a Batman cover until 1970. I checked pre-1970 BATMAN, DETECTIVE and WORLD’S FINEST covers, to see.  If you take “person of color” to mean a non-Caucasian, the claim wasn’t remotely true. There were Asians, Egyptians, South Americans, American Indians, Latinos, etc. Often … Continue reading Great Covers – BATMAN #230 follow-up →