Great Covers – DETECTIVE COMICS #371

This DETECTIVE COMICS cover by Carmine Infantino is only good in that it’s so bad. Produced right at the end of the “Batmania” triggered by the television series, this cover compromises its characters for the sake of a cheap gag. There’s something a bit off about Batgirl’s right arm as well. All that said, it’s … Continue reading Great Covers – DETECTIVE COMICS #371 →

Great Covers – ACTION COMICS #368

I suspect this Carmine Infantino ACTION COMICS cover has the opposite effect than was intended. Rather than feeling sorrow or sympathy for the Man of Steel who has no further mission, it instead makes Superman come across as kind of a jerk–a guy who’d happily live in a world of violence and hatred and crime … Continue reading Great Covers – ACTION COMICS #368 →

Great Covers – BATMAN #184

This Carmine Infantino BATMAN cover is almost all copy, and intriguing as hell. Unfortunately, as was often the case, the story inside didn’t and possibly couldn’t live up to the promise of this cover.

Great Covers – FLASH #163

This Carmine Infantino FLASH cover was editor Julie Schwartz’s favorite of all the covers he commissioned. And it’s a tough choice to argue, as this image is so direct and so simple that you could use it as the cover of virtually any Flash story. I’m not wild about the candy cane striping in the … Continue reading Great Covers – FLASH #163 →

Great Covers – PHANTOM STRANGE #27

Nice PHANTOM STRANGER cover by Nick Cardy, likely over another Carmine Infantino sketch. A good concept, and fine composition–see how the converging gunfire draws your attention right to the figure in the center–and a nice use of color on this one.

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 – FLASH #224

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 →

Great Covers – FLASH #153

For clean simplicity, it’d be difficult to find somebody more skilled than Carmine Infantino. His open lines, expansive vistas and idiosyncratic figures often combined for concept pieces that were immediately readable from a distance, and which drew a prospective buyer in to purchase the magazine. This cover to FLASH #153 is a case in point. … Continue reading Great Covers – FLASH #153 →