A great STRANGE ADVENTURES cover by Neal Adams, who at this point was making a real name for himself as an extraordinary cover artist. Adams tended to color-direct his own pieces, which meant that the coloring was worked into the design, as it is here. The red of Deadman pops beautifully against the subdued greens … Continue reading Great Covers – STRANGE ADVENTURES #207
Another beautiful and patriotic WWII-era cover by Fred Ray, for ACTION COMICS. A great use of primary colors to pop the figures forward–that yellow in the background could not be any stronger or richer. It’s largely been forgotten now, but three of the five characters pictured on this cover headined movie serials during that same … Continue reading Great Covers – ACTION COMICS #52
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
Adam Hughes has done a great deal of excellent covers over the years, including a run on CATWOMAN from which this entry comes. Pushing the background to blue allows the central figure to pop nicely, and the combination of the tentative step out into nothing and the expression on her face very subtly but very … Continue reading Great Covers – CATWOMAN #53
And some covers need no copy at all, such as this Wayne Boring SUPERMAN cover. This was the post-War period where the selling trend was towards comedy, and so the Superman covers of this period tended to be absurd and goofball, like this classic entry.
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.
As preserved in the personal art collection of Batman great Jerry Robinson, here’s the original artwork to that Fred Ray SUPERMAN cover.
An acknowledged classic, this Fred Ray SUPERMAN cover is perhaps the best-known of the wartime era. It equates the titular character with patriotism and defense of the nation by putting him into context with the large shield and the armed forces subtly in the background. The black background is really effective in popping the figure … Continue reading Great Covers – SUPERMAN #14
This BATMAN cover image with its word balloon is almost funny, until you realize that it’s not. There’s something chilling about that hanging Robin figure, and the way the ground line is tilted in the manner used by the television series whenever focusing on the villains. Artist Neal Adams frames Batman in the oval formed … Continue reading Great Covers – BATMAN #246
It’s really the cover copy that makes this Ed Hannigan JONAH HEX cover memorable. but that copy really works with the image, as does seeing Hex’s disfigurement exaggerated by the fish-eye lens of the booze-bottle. Even the fact that there’s a second, empty bottle off to the right provides more information. I also love the … Continue reading Great Covers – JONAH HEX #83
The Tom Brevoort Experience 