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
Nothing about the size relationships on this RAWHIDE KID cover by Jack Kirby makes any sense–but the cover works anyway, because it’s about a giant ape hoisting the Kid over its head! Rawhide is perfectly framed by the yellow background, and the light grey of the tiny town also causes the ape to pop. Me, … Continue reading Great Covers – RAWHIDE KID #39
It doesn’t completely work, but this Jack Kirby cover to FANTASTIC FOUR combines a photographic collage with hand-drawn figures. Throughout much of the 1960s and 1970s, Kirby experimented with incorporating collages into his comics work–he apparently produced them often, to relax. But the printing technology of the time, especially on the interior pages, wasn’t really … Continue reading Great Covers – FANTASTIC FOUR #33
This MISTER MIRACLE cover by Jack Kirby really shouldn’t work, and yet somehow it does. Especially at the start, Kirby’s assorted Fourth World covers received some horrific coloring, as though the DC production staff couldn’t figure out quite what to do with them. (They typically emphasized the wrong elements.) but here, the coloring works nicely. … Continue reading Great Covers – MISTER MIRACLE #2
A much emulated Jack Kirby cover, this THOR image is the earliest example I can find of one hero holding the dead body of somebody else (though the pose comes out of classical sculpture and painting.) The deep purple background sets a somber mood, but the white glow around the figures silhouettes them perfectly and … Continue reading Great Covers – THOR #127
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
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
This X-MEN cover by Jack Kirby is a nice piece of art, but it’s really the coloring that kicks it into the stratosphere as a great cover. That strong monochromatic red will stand out like a beacon among other covers on the racks and gives the impression of danger, of heat. There are just enough … Continue reading Great Covers – X-MEN #17
Quite often, it’s the coloring that will take an ordinary cover image and make it into something extraordinary. This Jack Kirby SGT FURY AND HIS HOWLING COMMANDOS cover was in all likelihood colored by the late Stan Goldberg. The fact that every element on this cover is rendered in the same color scheme (including the … Continue reading Great Covers – SGT FURY #16
The Tom Brevoort Experience 