Great Covers – MS MARVEL #5

Here’s Jamie McKelvie doing a lovely and understated MS MARVEL cover. Eschewing the typical super hero bombast, McKelvie instead focuses on a small moment, the beauty of the skyline, and the distance from the big city to Ms Marvel’s Jersey City home.

Great Covers – FANTASTIC FOUR ANNUAL #3

A precursor to the super-packed covers of George Perez, this Jack Kirby FANTASTIC FOUR ANNUAL cover promises an unending stream of colorful heroes and villains within the issue, practically every character that had been devised for the relatively-new Marvel line to date. The blurb at the center works like the target of a bullseye–you can’t … Continue reading Great Covers – FANTASTIC FOUR ANNUAL #3

Great Covers – INCREDIBLE HULK VS SUPERMAN

A vibrant Steve Rude painted cover to the crossover INCREDIBLE HULK VS SUPERMAN. It’s designed just about perfectly, with the yellow burst of the background both silhouetting the characters and marking the point of impact where Superman has shattered the Hulk’s massive boulder. The only thing I don’t like on this one is the font … Continue reading Great Covers – INCREDIBLE HULK VS SUPERMAN

Great Covers – DAREDEVIL #187

Another minimalist Frank Miller cover for DAREDEVIL, this one using white space both to isolate the character and to make the size and impact of DD’s word balloon that much more pronounced.

Great Covers – CAPTAIN AMERICA COMICS #13

This issue of CAPTAIN AMERICA COMICS was the first produced after the attack on Pearl Harbor and the U.S.’s entry into World War II. Artist Al Avison gets across the anger and outrage of the average American citizen in this drawing. As is typical for the era, the Japanese soldier is horribly caricatured.

Great Covers – TALES OF SUSPENSE #82

More than anything, it’s really the green color hold on the illusory figures that makes this Jack Kirby TALES OF SUSPENSE cover sing. It’s a very striking color choice.

Great Covers – THOR #157

I think that, more than anything, it’s the coloring that makes this THOR cover by Jack Kirby stand out. There’s a lot of interesting modeling being done, in a way that wasn’t typical for the time, and the overall red hue gets across a real feeling of Armageddon. Also impressive is the fact that Mangog … Continue reading Great Covers – THOR #157

Great Covers – SGT FURY #75

Another cover in which gun barrels function as design arrows to lead the eye to the subject matter, this John Severin SGT FURY AND HIS HOWLING COMMANDOS piece is simple and understated, the antithesis of the kind of over-the-top action that was typically found on Fury’s covers.

Great Covers – MIGHTY MARVEL WESTERN #44

Gil Kane once cited this cover to MIGHTY MARVEL WESTERN as his favorite of all the covers he’d ever drawn. And despite the copy- and trade dress-heavy upper half, it’s easy to see why. It’s an intriguing angle to take, the reflection of the gunslinger who has the drop on Rawhide in the pool of … Continue reading Great Covers – MIGHTY MARVEL WESTERN #44

Great Covers – AVENGERS ANNUAL #2

As best as I can determine, this brilliantly drawn John Buscema beauty from AVENGERS is the first use of that classic trope of two super-teams racing at one another to engage in battle. You would think that the back background on this piece would make it more difficult to see–white or another very light color … Continue reading Great Covers – AVENGERS ANNUAL #2