In Praise of Comic-Book COVERS

[Mister Trent]

Okay, title splash pages continue to have a good run on a separate thread . . . so how about comic-book COVERS?

 

Designed to be intrigue-orientated . . . a visual hook to entice the would-be reader into parting with his or her hard-earned (?) pocket-money.

 

Usually the most memorable piece of art from a comic-book.

 

To start the ball rolling, here's a low-key example from an obscure and short-lived Marvel title:

 

 

Captain Savage and his Leatherneck Raiders # 2 (Large Art, March 1968)

 

Forgettable book, but great visual by D*ck Ayers (pencils) and Syd Shores (inks).

 

 

[Brian Peck]

Flash Gordon #5 by Harvey 1951, all the major characters plus Dale in Bondage. What more can you ask for.

 

 

[Mister Trent]

Flash Gordon #5 by Harvey 1951, all the major characters plus Dale in Bondage. What more can you ask for.

 

Some headlights . . .

 

 

GOING STEADY WITH PEGGY # 1 by Al Feldstein (aborted EC title)

[Mister Trent]

 

TOMAHAWK # 117 Cover by Neal Adams (pencils and inks, late 1960s)

 

 

[Jesusjon]

Love the covers. They're mostly what my collection focuses on these days, aside from a few panel page goals I have. They're all in the featured portion of my gallery here:

 

Some Covers Ahead!

 

I'm a big fan of the iconic pose.

[Artemaria]

Adams Tomahawk - sigh . . . .

[batman_fan]

 

TOMAHAWK # 117 Cover by Neal Adams (pencils and inks, late 1960s)

 

 

 

(worship) (worship) (worship) (worship)

[batman_fan]

Still my favorite cover.

 

 

 

Norm Breyfogle at his best

 

 

 

 

[Mister Trent]

The Breyfogle cover is outstanding! (thumbs u

[Mister Trent]

Rare surviving example of a (Large Art) Ditko superhero cover:

 

 

NUKLA # 4 (September, 1966)

 

Fourth and final issue (only one featuring Ditko art). Published two months after the artist's departure from his most famous creation, Spider-man (concurrent with ASM # 40).

[Weird Paper]

Can we praise book covers, too?

[mister_not_so_nice]

One of my all time favortie covers, BLACK CAT MYSTERY 31 .

 

I spent many hours while deployed practicing my photoshop coloring tecniques on THIS COVER. And later had it re-imagined by Douglas Paszkiewicz.

[Claudio]

This is a cover that I was dying to get. I spent a long time searching Mitch's site for the exact moment it came up for sale and when it did, I pounced! Later, like an insufficiently_thoughtful_person , I included it in a trade for another piece and immediately regretted it. When I got a chance to get the piece back, I jumped all over it and that made me appreciate it more.

 

http://cafurl.com?i=9902

 

 

 

[Mister Trent]

Can we praise book covers, too?

 

Sure, and this one's worth praising! (thumbs u

[Mister Trent]

 

HAUNT OF FEAR # 13 by Graham 'Ghastly' Ingels (June, 1952)

[MedicAR]

I've got the original to this one, you may have to remind me to post a pic when I get home tonight......

 

[MedicAR]

One of my all time favortie covers, BLACK CAT MYSTERY 31 .

 

I spent many hours while deployed practicing my photoshop coloring tecniques on THIS COVER. And later had it re-imagined by Douglas Paszkiewicz.

 

Impressive job on the coloring! And Doug's work is always fun!

[Mister Trent]

My American friend, Lloyd Braddy, helped me enormously with this project . . . All that originally existed of this cover was Joe Orlando's line art and two separate color overlays (one red, one yellow) positioned over the illustration of the corpse. No logo or caption box existed (which, presumably, had been incorporated during the printing process at time of publication). Since buying the cover, from Ken Danker, I'd always wanted to have the original art look 'complete' - by way of having the CRIME ILLUSTRATED logo and "Introducing . . .PICTO-FICTION" caption box re-created and integrated with the original. Thanks to Lloyd, who is a technical whizz-kid with printing processes (by way of profession), and a tip of the old hat to Ray Cuthbert (who had a copy of the original mag on hand for scanning purposes), Lloyd was able to provide two possible solutions for marrying the original art with the caption material. One idea was a colour-matched print (reproduced at original art size) of the full cover . . . which would then have the central figure cut-out . . . and positioned over the original line-art and red/yellow overlays. The idea was excellent in theory, but very difficult to perform - as all the pool of blood patterns proved a real s.o.b to cut around! The next option was to incorporate a clear mylar overlay that Lloyd had used a pigment printer to reproduce the caption material onto. This, to my mind, provided the best solution. Taking the mylar sheet, the logo and caption box were trimmed close to the text . . . and positioned underneath the red and yellow overlays. The clear elements of the mylar and overlays allow the full board (with all imperfections, including some use of white-out) to be seen in total. The end-result, I think, is particularly striking . . . especially when seen "in the flesh" at the original art's whopping size of 20" x 16"

 

 

CRIME ILLUSTRATED # 1 by Joe Orlando (December 1955)

 

 

Line Art (minus overlays)

[tilleycs]

Great covers, guys - keep 'em coming! I'm new to the OA hobby, so I don't have any covers yet, and most seem to be way out of my range. Hopefully one day.

[Nexus]

Just to mix it up a bit...here's a modern cover from my collection:

 

 

I'm a big fan of Eric Powell, but have tried to stick to his main creation, THE GOON. Had to get this one, though. One of Eric's coolest covers. I dig the touch of Jack Davis...fitting for a horror/comedy comic.