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Rick's Top Twenty Five Silver Age Covers...

Started by RickHigh,

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RickHigh

RickHigh

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After hours of deliberation, I’ve come up with my twenty five favorite Silver age comic book covers. This task was a lot harder than it seemed in the beginning. While on vacation this week of Christmas, and spending quite a bit of time alone (wife was working this week), I started thinking about what my favorite silver age comic book covers were. I started out with my top ten, but the list just kept on growing. I ended up with twenty five, but had to leave out some great books. I limited my favorites to ten and twelve cent superhero Marvel and DC books. There are certainly many more publishers out there that I left out, but I had to draw the line somewhere. I also left out those gorgeous DC war titles, mainly because those books could fill all twenty five spots by themselves (maybe another list for another time).

 

At any rate, here is my list in order of my preference (although a lot of these books could easily move up or down the list).

 

1. SHOWCASE #34. In my opinion, the most beautiful cover of the entire Silverage. First appearance of the Atom. A masterpiece by Gil Kane and Murphy Anderson. These guys collaborated on many books and each was a pure gem. This one, in my opinion, was the best.

2. FANTASTIC FOUR #48. Never has a cover with so little going on said so much! After all, it’s just a bunch of people standing and looking at “something”. The anticipation on the faces speaks volumes. This cover is one of Kirby’s masterpieces.

3. AMAZING SPIDERMAN #50. Was a dazzling cover by Romita! Gets my vote for the best Spiderman cover ever!!!!

4. TALES OF SUSPENSE #49. Probably not on a lot of people’s list of top covers, but this is one of my childhood favorites. I remember buying this book of the stands and was just floored by the cover. The pink sky is stunning and Iron Man looks like you could just reach out and grab him. The story was kinda stupid and Ditko’s art on the inside was not his best, but the cover was tops. This is one of those books that I could buy everytime I see it offered for sale.

5. BRAVE & BOLD #61. Another Murphy Anderson masterpiece. In high grade, the colors just jump off the page. Kirby, Steranko and Anderson were my top three favorite artists of the Silverage, and this cover shows you why.

6. JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #21. I always loved the JSA and to see them on the cover of this book for the first appearance in the Silverage was so exciting.

7. TALES TO ASTONISH #44. I don’t know why I like this cover so much. I never was a big fan of Giant man or the Wasp. I guess it’s just the deep blue-green background that I like so much. That, and the fact that I’ve never owned a copy of this book. This cover, in high grade is stunning!

8. FANTASTIC FOUR #25. This cover, with the green Hulk against that purple background was “Super Spectacular”. I really liked the perspective on this book. The way the Hulk looked so much larger than the Thing made Ben Grimm look so much like the underdog, but he really held his on in the story.

9. SHOWCASE #55. Another Murphy Anderson classic! This purple cover is just beautiful. This book also tells the origins of Dr. Fate and Hourman (two of my favorite characters), and has 1st appearances of the Golden Age Green Lantern and Solomon Grundy in the SA. This book is an all-time classic!

10. BRAVE & BOLD #34. How could anyone leave this book out of there top ten? Classic cover by one of the all time great SA artists, Joe Kubert.

 

That’s my top ten covers today. The remaining 15 are listed below. Take note that almost all of them move in and out of my top ten list from time to time.

 

11. AVENGERS #4

12. CAPTAIN AMERICA #113

13. HAWKMAN #9

14. GREEN LANTERN #40

15. SHOWCASE #60

16. NICK FURY (SHIELD) #6

17. SILVER SURFER #4

18. SGT. FURY #13

19. AVENGERS #57

20. SHOWCASE #19

21. JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #112

22. MYSTERY IN SPACE #90

23. BRAVE & BOLD #72

24. AVENGERS #1

25. HULK ANNUAL #1

 

RUNNER’S UP include (in no particular order):

Fantastic Four #’s 4, 55, 72.

Nick Fury (SHIELD) #3

Amazing SpiderMan #28, 33, 40

Tales of Suspense #58

Sub-Mariner #8

X-Men #50

Sgt. Fury #3

JIM #89, 165

DareDevil #43

Tales To Astonish #93

Brave & Bold #31,44, 72

Detective #347

Justice League of America #29, 31

 

There are so many other books that I wanted to list, but I’ll stop now. Which of these books would you leave off and which would you add to your list?

 

Rick (rahigh)

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PUNYHUMAN

PUNYHUMAN

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Great list Rick, B&B # 34 I love that book to death , one of my all time fave charactors!! I own a nice mid grade of that book & love that cover by Kubert & the inside art is killer also . "undervalued,& underappreciated IMO!!!

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nearmint

nearmint

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I've always liked "identity revealed" covers, like Batman #151, World's Finest #136, and Daredevil #29.

 

Action #252 and #285 are classic Supergirl covers.

 

Showcase #56 is a very underrated cover, and an excellent companion book to #55.

 

Superman #146 is an iconic Supes image, and #199 for obvious reasons.

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RickHigh

RickHigh

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I love those Russ Manning covers also. I have several Magnus books also, but just had to make the cut-off somewhere. I also love those Dell Giants (especially the Disney books), but I'm just not as familiar with them. Maybe a list for someone else.

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PUNYHUMAN

PUNYHUMAN

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Near Mint's right !!! Superman # 146 is a great cover,so is Batman # 199 check that one out also!!! AHH!! there's so many ,what's the one of Batman writing his last will & testament,another great one. I have one in high grade but I don't have it near me,can anyone identify the issue???

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RickHigh

RickHigh

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I've always liked "identity revealed" covers, like Batman #151, World's Finest #136, and Daredevil #29.

 

Action #252 and #285 are classic Supergirl covers.

 

Showcase #56 is a very underrated cover, and an excellent companion book to #55.

 

Superman #146 is an iconic Supes image, and #199 for obvious reasons.

 

Oh, man. I love that Showcase #56. It has a great cover. Also, the Brave & Bold #62 to go along with the B&B 61.

 

I meant to put Superman 199 on the list and even Flash 175, but just forgot. Both are great covers.

 

Here's my Supes #146. It is also one of my favorites.

 

674200-Superman143.jpg

674200-Superman143.jpg.0e640074abab11a50f0feefdeba6dec9.jpg

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RickHigh

RickHigh

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Incredible Books!!!! You can see why that Showcase 34 is my favorite! The Showcase #55 is also gorgeous!!! hail.gif

 

Beautiful Showcase 56 (one of my favorites — how did I leave that off my list?) and of course, a magnificant JIM 112.

 

Super books, guys. Keep 'em coming!!!! Plus, anything not on the list that you guys think SHOULD be on the list. (Yes, like that Showcase #45!!!!!)

 

I'm going to post some scans of some of my stuff. Nothing is slabbed though and not nearly in as good grade as you guys stuff. WOW!!!

 

Merry Christmas, Rick

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