Covers that reflect different contents and/or stories out of sequence.

[Cat-Man_America]

This idea for a thread occurred to me after looking up stories in two sequential issues of Marvel Mystery, both with awesome Schomburg covers, and comparing stories in each issue. The cover of MM #16 has the Human Torch destroying a nazi petro-chemical storage facility while being shot at from the ground by tanks and artillery. That by itself didn't raise any flags. The most intriguing curiosity about this issue is the Sub-Mariner story entitled "The Nazi Invasion Tunnel" which sounded very familiar ...and so it should!

 

The previous issue's cover (MM #15) had exactly that theme: Sub-Mariner strapped to a nazi tank at the head of an invasion force moving through a long underwater tunnel (being rescued by the Human Torch). Coincidence? I don't think so! I suspect that Alex got a copy of the proposed -script and designed a cover around it. Upstairs, a decision was made to use one story in lieu of another for any number of reasons (page count with ads, revision of interior art, etc.). Obviously, Martin Goodman wasn't too concerned about the minutiae of cover/content continuity as he knew Alex's cover will sell lots of copies regardless.

 

I just found this curious; now I'm wondering how often this out of sequence rearranging occurred with Timely and other publishers.

 

It would be nice to see how many examples of this interesting phenomena can be uncovered and cited by folks here. Any takers?

 

Here's the cover of MM #16 with the cover featured story from MM #15...

 

[tabcom]

Great post, Cat.

 

The cover on Flash #17 has its story told in issue #11.

 

[kazoo]

 

I don't know if anyone has mentioned this one before, but I think the Samson story in Fantastic #4 actually should have gone with the classic cover on Fantastic #3.

 

 

and splash of #4:

 

[rjpb]

I'm not sure when it ended, but for several issues of Detective after Robin's intro the covers are one issue off from the contents IIRC.