CGC FORUM TOP BRONZE AGE COVERS - Final List, Thought, Impressions

[jbud73]

Attached below is the the link to the final list, I uploaded it to a hosting site, I have no clue how to post the html here so you can see the file. Books with 0 votes were those where the nominators did not participate in the final voting. Anyway here are my final thoughts on the results.

 

How the list WAS representative of the board. Well after being here for three years I think it actually did represent the BA board pretty well. Four Batman books in the list - there is a BA Batman thread. Horror and horror themed books did well and there is of course the BA Horror thread which dominates this board. All the big BA artists were represented well, with Neal Adams leading the way and he certainly is a popular artist around here.

 

What I thought was missing. Well if anything BA Horror may have been under rep'd given its influence around here. It surprised me that no Marvel Horror book was on the nominations list. Also absent were BA War books, which would have been in keeping with that popular thread. The Cover that surprised me the most not being on the list has got to be FF 112 - this might be due to Defenders 10 being there though. Artists missing: Kubert sticks out as not having a book up there, as does Gene Colan.

 

With respect to the voting. Its clear to me that in order to get into the Top 20 the cover needed to have multiple layers of appeal. Meaning that a combination of artist, the actual image and the importance of the book were necessary to carry it to the top. Many of the books in the Top 20 were those where a person voted for 4 Marvel and one DC, or the otherway around. The lone book from the other company was often the book that scored well and I think this shows the cross appeal of the books. Here are some great examples.

 

Detective 423: Its a Batman cover, its Kaluta's only entry in the Poll and it has a unique looking cover. With all of the other Adams Detective Books looking the same, they split the vote and allowed this book to look more unique in my opinion and garner that extra 1st place vote to get in. This also kind of lends support to the argument that Adams Batman work in more appreciated than his Detective Stuff.

 

X-Men 141: With all the X-Men books nominated why did this one score so well. My opinion is that the common themes of the other books are Phoenix, so they compete against each other. X-men 141 has Byrne + Wolvie on the Cover (out of costume) + a great story to make it more memorable. All of these elements work to pull it past the rest of the X-Books into the Top 20. This mutliple layer of appeal caused it to get a few votes from DC collectors and put it over the top.

 

HOS 92: Again with all the other Swampy's why is this one there. Well they are all Wrightson, they are all powerful images, but his 1st app. draws more attention and therefore sets it apart from the other books who canibalize their votes, again a few Zombies threw in votes here.

 

Weird Mystery #4: Why it doesnt score higher. Its got Wrightson and a cool image, however it does not have enough other elements to compete with a Batman/Superman Adams cover, or a Romita Spiderman with the Green Goblin on it.

 

So if you look at the Top 10 especially they all seem to have a synergy and more than one thing going for them to that caused them to place high in the voting - and I personally think thats the way it should be

 

Finally my thanks to FFB for helping me out with the counting and recording of votes and to everyone else who participated, hope you had as much fun as I did.

 

 

FINAL VOTE RESULTS

[joe_collector]

What is the link *supposed* to be?

[jbud73]

I think it will get blocked unless you hit contral when you try it.

[Sal]

Excel fubar'ed the output. try again, and post the thing here selecting "HTML and UBB Code" in the drop-down menu directly above the window you normally post stuff in ...should work fine

[Sal]

alternately, you could email me the excel file and i'll generate the html. my email addy is in my profile

[jbud73]

Ok sal I sent the file give it a shot - theres a bunch of sorts and a few formulas in there so Im not sure if that is it up or not and I gotta run.

[sckao]

It surprised me that no Marvel Horror book was on the nominations list.

 

Hey.. I nominated Creatures on the Loose #33. That's not a Marvel Horror book?

 

 

http://www.milehighcomics.com/cgi-bin/backissue.cgi?action=fullsize&issue=19509414834%2033

 

[Sal]

dude, there's like 2000 lines of code here. might want to just email it to whomever is interested...

[tth2]

Jason, thanks to you and Scott for taking the time and initiative to run this contest and administer it. It's been a lot of fun, and I look forward to seeing the voting results once you get the technical issues sorted out.

[Sal]

trying again below. bear with me fellers

[joe_collector]

What freaky bizarre redneck-math did you use to place Batman 251 ahead of Wonder Woman 199.

 

It looks like all you took into consideration was the number of First Place votes.

[october]

Ok sal I sent the file give it a shot - theres a bunch of sorts and a few formulas in there so Im not sure if that is it up or not and I gotta run.

 

I have a question. Just out of curiousity, how did you figure the voting? I noticed that ASM 122 and GL 76 had some interesting results...

 

Amazing Spiderman 122 6 1 4 2 1

Green Lantern 76 5 4 6 4 2

 

GL 76 got 8 more votes than 122, and only one less number one spot, but still came in under it? Were number one votes given a lot of points?

[october]

What freaky bizarre redneck-math did you use to place Batman 251 ahead of Wonder Woman 199.

 

It looks like all you took into consideration was the number of First Place votes.

 

I was wondering the same thing, only politely.

[Sal]

CGC Forum Top Bronze Age Covers
										Title	Issue #	Artist	Year	Nominated By:	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th
										Batman	227	Neal Adams	1971	dc360	12	4	2	2	4
Amazing Spiderman	122	John Romita	1973	CaptainsofIndustry; worldsbestcomics	6	1	4	2	1
Green Lantern	76	Neal Adams	1970	Zonker; metropolisent-S; TeddieMercede; the collector	5	4	6	4	2
Batman	251	Neal Adams	1973	PommyGit	5	2	1		1
Wonder Woman	199	Jeff Jones	1972	johnenock; greggy	4	3	3	4	3
Superman	233	Neal Adams	1971	johnenock; jeffreykli	3	2	3	2	4
House of Secrets	92	Bernie Wrightson	1971	metropolisent-S	3	1		4	3
DC 100pg Super. Spec	4	Bernie Wrightson	1971	jbud73	2	3	1	1	2
Amazing Spiderman	136	John Romita	1974	cgc_world; goldust; beyonder	2	1	2	1	2
Defenders	10	John Romita	1973	bronzebruce	2	1	2		1
Conan Annual	1	Barry Windsor-Smith	1973	Comicbookguy; Namisgr	2	1	1	1	2
Conan	24	Barry Windsor-Smith	1972	delekkerste	2	1
DC Special	6	Neal Adams	1970	jbud73	2		1	1
Action Comics	419	Neal Adams	1972	Comicbookguy	2			1
Giant Size X-Men	1	Gil Kane	1975	jeffreykli	1	5			2
Batman	244	Neal Adams	1972	PommyGit; Beyonder	1	4	1	2	1
X-Men	141	John Byrne	1981	joe collector	1	3	6	1	2
House of Secrets	88	Neal Adams	1970	TeddieMercede; greggy	1	3	1	2	1
House of Secrets	96	Bernie Wrightson	1971	Zonker	1	2	1
Detective Comics	423	Mike Kaluta	1972	Sal	1	1	2	1
X-Men	136	John Byrne	1980	xsmanx	1	1	1		2
Green Lantern	86	Neal Adams	1971	ParisFred	1	1	1		1
X-Men	94	Gil Kane	1975	delekkerste	1	1	1
Conan	20	Barry Windsor-Smith	1972	jbud73; Verner von Doom	1	1		3	1
Aquaman	49	Nick Cardy	1970	Sal	1	1
Thor	225	John Buscema	1974	r100comics	1	1
Avengers	110	Gil Kane	1973	frederic9494	1		1		1
New Gods	1	Jack Kirby	1971	Zonker	1		1		1
Amazing Spiderman	123	John Romita	1973	blowout	1		1
Conan	37	Neal Adams	1974	Buck Biggins	1		1
Amazing Spiderman	144	Gil Kane	1975	flyingdonut	1			1
Captain Marvel	28	Jim Starlin	1973	mar-vell	1			1
Ghost Rider	1	Gil Kane	1973	thecollector	1				1
Fantastic Four	116	John Buscema	1971	nikos	1
Marvel Premiere	1	Gil Kane	1972	ParisFred	1
Master of Kung Fu	55	Paul Gulacy	1977	blowout	1
Strange Tales	178	Jim Starlin	1975	ComicDey	1
Swamp Thing	3	Bernie Wrightson	1973	Timulty	1
X-Men	99	Dave Cockrum	1975	JuliusSeizure	1
Superman	317	Neal Adams	1977	JuliusSeizure		3	1	1
House of Mystery	236	Bernie Wrightson	1975	Buck Biggins		2	2	2
Avengers	93	Neal Adams	1971	nikos		2	2		2
Hulk	181	Herb Trimpe	1974	cgc_world		2	1	1
Batman	232	Neal Adams	1971	eddly		2	1		1
Swamp Thing	7	Bernie Wrightson	1973	Norrinradd		1	2	1	1
Swamp Thing	5	Bernie Wrightson	1973	flyingdonut		1	1	2
X-Men	101	Dave Cockrum	1977	sckao		1	1	1	5
Detective Comics	402	Neal Adams	1970	october		1	1	1
Sinister House of Secret Love	3	Jeff Jones	1972	goldust		1	1	1
Iron Man	47	Gil Kane	1972	joe collector		1	1		1
Batman	221	Neal Adams	1970	october		1	1
House of Secrets	127	Luis Dominguez	1975	Norrinradd		1	1
Adventure Comics	431	Jim Aparo	1974	scrooge		1		3
Detective Comics	400	Neal Adams	1970	metropolisent-V		1		2	1
Conan	1	Barry Windsor-Smith	1970	CaptainsofIndustry		1		1	1
House of Secrets	110	Luis Dominguez	1973	Weird		1		1	1
Superman	252	Neal Adams	1972	Namisgr		1		1	1
Captain America	156	Sal Buscema	1972	tth2		1		1
Detective Comics	405	Neal Adams	1970	otherworldsj33		1		1
Batman	237	Neal Adams	1971	eddly		1			1
X-Men	137	John Byrne	1980	xsmanx		1			1
Conan	19	Barry Windsor-Smith	1972	mar-vell		1
Swamp Thing	9	Bernie Wrightson	1974	Comicbookguy			3	2
Detective Comics	403	Neal Adams	1970	TeddieMercede			3
Shanna the She Devil	1	Jim Steranko	1972	CaptainsofIndustry			1	1
Thor	193	John Buscema	1971	r100comics; nikos			1	1
Army At War	1	Joe Kubert	1978	scrooge			1		1
Avengers	141	George Perez	1975	sckao			1		1
X-Men	133	John Byrne	1980	blowout			1		1
Amazing Adventures	11	Gil Kane	1972	metropolisent-V			1
Amazing Spiderman	86	John Romita	1970	FFB			1
Captain Marvel	33	Jim Starlin	1974	ParisFred			1
Cerebus	1	Dave Sim	1977	thecollector			1
Creatures on the Loose	33	Rich Buckler	1975	sckao			1
Strange Tales	179	Jim Starlin	1975	ComicDey			1
Amazing Spiderman	129	Gil Kane	1974	metropolisent-V				3
Detective Comics	404	Neal Adams	1970	jimjum				2	1
X-Men	112	George Perez	1978	PommyGit				2
Weird War Tales	24	Luis Dominguez	1974	Weird				1	2
Detective Comics	412	Neal Adams	1971	johnenock				1	1
Fantastic Four	166	Rich Buckler	1976	Fan4fan				1	1
Iron Man	80	Jack Kirby	1975	Namisgr				1	1
Master of Kung Fu	64	Paul Gulacy	1978	foolkiller				1	1
Batman	245	Neal Adams	1972	mar-vell				1
Captain Marvel	32	Jim Starlin	1974	joe collector				1
Daredevil	170	Frank Miller	1981	FFB				1
Detective Comics	441	Jim Aparo	1974	frederic9494				1
Fantastic Four	103	John Romita	1970	Verner von Doom				1
Thor	283	John Buscema	1979	r100comics				1
Weird Mystery Tales	8	Luis Dominguez	1973	Weird				1
Daredevil	168	Frank Miller	1981	FFB					2
Amazing Adventures	18	John Romita	1973	ComicDey					1
Avengers	161	George Perez	1977	Fan4fan					1
Fantastic Four	96	Jack Kirby	1970	frederic9494					1
Fantastic Four	214	John Byrne	1980	Beyonder					1
Giant Size Man-Thing	4	Frank Brunner	1975	Verner von Doom					1
New Teen Titans	1	George Perez	1980	flyingdonut					1
Phantom	74	Don Newton	1977	buttock					1
Special Marvel Edition	16	Jim Starlin	1974	tth2					1
Spiderwoman	6	Carmine Infantino	1978	Buck Biggins					1
Super Villian Team Up	14	John Byrne	1977	Sal					1
Conan	21	Barry Windsor-Smith	1972	otherworldsj33					1
Action Comics	484	Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez	1978	eddly
X-Men	109	Dave Cockrum	1978	cgc_world
					77	77	77	77	77

[joe_collector]

GL 76 got 8 more votes than 122, and only one less number one spot, but still came in under it? Were number one votes given a lot of points?

 

This math is all up all the way through it, and it is ordered based on the Number One votes.

 

I hate to complain, but it seems that there was no reason to include votes 2-5.

[joe_collector]

I was wondering the same thing, only politely.

 

No joke, and with standard voting math (5-4-3-2-1 or even 10-8-6-4-2) it's very possible that ASM 122 would have dropped to 4th place.

[october]

I was wondering the same thing, only politely.

 

No joke, and with standard voting math (5-4-3-2-1 or even 10-8-6-4-2) it's very possible that ASM 122 would have dropped to 4th place.

 

It did generate some odd results. Look at GSXM 1 and the Action 419 that beat it.

[joe_collector]

Okay, from my basic perusal of the figures, here's how I think the ordering (can't call it math) went.

 

Sort by First Place Votes.

 

If there is a tie, order by Second Place Votes.

 

If there is a tie, then order by Third place votes.

 

etc...

 

It's a very flawed method of ordering the winners, as some comics with only a SINGLE first place vote (and nothing else) finished ahead of comics without a first place vote, but tons of second, third, fourth and fifth place finishes.

 

The top finishers are basically ordered by First Place votes, without any regard to the second, third, fourth or fifth place votes at al - it's like they didn't exist. The most popular books also got screwed royally, as these 2-5 votes were never counted.

 

Truly bizarre.

[Sal]

What freaky bizarre redneck-math did you use to place Batman 251 ahead of Wonder Woman 199.

 

It looks like all you took into consideration was the number of First Place votes.

 

I was wondering the same thing, only politely.

 

 

applying weighted scores of 5 points for 1st place vote down to 1 point for 5th place, you get the following top 20 list;

 

Batman 227

Green Lantern 76

Wonder Woman 199

Amazing Spiderman 122

Superman 233

X-Men 141

Batman 251

House of Secrets 92

DC 100pg Super. Spec 4

Batman 244

Giant Size X-Men 1

House of Secrets 88

Amazing Spiderman 136

Defenders 10

Conan Annual 1

House of Mystery 236

Detective Comics 423

Superman 317

House of Secrets 96

Conan 20

[chrisco37]

It was a fun contest. Thanks to Jbud and FFB for running the show.

 

All the books I voted for made the Top 10!