What Were Your Personal Top Ten Picks?

[Scrooge]

Here's my top 10 -

 

 

after the fact, it is clear that non-busy mono-chromatic covers appeal to me. I find that both Avengers 57 and UXM 17 do carry a wonderful sense of dread and menace. I toyed with adding MiS 90 as well to the list but I wanted to go with my gut reaction instead of overanalyzing my choices. In insight, it deserves a spot in my top 10 at the expense of SS # 2 and the list would need a little reshuffling.

[selegue]

I knew I'd be very non-typical. I'm not sure why anyone would care, but here goes:

 

1. Zap 0 (Crumb is brilliant!!)

2. Justice League of America 9 (wonderfully creepy. My favorite JLoA cover)

3. Showcase 34 (great Kane cover with a beautiful layout. I was surprised to see so much criticism of it. #27 in the poll)

4. Amazing Spider-Man 33 (see, I wasn't just trying to be different. One of Ditko's best. #16 in the poll)

5. Doctor Solar 2 (uniquely lovely cover. More like a paperback than a comic-book cover, I suppose. All the the early Doctor Solar covers are great.)

6. Nick Fury 7 (Steranko had to make it in there somewhere, and this Dali homage has a sense of humor about it. #14 in the poll.)

7. Green Lantern 40 (a big surprise that it didn't make the final 35! I suppose Flash 123 attracted too many votes of DC fans who like the Silver meets Gold covers)

8. Mystery in Space 90 (in some ways, I think that Anderson's touch here is as important as Infantino's pencils. Anderson put his old-time, classic look on so many great DC covers. #25 on the poll)

9. Avengers 4 (Kirby had to show up somewhere, and his exaggerated perspective shtick worked well here. # 8 on the poll)

10. Flash 123 (yeh, it's a classic. #7 on the poll)

 

Six of my votes made it into the top 35. I noticed the contest too late to get in my nomination for Showcase 55, a much stronger cover than 56, and purple to boot. It certainly would have gotten one of my top 5 votes.

 

Only 5 non-superhero out of the top 35, with the first one appearing at #17. I don't have anything against superheroes -- only one of my top ten is non-superhero, but of course that mainly reflects what was available among the nominees.

 

#17, House of Mystery 174, may have come out in 1968 but in my non-standard opinion, it's an early Bronze Age cover, not a Silver Age cover. Tell me what's Silver Age about it! Nobody woke up one morning in 1970 and said, "Hey, look, the Bronze Age started today!" Weird mystery cover with kids on it? That's Bronze. Interesting how the credits for that cover have jumped around. Current opinion both in the recent DC reprint volume and at GCD is that it's Cardy. Looks right to me.

 

It would have been nice to see anything besides the Big Two in the winners' circle, but I'm not surprised at the results. Aside from Steranko, people here sure love classic face-offs, especially those involving Hulk!

 

Interesting and well-run contest. Thanks!

 

Jack

[HouseofComics.Com]

That B&B 15 is a great cover.

 

I think the Kubert/Enemy Ace vote was split by having two covers available. Looks like many of us only voted for one of the two and we were pretty much split. I went for SSWS 138.

 

Marc

 

 

I can't remember my whole list but one I voted pretty high was Brave and the Bold 15. Why? Pretty simple, I have always loved knights. Be it Detective 412, the Atlas Black Knight comics from the 50's(talk about great covers), or this one which I've always wanted but have never found. The close perspective of the silent knight, looking wide-eyed as a flaming arrow thunks into the tree beside him is just brilliant.

 

 

Also, I would have voted for every Kubert cover, Enemy Ace especially, but I wanted to try and be fair and spread my votes out. I ended up voting for Showcase 57, not because it's better than SSWS 138 or anything. I own it so that's the one I picked.

[ComicBookGuy]

Here were mine:

 

1st favorite cover (#1) = 10 points: Silver Surfer 4

2nd favorite cover (#2) = 9 points: House of Mystery 179

3rd favorite cover (#3) = 8 points: Treasure Chest V17, #4

4th favorite cover (#4) = 7 points: Adventure 275

5th favorite cover (#5) = 6 points: Captain America 110

6th favorite cover (#6) = 5 points: Tomahawk 116

7th favorite cover (#7) = 4 points: Thor 126

8th favorite cover (#8) = 3 points: Batman 183

9th favorite cover (#9) = 2 points: Young Romance 150

10th favorite cover (#10) = 1 points: Detective 267

[RickHigh]

I'm kinda surprised that NF #3 didn't end up on anybody's list. Am I the only one who thinks this is a beautiful cover?

 

[RDK]

I'm kinda surprised that NF #3 didn't end up on anybody's list. Am I the only one who thinks this is a beautiful cover?

 

 

It is indeed a beauty, but I felt i could only put four Steranko covers in the Top 10!

[Warlord]

"Maybe this is another thread idea, but the one cover that I didn't know about but blew me away was: Tomahawk 116

Just something about it grabbed me."

Good call!

My Top 10 in order were:

 

Here's another thought. Figure out your Fanboy Rating (FR).

Using the list of points voted for each cover, weighted by what rating you gave it, should yield your Fanboy Rating.

The higher the score, the more you're going with the herd.

The lower the score, the more independent minded you were in your voting.

My FR = 291!!

Even though none of my Top 10 were in the Top 3, my score came in even higher

than I thought it would since all of my Top 10 showed up somewhere in the Top 35.

of the Top 10 in precisely the final order:#1. 228 points: Silver Surfer #4 228#2. 172 points: Amazing Spider-man #50 155#3. 106 points: Hulk King-Size Special #1 85#4. 97 points: Avengers #57 70#5. 93 points: Amazing Fantasy #15 57#6. 86 points: Uncanny X-Men #50 43#7. 82 points: Flash #123 34#8. 81 points: Avengers #4 24#9. 79 points: Captain America #110 16#10. 74 points: Journey into Mystery #89 7 ------ 719

[Scrooge]

Here's another thought. Figure out your Fanboy Rating (FR). <br>Using the list of points voted for each cover, weighted by what rating you gave it, should yield your Fanboy Rating. <br>The higher the score, the more you're going with the herd. <br>The lower the score, the more independent minded you were in your voting.

<p>

My FR = 291!!

<p>

Even though none of my Top 10 were in the Top 3, my score came in even higher <br>than I thought it would since all of my Top 10 showed up somewhere in the Top 35.

 

Great idea. So you don't feel you defined this in vain. My FR is 246, lower than yours by my choice of Dynamo # 2 as my # 3 among others.

[Scheradon]

My FR is 440 going by the format you've laid out.

[selegue]

Here's another thought. Figure out your Fanboy Rating (FR). <br>Using the list of points voted for each cover, weighted by what rating you gave it, should yield your Fanboy Rating. <br>The higher the score, the more you're going with the herd. <br>The lower the score, the more independent minded you were in your voting.

<p>

My FR = 291!!

<p>

Even though none of my Top 10 were in the Top 3, my score came in even higher <br>than I thought it would since all of my Top 10 showed up somewhere in the Top 35.

 

Great idea. So you don't feel you defined this in vain. My FR is 246, lower than yours by my choice of Dynamo # 2 as my # 3 among others.

 

A whopping FR = 163.

I'm so ashamed.

 

Jack

[awe4one]

My Top 10...

 

1. Amazing Spider-man 50

2. Nick Fury Agent of Shield 6

3. Incredible King-Size Special 1

4. Amazing Fantasy 15

5. Flash 123

6. Silver Surfer 4

7. Thor 127

8. Doctor Solar Man of the Atom 1

9. Batman 156

10. Avengers 57

 

Fanboy Weighted Score: 580

 

Jim

[SEABISCUIT]

I'm kinda surprised that NF #3 didn't end up on anybody's list. Am I the only one who thinks this is a beautiful cover?

 

I actually brought this issue up in the nominations thread. I couldn't vote for it because I had already used up my 5 nominations, but I asked for somebody else to nominate it! It definitely should have been amongst the covers to choose from.

[Clanof7]

These were my top 10:

 

1st favorite cover (#1) = 10 points: Magnus Robot Fighter #1

2nd favorite cover (#2) = 9 points: Fantastic Four #4

3rd favorite cover (#3) = 8 points: Amazing Spider-Man #33

4th favorite cover (#4) = 7 points: Doc Savage #1

5th favorite cover (#5) = 6 points: Doctor Solar #18

6th favorite cover (#6) = 5 points: Magnus Robot Fighter #13

7th favorite cover (#7) = 4 points: Journey Into Myster #89

8th favorite cover (#8) = 3 points: Tales of Suspense #58

9th favorite cover (#9) = 2 points: Silver Surfer #4

10th favorite cover (#10) = 1 points: G-8 and his Battle Aces #1

[RDK]

TITLE/ISSUE PLACE POINTS WEIGHT WEIGHTED PTS

tomahawk 116 21 38pts *1 =38

showcase 57 32 29 *.9 =27

capt am 110 9 79 *.8 =64

nick fury 6 11 71 *.7 =49

teen titans 14 23 37 *.6 =22

asm39 13 55 *.5 =23

xmen 50 6 86 *.4 =34

asm28 15 50 *.3 =15

ff 72 18 45 *.2 = 9

avengers 57 4 97 *.1 =10

____

291 MFR

 

The max FR you could score would be about 719, resulting if you had voted for all <br>of the Top 10 in precisely the final order:

 

#1. 228 points: Silver Surfer #4 228

#2. 172 points: Amazing Spider-man #50 155

#3. 106 points: Hulk King-Size Special #1 85

#4. 97 points: Avengers #57 70

#5. 93 points: Amazing Fantasy #15 57

#6. 86 points: Uncanny X-Men #50 43

#7. 82 points: Flash #123 34

#8. 81 points: Avengers #4 24

#9. 79 points: Captain America #110 16

#10. 74 points: Journey into Mystery #89 7

------

719

</font>

</pre>

 

Great idea, but why weight them yet again? Too complicated to do ten more computations this Sunday morning, before my coffee...

 

Simply adding up the "scores" of my votes - unweighted - I get 667. I'll tackle the second part later...

[jbud73]

#1 ASM - 50: Its got an iconic figure (Spiderman) and Iconic artist in his prime (Romita Sr.) and an amazing Image. Plus unlike alot of other captions that detract form the art in the SA - Spiderman No More!!!

 

#2 Silver Surfer #4: Maybe the best use of perspective in a comic book cover EVER. John B. totally goes off the charts with what might also be the best cover character vs. character fight scene EVER. Its all a comic book cover could be - its all a comic book cover should be and more.

 

#3 Hulk KS Special 1: Steranko's crowning achievement IMO - its the BEST HULK COVER EVER PERIOD NUFF SAID

 

#5 Cap 110: The use of Perspective from the tiny bucky to the larger than life monster of the Hulk. We have Steranko to thank for making the Hulk to monster he is in all his glory.

 

#9 Flash #123: As I previosuly stated this is my favorite Flash cover - the use of perspective again is amazing. The positioning of every element on this page is so asthetic the use of space and image perfect.

Jason, or perhaps I should now call you Mr. Everyman, you certainly seem to be plugged into the consensus of silver age fans (I'm assuming ASM 50 and SS 4 will be 1 & 2). If I ever go to work for a consumer products company, remind me to recruit you for all of our focus groups!

 

Well thanks for thinking of me Tim, its nice to know if the political gig doesnt work out I can always hold my breath till you work for a consumer products company

 

And allow me to retort.....

 

While there wasn't a cover that really blew me away that I'd never seen before - AF 15 is the one cover that would make it into my Top 10 if I voted again. I agree with Tim here I think the key status hurts in the CGC forum, its almost so key as to be passe. But the Image of Spidey literally bursting onto the scene - It doesnt look like Kirby does it? Thats a great point. Criminal in one hand web line in the other, the positioning is so perfect. Another thing - maybe a little Detective 27 influence here unsderstated but you have to wonder what was going through Kirby's head - big first app. a new character that would define an age of comics (they didnt know that of course) but a bit of deja vu to be sure.

 

Its like the more I look at AF 15, the more I appreciate it. As I said the image is so imbued I think we have become desensitized to the genius of it. A second thing that came out of the SA cover voting for me was my thoughts on Jack Kirby. I have always though his over rated as a cover artist - I still do, preferring Steranko, Romita, Colan - Infantino and Anderson over on the DC fence. But he just grows on you inspite of all the hype. DD 43 and AF 15 just made me appreciate the body of work outside Thor (I think Kirby is the quintessential Thor Cover artist) - yet my favorite Thor Image is Buscema in SS 4. All these tangents flying to a fro are what make the genre of Comic Art and the collecting of it so much fun.

 

Congrats to the Mica and CBG for all the work I KNOW went into it. (the only crtique - you shoulda spammed more )

 

[Aman619]

the thing about AF15 is that to a non-comics aware viewer it could not compare well against most of the other cover nominees. Same for Tec 27. On their own merits they arent that special IMO.

[Aman619]

heres my picks Tally:

 

Place Pts.....My Pick Ranking

 

3 --- 106..... 4th favorite cover (#4) = 7 points: Hulk Annual 1

7 --- 82..... 10th favorite cover (#10) = 1 points: Flash 123

8 --- 81..... 7th favorite cover (#7) = 4 points: Avengers 4

9 --- 79..... 1st favorite cover (#1) = 10 points: Captain America 110

 

14 --- 53..... 6th favorite cover (#6) = 5 points: Nick Fury Shield 7

27 --- 34..... 3rd favorite cover (#3) = 8 points: Showcase 34

39 --- 20..... 2nd favorite cover (#2) = 9 points: Strange Adventures 212

43 --- 16..... 8th favorite cover (#8) = 3 points: XMen 17

48 --- 11..... 9th favorite cover (#9) = 2 points: Dynamo 2

53 --- 6..... 5th favorite cover (#5) = 6 points: Sea Devils 2

 

 

488 points, unweighted.

hey - - I made some pretty unpopular picks but managed 4 of the Top Ten! And I still LOOOOVE that Sea Devils#2 cover!! I see that I was the only one accounting for all its 6 points...

[sckao]

 

MIne is:

 

Unweighted: 707

Weighted: 464

 

By the way, the original calculation shown by Warlord is wrong... (Unless I entered the data into my spreadsheet incorrectly.)

 

38 1 38

29 0.9 26

79 0.8 63

71 0.7 50

37 0.6 22

55 0.5 28

86 0.4 34

50 0.3 15

45 0.2 9

97 0.1 10

 

Unweighted 587 Weighted 295

[Mister Trent]

First off, I regarded this as a fun exercise.

 

During the 1960s, I was predominantly a 'Mavel Zombie'. I would loved to have participated actively in this contest but, realistically, I was never fully up to speed with ALL 'Silver Age' covers . . . just never seen EVERYTHING published in the 60's . . .

 

As such, I never felt qualified to nominate or vote . . .

 

Based on those cover images I AM FAMILIAR WITH . . .

 

# 1: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN # 18 (Ditko)

 

 

# 2: STRANGE TALES # 137 (Severin)

 

 

# 3: FANTASTIC FOUR # 59 (Kirby)

 

 

The winner, in the realized contest, SILVER SURFER # 4, is okay . . . but would never have made it to anything I'd have EVER envisaged if someone had asked asked me the question, "Name your most memorable 60's cover images".

 

As an off-the-top-of-my-head sort of example, something like the following would (IMHO) put to shame most of the top choices . . .

 

[Mister Trent]

I'm kinda surprised that NF #3 didn't end up on anybody's list. Am I the only one who thinks this is a beautiful cover?

 

I actually brought this issue up in the nominations thread. I couldn't vote for it because I had already used up my 5 nominations, but I asked for somebody else to nominate it! It definitely should have been amongst the covers to choose from.

 

I think this is the best Steranko cover I ever set eyes on . . .