Good series. I bought it and read it the first time it was published by Eclipse back in the early ’90s. It started out very strong, but petered out a bit toward the end. Well worth reading though.
I thought about posting this very cover the other day, but I thought I’d go even more obscure (well, obscure for us Americans anyway).
Okay, I know it says *A" comic cover a day, but here's a nod to the Avengers penchant to incorporate disembodied heads looking down at whatever's going on with the rest of the cover:
< I dunno... She's trying to play it cool, but she's looking back over her nonexistent shoulder.
I think Monica's unimpressed with the Star Fox's Fox (hey I'm not the one that drew her taking a peek at his junk). Look at that face; it's says it all.
After leaving FF, Romita took over Captain America from Gene Colan with issue #138. Here’s my favorite of his Cap covers from 1971: Captain America #143 (Nov. 1971).
Both the biggest source of pride, and regret, of my comic collection ... the fabled "Brave and the Bold" issue #28, noted for being the first appearance of the JLA, and which I unknowingly picked up for about $1 when I was 10:
"But G Man, that is such a great find! How can this also your biggest source of regret" you ask? Well, friend, thanks for asking. It seems the dumbass original owner of said comic cut out the ad on the backpage in order to send away for "REAL FOREIGN COINS!" Bastard.
We can’t finish 1971 off without another romance cover. My Love #12 (July 1971) is interesting in that Romita was specifically going for a “French romance style” (according to a note he wrote in the margin of the original art). It barely looks like Romita’s work—you can really only easily see it in the man’s face—but I’ve seen a scan of the original art, and it’s got Romita’s signature on it.
As with FF, Romita wasn’t long for Captain America. Issue #148 (Apr. 1972) was his last cover, and he only provided inks for the interior (over Sal Buscema, which made for an interesting combination).
Outside of his regular cover gigs, Romita spent most of his time during this period inking or making corrections to covers rather than penciling them. Here’s one nice exception though: Thor #197 (Mar. 1972), which he penciled and inked.
Another highlight from 1972, Luke Cage: Hero for Hire #1 (June 1972). Romita not only penciled and inked the first two covers, he also designed the character and costume (with input from Roy Thomas).
I’ve done Crisis and I’ve done Legends. Now, let’s look at a few covers from DC’s next big crossover: Millennium!
Millennium was essentially a Green Lantern event, or, more accurately, a Green Lantern Corps event. The Guaradians, who had packed up and left the universe with the Zamarons after the Crisis in an effort to ‘rediscover’ themselves, were returning, and wanted to raise humanity to the next level of evolutionary enlightenment. Opposing them were the Manhunters, robots originally built by the Guardians as their first police force, and who had rebelled against their masters, taking to an existence of interstellar bounty hunters. It was written by Steve Englehart and drawn by Joe Staton and Ian Gibson.
In some ways, Millennium was actually a more successful crossover than the previous ones: it was weekly (and all issues and crossovers came out on time), each connecting crossover book had a banner identifying which week’s chapter it was connected to, and, for the most part, each crossover actually contributed to the overall story. There were a few exceptions and bumps, but most of it was cohesive and solid.
In other ways, it was not so successful. The climax, in particular, felt weak; we went through two months of story to get – what? Another superhero team!? And some of the metaphysics came across as just so much New Age mumbo jumbo.
Still, it was a fun romp and had a number of high points worth remembering… as well as some cool covers.
Here’s a handful of Millennium covers by Joe Staton and Bruce Patterson.
While most of the crossovers interacted closely with the main storyline, a few did so only grudgingly. Flash and Wonder Woman, in particular, were guilty of this, focusing on their own ongoing storylines and giving only a few pages to acknowledge the Millenium event. In WW’s defense, though, George Perez (who did the covers below) was already into his own muti-part epic, Challenge Of The Gods, which was detailing WW’s past and connection to the outside world when Millennium was suddenly dropped upon him.
Comments
I thought about posting this very cover the other day, but I thought I’d go even more obscure (well, obscure for us Americans anyway).
Plus... Groot.
Cap, however...
Jack Sparling 1973
I own this one:
"But G Man, that is such a great find! How can this also your biggest source of regret" you ask? Well, friend, thanks for asking. It seems the dumbass original owner of said comic cut out the ad on the backpage in order to send away for "REAL FOREIGN COINS!" Bastard.
Millennium was essentially a Green Lantern event, or, more accurately, a Green Lantern Corps event. The Guaradians, who had packed up and left the universe with the Zamarons after the Crisis in an effort to ‘rediscover’ themselves, were returning, and wanted to raise humanity to the next level of evolutionary enlightenment. Opposing them were the Manhunters, robots originally built by the Guardians as their first police force, and who had rebelled against their masters, taking to an existence of interstellar bounty hunters. It was written by Steve Englehart and drawn by Joe Staton and Ian Gibson.
In some ways, Millennium was actually a more successful crossover than the previous ones: it was weekly (and all issues and crossovers came out on time), each connecting crossover book had a banner identifying which week’s chapter it was connected to, and, for the most part, each crossover actually contributed to the overall story. There were a few exceptions and bumps, but most of it was cohesive and solid.
In other ways, it was not so successful. The climax, in particular, felt weak; we went through two months of story to get – what? Another superhero team!? And some of the metaphysics came across as just so much New Age mumbo jumbo.
Still, it was a fun romp and had a number of high points worth remembering… as well as some cool covers.
Here’s a handful of Millennium covers by Joe Staton and Bruce Patterson.