I'd like it, even if there was some repetition (says the guy often posting Kane Marvel covers and Cardy DC covers).
Seriously, though, so many interesting things in your commentary, and so many intriguing covers... You're doing the writing of it already. That just leaves permissions as needed and reproductions at print quality (har, har, I know that's a lot of work!)
@nweathington I'd definitely buy your book. Suggested title A Cover a Month - 1938 - 1998 - a certain best seller. Maybe Taschen would publish and put all those covers in a coffee table sized book. I'd put it next to my copy of "1001 Comic Books you must read before you die".
In the meantime, can I share this fabulous Green Lantern #63 (from 1968) with you all? It's a delight - a real beauty from Neal Adams. Almost as good as his X-Men covers!
@Stevenw888 Love the Neal Adams GL cover -- never seen that one that I recall!
And, on the "let's-draft- @nweathington -to-write-a-book front, I thought of 1001 (on my shelf; I'm about halfway through it), too, as well as Isabella's "1000 Comic Books You Must Read" (also on my shelf). And...one of my favorite book sets of all time are those Gerber Photo-Journal Guides -- all 4 volumes are on my shelf here (the only downside being that many of the covers are too small). @nweathington 's book is sort of the best of all worlds. Great covers (hopefully a bit larger than in some of the other books we've mentioned), great commentary with lots of history and life stories of the artists and such mixed in.
I like your title, maybe with "comic book" inserted in there -- to help with google and amazon searches. Though @nweathington has my permission to stop at around 1987 or so. (ha!)
Maybe "50 Years of Comic Book Cover Art: 1938 to 1988".
It's funny, because I was planning to attend a panel at a con a while back where the person was described as a comics scholar...and the panel was fine, but I was sitting there thinking (this is no lie), "y'know who's a REAL comics scholar? @nweathington ! They need THAT guy doing more panels on comics history."
So, yeah, we need this book. Then we need Eric doing panels at cons showing a selection of the covers (which will promote/sell more of his book-- ha). And a CGS episode on it when the book is solicited!!
I love how I come up with all these ideas that lead to enjoyment for me, and tons of work for everyone else. ;)
After all that yakking, I owe the thread an on-topic cover...
Recently, I was running through some Superboy covers as my iPhone wallpaper. I picked up a bunch of these off the stands when it was "Superboy starring the Legion of Super-Heroes."
Love this one from November 1973 with pencils and inks by Dave Cockrum, although GCD notes Nick Cardy as inker of the Superboy figure.
(Even when I think I'm NOT posting a Cardy cover, I end up with a partially Cardy-inked cover...)
Thanks for all the love, guys. It's making me think it might actually be worth doing that book. Though I've got a couple of other jobs I have to get off my plate first. In the meantime, I'll keep posting away here. July 1947: There are several nice covers this month, such as Syd Shores’ cover for Human Torch #27, but I'm going with Land of the Lost Comics #6 with a cover by Olive Bailey. Yes, long before Syd and Marty took us to a land of dinosaurs and Sleestaks, Isabel Manning Hewson created a children’s radio program titled, Land of the Lost, which ran from 1943-48. It was popular enough to lead to two albums, three animated shorts, and its own nine-issue comic book series published by EC.
The stories center around two kids and their magical talking fish guide, Red Lantern—don't worry, he's not powered by rage—and their adventures in the undersea world of the Land of the Lost (where all lost things eventually end up). The few I've read aren't particularly interesting, but they're decent kids' stories, kind of a watered down Wizard of Oz.
As for Olive Bailey, she was a painter by training, and as far as anyone knows, this series (she drew all the covers and two stories in each issue) was the only comic book work of her career. To be honest, her drawings of the kids in the stories aren't that great, but her animal characters are quite charming, and her storytelling is pretty good, especially for someone who didn't do much sequential artwork. I think this issue's cover is the best of the series.
All this talk about books about comic-books made me think - perhaps we could devote a little time to uploading the covers of some of our favourite books about comics. I have a collection of about 20 of these - all of which I love. This is one of my particular favourites - this is "Jerry Robinson - Ambassador of Comics". Jerry, of course, first drew The Joker and also Batman's sidekick back in the 40's but he drew so much more besides. Stan Lee once said "I saw Jerry's fantastic artistic abilities and immediately wanted him on my team." The book was published by Abrams ComicArts in 2010.
On @Stevenw888 's suggestion to post books about comics, here are some scans I spotted online of the much-loved-by-me Gerber Photo-Journal books. There are 4 volumes, though I only spotted decent scans of 3, plus a small shot of the interior...
Aug. 1947:Phantom Lady #13 was the first issue of the series, taking over the numbering from Wotalife Comics. Phantom Lady had previously been published as a feature in Quality’s Police Comics, but when Quality canceled the feature, the Iger Studio (which had been producing the stories) assumed they owned the character and began selling stories to Fox. In the process they changed the character’s costume and artist—from Frank Borth to Matt Baker. Baker penciled this cover and may have inked it, or perhaps just part of it. Al Feldstein may have inked it, or perhaps just part of it. It's difficult to say, because by this point Matt Baker’s style was quickly becoming a sort of house style at the Iger Studio, with Jack Kamen and Al Feldstein being top among the Baker imitators.
Another book cover from me. This is "The Classic Era of American Comics" (2000) by Nicky Wright. A very interesting book, with a forward by Joe Kubert, containing insightful information about all the the major US comic publishers in the Golden Age. There are some outstanding cover pictures in it.
Cool stuff, @Stevenw888 -- I didn't know that Shutt book existed, though I used to really enjoy his Mr. Silver Age columns in the much-missed CBG magazine...
Here's a book about comics that I enjoyed the hell out of recently -- published by TwoMorrows, and highly recommended for anyone interested in the Bronze Age. Lots of covers (and artwork) inside...
Sept. 1947: There are some good covers this month, but only one truly great cover—my favorite cover of the Frankenstein series. A great gag, great composition, great lighting, great expressions—this one has it all.
And here is my absolute favourite book about comics of all time, and the pride of my collection. This is The Silver Age of DC Comics by Paul Levitz. Published by Taschen. This mighty tome measures 13" by 9.5" and has 400 colour pages, with some of the best cover reproductions I have ever seen. The book weighs in at an incredible 6.5 pounds. The only reason I was able to buy this fabulous book was that ebay were doing a special deal and offering half-price UK postage charges. Otherwise I would never have been able to afford a second hand copy. This book retails in the US for $59.99. It is worth every penny (cent).
Oh, thanks for the reminder, @Stevenw888 ! I MUST get the Bronze Age volume of that set, for sure! (And probably the Silver Age one as well thereafter..)
Here's another one I enjoyed -- this one co-written by the founder of Dark Horse Comics. The cover doesn't look too exciting, and if you glance inside it looks like an alphabetized encyclopedia (with color illustrations), but there's a surprising number of really engaging stories on the history of comics embedded in all those entries. I enjoyed reading this cover-to-cover way more than I expected!
Oct. 1947: It’s crime time, with Dan Barry’s cover for Real Clue Crime Comics vol. 2, #8. Barry started his comic book career in 1941, but it wasn't until late ’46/early ’47 (after a brief stint serving in the Air Force) when he really began to come into his own. With this cover his “New York slick” style was in full effect, and it was a style that would dominate the comic book industry throughout the ’50s and much of the ’60s.
Of course, Barry spent most of his career drawing the Tarzan and Flash Gordon newspaper strips (not at the same time). In fact, at the time he drew this cover, Barry was also assisting Burne Hogarth on Tarzan, and would soon be taking over the strip while continuing to do comic book work. Barry continued to work in both mediums until he left comics in 1957.
From July-September 1970, DC Special #8, a cover from Murphy Anderson, who, sadly, passed away recently.
I picked this one up on a family road trip and read it to pieces over the years. I would've only been around 5, and I remember the Shadow-Thief kind of scaring me a little. Fun book...
Another day, another great cover. This is Blackhawk #65 from June 1952. This was back when Quality Comics were still publishing the Blackhawk title. As far as I can make out Pencils: Reed Crandall; Inks: Chuck Cuiderahttp
Oh, thanks for the reminder, @Stevenw888 ! I MUST get the Bronze Age volume of that set, for sure! (And probably the Silver Age one as well thereafter..)
Here's another one I enjoyed -- this one co-written by the founder of Dark Horse Comics. The cover doesn't look too exciting, and if you glance inside it looks like an alphabetized encyclopedia (with color illustrations), but there's a surprising number of really engaging stories on the history of comics embedded in all those entries. I enjoyed reading this cover-to-cover way more than I expected!
This book had things to like about it, but overall I was rather disappointed with it. I bought it when it first came out (two years before I started working for TwoMorrows and really began to expand my comic history knowledge) hoping it would fill in a lot of gaps for me, but I learned very little from it. It made for a nice quick reference guide at the time, but it's rather pointless now with the information available online.
Huh, I wonder if I'd enjoy it less now. Nothing compares to TwoMorrows, of course. ;)
I suppose it could still serve as a beginner's guide to comic book history, something to lead readers to other things. But I've only gone back to that book twice since I first read it, and the last time was many years ago. I probably should sell my copy and clear some space on the shelf. I seem to remember there being a bunch of typos in it as well, but I may be thinking of another book.
You know, any kind of encyclopedia is a tough sell these days.
Comments
Seriously, though, so many interesting things in your commentary, and so many intriguing covers... You're doing the writing of it already. That just leaves permissions as needed and reproductions at print quality (har, har, I know that's a lot of work!)
In the meantime, can I share this fabulous Green Lantern #63 (from 1968) with you all? It's a delight - a real beauty from Neal Adams. Almost as good as his X-Men covers!
And, on the "let's-draft- @nweathington -to-write-a-book front, I thought of 1001 (on my shelf; I'm about halfway through it), too, as well as Isabella's "1000 Comic Books You Must Read" (also on my shelf). And...one of my favorite book sets of all time are those Gerber Photo-Journal Guides -- all 4 volumes are on my shelf here (the only downside being that many of the covers are too small). @nweathington 's book is sort of the best of all worlds. Great covers (hopefully a bit larger than in some of the other books we've mentioned), great commentary with lots of history and life stories of the artists and such mixed in.
I like your title, maybe with "comic book" inserted in there -- to help with google and amazon searches. Though @nweathington has my permission to stop at around 1987 or so. (ha!)
Maybe "50 Years of Comic Book Cover Art: 1938 to 1988".
It's funny, because I was planning to attend a panel at a con a while back where the person was described as a comics scholar...and the panel was fine, but I was sitting there thinking (this is no lie), "y'know who's a REAL comics scholar? @nweathington ! They need THAT guy doing more panels on comics history."
So, yeah, we need this book. Then we need Eric doing panels at cons showing a selection of the covers (which will promote/sell more of his book-- ha). And a CGS episode on it when the book is solicited!!
I love how I come up with all these ideas that lead to enjoyment for me, and tons of work for everyone else. ;)
Recently, I was running through some Superboy covers as my iPhone wallpaper. I picked up a bunch of these off the stands when it was "Superboy starring the Legion of Super-Heroes."
Love this one from November 1973 with pencils and inks by Dave Cockrum, although GCD notes Nick Cardy as inker of the Superboy figure.
(Even when I think I'm NOT posting a Cardy cover, I end up with a partially Cardy-inked cover...)
July 1947: There are several nice covers this month, such as Syd Shores’ cover for Human Torch #27, but I'm going with Land of the Lost Comics #6 with a cover by Olive Bailey. Yes, long before Syd and Marty took us to a land of dinosaurs and Sleestaks, Isabel Manning Hewson created a children’s radio program titled, Land of the Lost, which ran from 1943-48. It was popular enough to lead to two albums, three animated shorts, and its own nine-issue comic book series published by EC.
The stories center around two kids and their magical talking fish guide, Red Lantern—don't worry, he's not powered by rage—and their adventures in the undersea world of the Land of the Lost (where all lost things eventually end up). The few I've read aren't particularly interesting, but they're decent kids' stories, kind of a watered down Wizard of Oz.
As for Olive Bailey, she was a painter by training, and as far as anyone knows, this series (she drew all the covers and two stories in each issue) was the only comic book work of her career. To be honest, her drawings of the kids in the stories aren't that great, but her animal characters are quite charming, and her storytelling is pretty good, especially for someone who didn't do much sequential artwork. I think this issue's cover is the best of the series.
This is one of my particular favourites - this is "Jerry Robinson - Ambassador of Comics".
Jerry, of course, first drew The Joker and also Batman's sidekick back in the 40's but he drew so much more besides. Stan Lee once said "I saw Jerry's fantastic artistic abilities and immediately wanted him on my team."
The book was published by Abrams ComicArts in 2010.
Red Sonja #4 (Dynamite, Volume 1)
July 2005
Mark Silvestri
Here is another one from my collection - Baby Boomer Comics, by Craig Shutt.
@Caliban Wow, great L&R cover...
@nweathington You already got enough love... (ha) Another great post...
Ghost Comics #7 (1951) Artwork by Maurice Whitman.
This is The Silver Age of DC Comics by Paul Levitz. Published by Taschen.
This mighty tome measures 13" by 9.5" and has 400 colour pages, with some of the best cover reproductions I have ever seen. The book weighs in at an incredible 6.5 pounds.
The only reason I was able to buy this fabulous book was that ebay were doing a special deal and offering half-price UK postage charges. Otherwise I would never have been able to afford a second hand copy. This book retails in the US for $59.99. It is worth every penny (cent).
Here's another one I enjoyed -- this one co-written by the founder of Dark Horse Comics. The cover doesn't look too exciting, and if you glance inside it looks like an alphabetized encyclopedia (with color illustrations), but there's a surprising number of really engaging stories on the history of comics embedded in all those entries. I enjoyed reading this cover-to-cover way more than I expected!
Of course, Barry spent most of his career drawing the Tarzan and Flash Gordon newspaper strips (not at the same time). In fact, at the time he drew this cover, Barry was also assisting Burne Hogarth on Tarzan, and would soon be taking over the strip while continuing to do comic book work. Barry continued to work in both mediums until he left comics in 1957.
Cover art by Don Heck and Jack Kirby.
I picked this one up on a family road trip and read it to pieces over the years. I would've only been around 5, and I remember the Shadow-Thief kind of scaring me a little. Fun book...
As far as I can make out Pencils: Reed Crandall; Inks: Chuck Cuiderahttp
You know, any kind of encyclopedia is a tough sell these days.