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A Comic Cover A Day (is awesome)

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  • CalibanCaliban Posts: 1,358
    Britiah weekly 2000AD celebrates its 2000th issue with three cover varients and a host of classic creators inside.

    Here's Chris Burnham and Nathan Fairbairn.

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  • CalibanCaliban Posts: 1,358
    And Cliff Robinson and Dylan Teague

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  • CalibanCaliban Posts: 1,358
    and Glenn Fabry's

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  • I just finished up another $5 Heroes Con purchase, a softcover trade paperback of Atlas Era Tales to Astonish, containing issues #1-10, published in 2013.

    I hesitated before buying this one, but I'm really glad I bought it. A LOT of fun in small doses, and as the cover indicates, there's work inside by Stan Lee & Larry Lieber on writing, and Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Don Heck, Joe Sinnott and more -- including Matt Baker, Carl Burgos, Jack Davis, Paul Reinman, Al Williamson, Doug Wildey (co-creator of Jonny Quest!). It was especially fun for me to see Joe Sinnott pencils. Even the little text stories were fun in their way.

    A little earlier than my mostly Bronze Age reading these days, but fun stuff. And I'm always up for giant monsters!

    Incidentally, there's a "Special Thanks" list inside this that includes a "Robert Anderson," which is not me. Not sure who that is in comics...If anyone knows, let me know!


    TPB cover:
    Jack Kirby (the underlying original cover) & Michael Kelleher

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    Issue cover:
    Tales to Astonish #8 (March 1960)
    Pencils: Jack Kirby
    Inks: Steve Ditko


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  • nweathingtonnweathington Posts: 6,748
    Dec. 1952: Graham “Ghastly” Ingels is at his most ghastly in this cover for The Haunt of Fear #17. Ingels’ father was a commercial artist who died when Ingels was only 14. Ingels was forced to quit school to help his family financially, and got his first professional art jobs at the age of 16, painting theater displays. In 1943 at the age of 28, Ingels joined the Navy and also got his first work for Fiction House, drawing both stories for their comics and illustrations for their pulp magazines. But of course, the war would keep him from doing any work after 1944.

    After returning in 1947, he tried to get magazine illustration work. He really wanted to be a fine artist, and it shows in his comic book work, but times were tough, and he ended up back in comics as an editor/cover artist for Standard/Pines. The next year he joined the staff of EC (though he did a few odd jobs for other publishers as well during his first few years there), where he would make his name. Ingels, though, didn’t seem to see it that way. Now in his 30s with a wife and two children, and a career that didn’t meet his expectations, Ingels fell victim to alcohol abuse. Gaines and Feldstein would give him adjusted deadlines for a week before they actually needed the work in order to make sure Ingels would get the job done on time. But fine work it was. Ingels quickly became EC’s top horror artist—and considering the talent EC employed, that was quite an achievement.

    Unfortunately, he became pigeon-holed as strictly a horror artist. When EC was forced to shut down its comic book operation in 1956, Ingels wasn’t able to get much work. Perhaps his alcoholism contributed to that, but outside of a few jobs for Gilberton’s Classics Illustrated and the Catholic church-backed Treasure Chest (Ingels was a devout Catholic, which may be part of the reason he always burned the comp comics EC would send him), Ingels was soon out of the industry. He began teaching for the Famous Artists correspondence school (the one with the ads that said, “Draw this (fill-in-the-blank)”). In 1962 he left his wife (they never officially divorced), moved to Florida, began teaching fine art on his own, and completely disassociated himself from comics until a few years before he passed away in 1991.

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  • RobAndersonRobAnderson Posts: 553
    edited October 2016

    @nweathington Thanks for another insightful post, and great interview on the recent episode!

    ++++++++++++++

    Right now, I'm working my way through the Master of Kung Fu Omnibus, Volume 1. Much of this material I read off the stands, but only once long ago, and I only own a handful of later Moench/Gulacy issues, so this is proving to be a real treat.

    I enjoyed the initial issues by Englehart & Starlin more than I expected (though I enjoy both creators immensely, I don't associate them as strongly with Shang-Chi, despite the fact they created him).

    Then, as Moench explains in his Foreword, the early issues are uneven due to the crazy pressure they were put under to "get ahead" with Giant-Size and fill-in issues, due to the demands for material of the British weeklies. Some issues are quite strong (generally when they're Moench/Gulacy), others not as much, but I'm still having fun, and I am almost to the point where the series really turns the corner into excellence. Can't wait!

    Here's one I've already read, which features the introduction of Clive Reston, son of James Bond, and great-nephew of Sherlock Holmes!

    Giant-Size Master of Kung Fu #3 (March 1975)
    Pencils: Gil Kane
    Inks: Joe Sinnott

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  • nweathingtonnweathington Posts: 6,748
    Jan. 1953: This month we have Battlefield #10 with a cover by Carl Burgos. Burgos (1916–84) is of course most famous for creating the Human Torch, but he started his career at the engraving company that engraved the printing plates for Harry “A” Chesler’s comics. He soon joined Chesler’s studio as a background artist and inker, and by late 1938 he was drawing his own stories, which were packaged for Centaur. A few months later, Centaur’s art director, Lloyd Jacquet, recruited Burgos and others (including Bill Everett) for a new packaging agency Jacquet was forming. It was here that Burgos did his first work for Timely—the first Human Torch story. From there until he entered service in the Air Force in 1942, the Human Torch was Burgos’ full-time job.

    When Burgos returned civilian life after the war in 1948, the Human Torch was still hanging around (though not for much longer), but Burgos was given other assignments by Timely. Burgos had other things on his mind anyway, as he had begun studying advertising at City College of New York. And while advertising would be his main focus going forward, he still managed to work regularly for Timely/Atlas, becoming one of their main cover artists for most of the ’50s until the work dried up for him in late 1957/early 1958. He found work with smaller publishers, and eventually some minor interior jobs for Atlas. But by 1960 his comic work would become much more sporadic. But we may get to that period later.

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  • bralinatorbralinator Posts: 5,967
    Well, it's October again, and a few Halloween themed comic covers is always fun around this time of year :)

    Beware #10
    July 1954
    Pencils: Frank Frazetta
    Inks: Sid Check

    According to the book 'Four Color Fear: Forgotten Horror Comics of the 1950s' (edited by Greg Sadowski & John Benson), Sid Check roughed out the drawing, then left Frazetta to his own devices, enough so for Frank to place his signature on top.

    That gravity-defying female could have come from no other artist.

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    Beware was published by Youthful Magazine with issues #13-16 (1953 Series A.) Then they began numbering issues starting at #5 and continuing on from there (1953 Series B.) This creates examples of issues with the same number, but different publication dates and different contents.

    Many of these issues and other Golden Age comics can be downloaded for free at the Digital Comic Museum.
  • nweathingtonnweathington Posts: 6,748
    Beware was one of those series that changed names and publishers multiple times. It started out as Captain Science, changed to Fantastic with issue #8, and changed to Beware with issue #10. Then Youthful Magazines was bought out by Trojan Magazines in 1952, with Beware #13 being Trojan’s first issue. Then came the series numbering change. Series B went until issue #14, before Trojan went out of business. The one final issue, #15, was published by Merit in 1955. Only in the Golden Age.
  • nweathingtonnweathington Posts: 6,748
    Feb. 1953: February is the perfect month for a romance cover, so here’s Jay Scott Pike’s stunning cover for Lovers #49. It's an interesting mix of heavy crosshatching on the male figure and pointillist shading on the female figure. It’s a bit of a clash of styles, but it’s effective in setting off the beauty of the woman.

    Pike (1924-15) began studying at the Art Students League as a young teenager. After graduating high school, though, he joined the Marines (1942-46). After he was released from duty, it was back to art school. In 1950 he finally began his comic book career after meeting and assisting Al Hartley (who I've already discussed). They didn't get along, but Pike had connected with Atlas through Hartley, and was able to secure work of his own. Outside of a handful of jobs, Pike would spend the majority of the next decade working for Atlas.

    Pike did a little bit of everything, but by 1952 he was primarily drawing romance stories, which made sense given his ability to draw beautiful women. It was that ability that won Pike the regular assignments to draw Marvel’s two premiere jungle queens: Lorna the Jungle Girl and the newly created Jann of the Jungle. But in 1958, work started drying up at Atlas, so Pike began branching out with DC and their, you guessed it, romance comics.

    By 1962 Pike was working exclusively for DC—at least for his comics work. He also started doing commercial art: magazine covers, pinup calendars, and advertising art. He even did some paintings for Playboy resorts. And, of course, he created, wrote, and drew Dolphin for Showcase (though Dolphin’s claim to fame is being one of the Forgotten Heroes). When the romance comics disappeared from comics in the mid-’70s, so did Pike—though he did come back briefly in the mid-’90s to do a couple of jobs for DC.

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  • nweathingtonnweathington Posts: 6,748
    Mar. 1953: This month it’s another eye-popping cover by Norm Saunders, Worlds of Fear #10. Unlike most publishers of the time, Fawcett did not publish much in the way of horror. Worlds of Fear was only one of four horror series in the history of their line. Painted horror covers were a rarity. Saunders only worked in the horror genre a handful of times, and each instance was a painted cover for Fawcett. But it’s really the composition that makes this cover special. The wall of giant eyeballs and the single figure in the foreground makes for a nice break from the skeletons/zombies/monsters looming over their victim. Even the title logo, with its semitransparancy is top-notch.

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  • mwhitt80mwhitt80 Posts: 4,637
    The world's of fear is a top-notch cover. It really looks like an old movie poster.

    I really like the cover to Lovers #49. The contrast of the beautiful woman with the use of crosshatching on the man is really eye catching. Unlike a lot of romance covers the guy doesn't look like a clean cut Frankie Avalon; this is a rough, burly man that you wouldn't want to let your girlfriend/wife near. Very eye-catching and different cover.
  • For Halloween, I pulled out one of my favorite childhood runs -- Frankenstein Monster #13 - 18, by Doug Moench and Val Mayerik. I picked up the first issue via a VENDING MACHINE that sold comics, while on a vacation trip with my family. Picked up the rest off the stands.

    The run brings Franky into the modern age, introduces some supporting characters, monsters and a robot! Was fun to continue with some Moench reading, right after I finished up MOKF Omnibus #1.

    Anyway, here's the cover to the last issue in the run, which I don't believe I've posted before (though #14 I know I posted earlier, as it was part of my custom calendar for this year).

    Frankenstein Monster #18 with a really nice art combo of pencils by Val Mayerik and inks by Bernie Wrightson! The issue ended mid-story -- I don't think it was ever finished??

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  • mwhitt80mwhitt80 Posts: 4,637
    Kyle Baker was brought up by @nweathington in another thread. I love his covers on Plastic Man; they are eye-catching and fun. Issue 13 is one of my favorites from the series.

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  • bralinatorbralinator Posts: 5,967
    Sparkler Comics #25
    September 1943
    Cover by Burne Hogarth

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  • bralinatorbralinator Posts: 5,967
    Korak Son of Tarzan DC #54
    Oct/Nov 1973
    Cover by Joe Kubert

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  • CalibanCaliban Posts: 1,358
    Love that Joe Kubert.

    Here are some Steve Dillon 2000AD covers, firstly 327 from 1983

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  • CalibanCaliban Posts: 1,358
    Prog 535 from 1987
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  • Took a holiday respite from my Bronze Age reading to read two current books greatly bally-hooed by the CGS guys.

    Paper Girls (Vol 1 TPB) was the first -- yep, love it. Another BKV winner.

    The other was Huck (Vol 1 TPB) by Millar and Rafael Albuquerque (cover and interior art). Boy, this is just what I needed. Highly recommend this, too. I think Millar summed up why really well in this column:

    "...these characters [superheroes] were created in the Great Depression to lift our spirits in the darkest times. When things are tough we maybe need a nice, uncomplicated hero a little more... As a reader I’m desperate for it. As a writer, it’s been a sheer joy. But both myself and artist Rafael Albuquerque have created something we haven’t seen in a very long time with our new book and that’s a lovely, sweet, Jimmy Stewart/ Tom Hanks/ Steven Spielberg kinda good guy."

    Huck #3 by Rafael Albuquerque


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  • mwhitt80mwhitt80 Posts: 4,637
    edited November 2016
    Merry Christmas love your favorite intergalactic bounty hunter
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  • CalibanCaliban Posts: 1,358
    More Steve Dillon
    Prog 540 1987
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  • Apr. 1953: Long before Sgt. Fury, there was Combat Casey. Combat Casey wasn’t Marvel’s first war hero to get his own title—that was Combat Kelly (see a pattern there?) almost two years earlier—but he had a good run. He had his own squad, but many of his adventures (and his stories fell into the traditional adventure style of war comics, not the more thoughtful EC style) involved him and his sidekick Pvt. Penny P. Pennington, the “intellectual” to Casey’s “rough ’n’ ready,” getting caught behind enemy lines. And while not nearly as over-the-top caricaturistic as the Japanese were depicted during WWII comics, the North Koreans in Combat Casey were depicted more towards those stereotypes than seen at the other publishers of the time. As a sidenote, while Combat Kelly was brought back in the ’70s (though moved from the Korean War to WWII), Casey was left on the scrapheap, and never made another appearance after 1959.

    The artist for the cover of Combat Casey #11, while not confirmed, is almost certainly Robert Q. Sale (a.k.a., Bob Q. Siege), the co-creator of Casey (along with writer Hank Chapman) in War Combat #5. War Combat changed its name to Combat Casey with its very next issue and ran through issue #34 in July 1957. Sale drew practically every Casey story through issue #28, though this might be his only cover for the series (there may be one more, but it's difficult to say for sure, as it might be Joe Maneely).

    Sale is seldom talked about, but he was one of the better Atlas-era artists. He appears to be from the Caniff school with his bold inking style. He wasn’t quite the draftsman as Maneely (Sale tended to use a bit more caricature in his work), but there was a similar feel to his artwork. There might be a bit of John Severin, who was a studiomate for a time, there as well. It fit the crime, horror, and war stories he most commonly drew very well.

    Sale got his first comic book work with Lev Gleason in 1944 drawing crime features and “The Claw.” But he wasn’t getting much work. He drew several “Wonder Women of History” features for DC’s Sensation Comics, along with humor stories for Novelty and other odds and ends before finally settling in with Atlas/Marvel in 1951. He was a fixture at Marvel, only doing a small handful of stories for other publishers, until 1957, when Marvel laid off most of their staff. Sale moved on to advertising art for the rest of his career.

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  • I just finished up Marvel Masterworks: Avengers Volume 15 (covering #136-149). A lot of Steve Englehart with a very young George Perez (plus others). Held up quite well for me -- definitely some favorite issues from my childhood in here -- Kang versus some Avengers and some Old West Marvel heroes, introduction of Hellcat, Beast and Moondragon join the Avengers, and the Squadron Supreme!

    Avengers #142 (December 1975)
    Pencils: Gil Kane
    Inks: Frank Giacoia ?; John Romita (Moondragon head) [per GCD]

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    A quick question for my fellow CGS forumites. In the Foreword to the volume, Steve Englehart mentions there's a Spanish reprint of the Hellcat intro issue (Avengers #144) done by Carlos Pacheco. I've had no luck tracking this down -- anyone ( @define999 or anyone else?) have a link to that cover?

    Here's the original:

    Avengers #144 (February 1976)
    Pencils: Gil Kane
    Inks: Frank Giacoia

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  • bralinatorbralinator Posts: 5,967
    Joe Palooka helping Santa make his rounds

    Big Shot #30
    1942
    Artist Ogden Whitney

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  • bralinatorbralinator Posts: 5,967
    Mary Marvel #8
    1946
    Artist Jack Binder

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  • bralinatorbralinator Posts: 5,967
    Batman and the Outsiders #19
    1985
    Artist Jim Aparo


    It's GeoForce vs Superman


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  • bralinatorbralinator Posts: 5,967
    And this classic cover...

    Walt Disney's Christmas Parade #6
    1954
    Cover art by Paul Murry & Don MacLaughlin

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    Merry Christmas everyone!
  • nweathingtonnweathington Posts: 6,748
    May 1953: Marvel had already tried to cash in on the teen humor market with Archie-esque titles like Georgie and Willie, but the shortlived Homer Hooper series was as blatant a rip-off of the Archie comics as had ever been dared. With its red-headed letter-sweater-wearing lead, blonde romantic interest (who was sort of a mash-up of Betty and Veronica), dark-haired frenemy, big-nosed sidekick, a soda shop owner named “Pop,” etc., the only thing missing was the strong love triangle aspect. The comic only ran four issues, and I have to think that Archie may have threatened to sue Marvel—they certainly would have had a strong case regardless.

    The artist of this cover—and of every cover and interior story (pencils and inks) for all four issues—was Hy Rosen. Rosen began his career as a political cartoonist for the Albany Times Union in 1945 at the age of 22 and worked there until his retirement in 1989, and it was this side of his career for which he is best known. But he did quite a bit of comic book work on the side, beginning in 1949 with DC on a backup feature in Scribbly #1. For the next ten years or so, Rosen could be found in a wide variety of DC, Marvel, and St. John titles, finishing up with a short stint at Dell. He was probably best at humor, but he drew westerns, horror, and war stories as well. As many aritsts of the time, Rosen left comics in the late ’50s and made advertising storyboarding his second job (while still continuing with his political cartooning). Though he did come back in the early ’90s to pencil a few stories for Harvey’s Saved by the Bell comic just before he passed away in 1992.

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  • Mr_CosmicMr_Cosmic Posts: 3,200
    edited January 2017
    Sorry if it's been posted...

    Jonny Quest #5
    "Jade Incorporated"
    October 1, 1986

    Dave Stevens (obviously :blush: )

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  • @RobAnderson , would this be what you're looking for?

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