@rebis I miss my copy of that Dr. Strange Treasury Edition -- that had some awesome stuff in it (IIRC), and a great cover to boot. Those pages with Eternity et al. inside looked fantastic at the larger size.
@Chuck_Melville I can't get enough Gil Kane! Love it! (And I know that feeling of selling off stuff you regret...)
@dubbat138 Man, you are always finding stuff I've never seen (maybe because I had a gap for a number of years in my reading). I'm a big Gulacy fan, and missed this series entirely!
Today's random cover of the day (Marvel 1973) with pencils/inks by Billy Graham.
I am always on the lookout for weird/strange/comics I have never heard of. Got those Grackle issues at this indoor flea market we have in town. They were in a box with a bunch of mid 90s Marvel crap.
I also have some gaps in my comic reading. From about September of 92 till around March of 97 I read almost no comics. Then I took another break right after Preacher and Hate ended. That lasted till I discovered CGS.
I've always had a fondness for Neal Adams' covers, especially for the horror and mystery books -- he could make even the inanimate seem terrifying. This cover to the House Of Mystery's revival in the late sixties is a particular favorite.
Hot Wheels was a Sat AM cartoon in the early 70's, based on the popular Mattell toy cars -- which were still pretty new at the time. The comic was short-lived, but written by folks like Joe Gill and Len Wein and drawn mainly by the great Alex Toth, with one fill-in by Neal Adams. I'd love to see this series reprinted some time; it's a genuine lost treasure.
When I was working for Diamond Comics during the 90's, sorting out titles to ship to the retailers, we used to unpack the airline freight cans and pile the boxes on a long table in the middle of the warehouse, tear open the top box and set a few copies from each title on top in preparation for the sort. Most of the covers tended to be dark and dramatic, even with the foil and holographic covers that were prevalent then, and there was a kind of general sameness. Except...
Looking down the length of the table, there was always one title that had such bright colors on it, that it seemed to glow in comparison to everything else. It turned out to be Barbie, or it's sister title, Barbie Fashion, being published by Marvel. I kid you not, it was the one guaranteed spark of cheerfulness along the length or breadth of that sorting table. I tried browsing through a copy once or twice, but the stories weren't of much interest to anyone who wasn't a girl of seven or eight; I could never get through one -- but the covers were so nicely designed (either by Jeff Albrecht or Amanda Connor) that I always wanted to strip one (the cover; not Barbie) for a mini-poster.
The original Secret Six opens with a car crash, drawn by Frank Springer; and the cover was the first page to the story, a trick that, at that time, to my knowledge, had never been done before -- outside of, maybe, The Spirit.
I don't recall the name of this artist, but I believe he usually did covers for SF paperbacks and magazines in the 50's and 60's. He certainly lent a distinct touch to the early issues of the original Doctor Solar run for Gold Key Comics. The bonus was that for the earliest issues, they printed the same cover image on the back cover as well, with a minimum of copy, so that if you wanted to (and you weren't too much of a comic fan), you could rip the back cover off and use it for a poster.
Thought I'd wrap up with one more cover and then call it a night lest anyone accuse me of monopolizing the topic.
I've always felt that Carmine Infantino was the best cover designer in comics, and I was nearly always hooked by his covers. And here's a classic Flash cover to prove my point: Flash belts the Reverse-Flash (in his first appearance) clear across the time barrier to the 25th century. Honestly, could any 12-year old kid pass up this book after seeing that cover?
The original Secret Six opens with a car crash, drawn by Frank Springer; and the cover was the first page to the story, a trick that, at that time, to my knowledge, had never been done before -- outside of, maybe, The Spirit.
Secret Six was the comics equivalent of Firefly: Cancelled too soon, cult following, eventually concluded several years down the road.
Comments
@rebis I miss my copy of that Dr. Strange Treasury Edition -- that had some awesome stuff in it (IIRC), and a great cover to boot. Those pages with Eternity et al. inside looked fantastic at the larger size.
@Chuck_Melville I can't get enough Gil Kane! Love it! (And I know that feeling of selling off stuff you regret...)
@dubbat138 Man, you are always finding stuff I've never seen (maybe because I had a gap for a number of years in my reading). I'm a big Gulacy fan, and missed this series entirely!
Today's random cover of the day (Marvel 1973) with pencils/inks by Billy Graham.
I am always on the lookout for weird/strange/comics I have never heard of. Got those Grackle issues at this indoor flea market we have in town. They were in a box with a bunch of mid 90s Marvel crap.
I also have some gaps in my comic reading. From about September of 92 till around March of 97 I read almost no comics. Then I took another break right after Preacher and Hate ended. That lasted till I discovered CGS.
John Cassaday
Paul Mounts
Glenn Fabry
Cliff Wu Chiang
Bob Hall
Harry Eisenstein
Paolo Parente
Rebecca Guay
Tons of great stuff to look at.
I've always had a fondness for Neal Adams' covers, especially for the horror and mystery books -- he could make even the inanimate seem terrifying. This cover to the House Of Mystery's revival in the late sixties is a particular favorite.
Hot Wheels was a Sat AM cartoon in the early 70's, based on the popular Mattell toy cars -- which were still pretty new at the time. The comic was short-lived, but written by folks like Joe Gill and Len Wein and drawn mainly by the great Alex Toth, with one fill-in by Neal Adams. I'd love to see this series reprinted some time; it's a genuine lost treasure.
When I was working for Diamond Comics during the 90's, sorting out titles to ship to the retailers, we used to unpack the airline freight cans and pile the boxes on a long table in the middle of the warehouse, tear open the top box and set a few copies from each title on top in preparation for the sort. Most of the covers tended to be dark and dramatic, even with the foil and holographic covers that were prevalent then, and there was a kind of general sameness. Except...
Looking down the length of the table, there was always one title that had such bright colors on it, that it seemed to glow in comparison to everything else. It turned out to be Barbie, or it's sister title, Barbie Fashion, being published by Marvel. I kid you not, it was the one guaranteed spark of cheerfulness along the length or breadth of that sorting table. I tried browsing through a copy once or twice, but the stories weren't of much interest to anyone who wasn't a girl of seven or eight; I could never get through one -- but the covers were so nicely designed (either by Jeff Albrecht or Amanda Connor) that I always wanted to strip one (the cover; not Barbie) for a mini-poster.
Now this was the way to hook an audience!
The original Secret Six opens with a car crash, drawn by Frank Springer; and the cover was the first page to the story, a trick that, at that time, to my knowledge, had never been done before -- outside of, maybe, The Spirit.
I don't recall the name of this artist, but I believe he usually did covers for SF paperbacks and magazines in the 50's and 60's. He certainly lent a distinct touch to the early issues of the original Doctor Solar run for Gold Key Comics. The bonus was that for the earliest issues, they printed the same cover image on the back cover as well, with a minimum of copy, so that if you wanted to (and you weren't too much of a comic fan), you could rip the back cover off and use it for a poster.
I've always felt that Carmine Infantino was the best cover designer in comics, and I was nearly always hooked by his covers. And here's a classic Flash cover to prove my point: Flash belts the Reverse-Flash (in his first appearance) clear across the time barrier to the 25th century. Honestly, could any 12-year old kid pass up this book after seeing that cover?
Jack Kirby
Michael Thibodeaux
Joe Kubert
Joe Kubert
Joe Kubert
DC didn't like Kirby's version of Superman's face, and would often have someone (Curt Swan?) come in and redraw it.
That said, a below-average Kubert cover is still above-average for the industry.