Hey, Kids! It's part two of my Spirit coverfest! Part one is over here.
What I said yesterday still stands but I want to point out Eisner's use of shadow and line. Especially in the first two covers below. Also, I want to reiterate how awesome it is that each of these covers tells a story. Each image feels active as if there are things happening before and after it instead of just being a portrait.
I love The Spirit. I have a deep fondness for Will Eisner's work and I am a big fan of Darwyn Cooke's recent reboot. I have such a love for this comic that I am making this Awesome Cover Friday last two days. The covers below are from Kitchen Sink Press's reprints of the post-WWII spirit issues.
I'm not going to comment on each one because they speak for themselves. Each one is an exemplar of what comic-book covers should be. They are evocative and each one practically tells a whole story in a single image. It really makes me want to see how The Spirit got into that predicament and, more importantly, how he's going to get out.
Apparently I've still got Halloween on the brain because I was thinking about Creepy the other day and how cool the covers were. Creepy was technically a magazine due to its larger format but it contained sequential art so to me it counts as a comic book. The covers did a great job of selling the stories inside.
Frank Frazetta did a lot of covers for Creepy and this is one of my favorites. I love the dark palette and the sense of claustrophobia the image evokes. Also, the fact that you can't quite make out all the details on that beast just rocks.
This cover by Vic Prezio is in sharp contrast to the moody, dark Frazetta above but it is no less effective. The palette is bright but still fairly limited. Prezio's sense of composition and line really comes through on this piece.
Here's another cool Frazetta piece that is more indicative of his fantasy-action work. That dude with the knife has got his work cut out for him.
This is one of the Creepy covers that lives up to the magazine's title. It's by Kenneth Smith and there's not much I can say about it that the image doesn't say for itself.
Monster comics hit their peak in the 1970s. Marvel put out a ton of scary titles featuring Ghost Rider and various relatives of Satan. But since this is Halloween and this is a pop-culture blog I am bound by the Monster Squad Act of 1976 which states that at least one reference must be made per year to the iconic movie monsters Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster, and The Werewolf.
Sweet! This one's got a giant spider and a dude in flashy RenFest garb! It really captures the combination of action-adventure and creepy horror that Marvel did so well.
Damn! Just...damn! This is one messed-up cover. I really want to know what's going on in this issue.
Also? My D&D character totally fought something like that and got a badass sword and, like, a billion experience points out of it.
Just in case you thought the movie monsters weren't part of the larger Marvel Universe, we have Silver Surfer throwing down with Dracula. I don't know what the vampire did to piss off Galactus's herald but he's gonna be sorry.
Whiz Comics began with issue #2 in 1940. It was also the first appearance of Captain Marvel. You know who else showed up in that issue? Spy Smasher, that's who!
I usually reserve the old-school covers for Weird-Ass Cover Wednesday, but this week, I want to take a few minutes to highlight the awesome that some of these WWII-era covers brought.
Look at that! He's throwing a freakin' car! Superman had to pick his car up to smash it around but Captain Marvel just tosses the thing. One-armed. Do not mess with the Big Red Cheese.
Any time a tank barrel is tied in a knot an angel gets his wings.
Yeah, how'd you like to be those pilots? You wouldn't! That's how!
Those poor schmucks picked the wrong day to get in Captain Marvel's airspace. Also, any cover that has a dude attacking a plane gets extra points from me.
You knew I was going to save the best for last, didn't you? Well, here you are. I can't say anything about this cover that the picture doesn't convey to perfection. Bask in the glory folks.
This week's Awesome Cover Friday is extra large because it's about the Marvel Universe's favorite extra-large character.
Galactus!
Few things are more awesome than Galactus. Literally. He raises the awesome quotient of any cover he is on by 64%. I can prove this using algebra.
This is the first cover to feature the flying purple planet eater. I love this image! It's Kirby-riffic and a tough act to follow but some of the ones below manage it.
OK, Hercules is a badass. Other Olympians think he's a badass. But that ain't nothin' to Galactus. I've featured this cover before but it's awesome enough to be brought back. The composition and sense of action on this makes it a near-perfect cover. Also, something similar to this scene actually happens in the comic.
The Galactus silhouette is eye-catching and cool but the thing that keeps me coming back to this cover is the collage of images in the background.
Here it is. This is the cover many people think of when Galactus is mentioned. It is, in fact, one of the best covers ever. I mean, that's a whole bunch of badasses and The Big G is barely expending any energy against them.
This is my favorite Galactus cover so far. It's the follow-up to the Everyone vs. Galactus issue and it does more to convey the power of a being who can eat a planet than any of the ones above do. Also, the composition and the garish colors really sell this.
Also, what's Ben Grimm doing up in the corner, there? Gathering firewood?
I'm a huge First Comics fan. They put out some of the best titles of the 80s. My favorite of their publications was The Badger but Nexus was a close second.
The covers below are from the '90s during Dark Horse's possession of Nexus but I will always consider it to be a First title.
Woo! That's scary. Graveyard + Big Green Ghost Head = I'm buying this issue right now!
I absolutely love the composition on this one. It reminds me of some of my favorite Astro City covers. The stunning central image surrounded by all this muted, swirling chaos.
This one looks like a bad trip in all the best ways. An image like this is so much better than a static portrait no matter how well painted. This kind of thing smacks you in the head and shouts "Read me!". Kind of like the stuff in Through the Looking Glass but with big-ass bugs.
Long before the movie Weird Science came along, there was a comic book by the same name. Many of the title's stories were adaptations of Ray Bradbury pieces and the covers, most of them by Wally Wood, are spectacular.
Dinosaurs! And spaceships! And a volcano! This thing literally sells itself. 
I literally can't get enough of this cover. The weird space creatures (who are wearing the same spacesuits as the humans from the issue above) contrasted with the kids make for a terrific image. Also, check out that dog.
Woah! The composition of this cover alone blows me away (no pun intended). The subject matter is stunning as well. Keep in mind that this issue came out in 1953.
Last year, I posted a Weird-ass Cover Wednesday entry about Adventures Into Weird Worlds. I mentioned that the covers from this title straddle the line between Weird-ass and Awesome so this week I'm going to highlight a few of the awesome ones.
Wow! Just look at this. Anything else I say will only distract you from the awesome that is the cover for issue #7.
Oh, crap! Check out that green dude's knife! Also, is that skeleton ambulatory or is it just hanging around back there. Like a dungeon accessory.
BONUS: Look over on the sidbar. 'Don't lose your head'. Genius!
The art on this one is really cool and it's a great cover but I might not have included it if it hadn't been for the one-two punch of puns it contains. Knight! Shriek! Spectacular!
I...um. Dude. Seriously.
Just...dude.
I'm going old-school on you this week. I've been thinking about Spider-Man a lot lately so I'm going to bring up four of my favorite Amazing Spider-Man covers from the late 1960s. They show why John Romita is considered one of the greats. From the composition to the action to the backgrounds, these are excellent covers that make me want to know what's going on inside the comic.
Thanks, as always, to the Grand Comic-Book Database for the images. Check 'em out. Donate if you can.
I spend a lot of time here making fun of covers from the 50s and 60s but there are some really awesome ones from the past, too. One batch of awesomeness I just found out about is from the period of time that Amazing Fantasy was called Amazing Adult Fantasy, also known as the first half of 1962. My knowledge of Amazing Fantasy up until now began and ended with issue #15 which is the one featuring Spider-Man's origin. On a whim, I looked into the earlier issues and discovered the following covers. Each cover from #6 to #14 is great.
I have picked out some of my favorites to show you but a search for the title on the Grand Comic-Book Database will reveal the rest. Each one is a case study in elegant design and sensational imagery. Sketchy or solid-color backgrounds, crisp foreground images, and spectacular art make these things really jump off the shelves.
Also, the comic has the best tagline ever: The magazine that respects your intelligence.
Planetary is one of my favorite comics. It combines the talents of Warren Ellis and John Cassaday. The story is compelling, cool, and like nothing else I've read. The setting of the story spans multiple worlds and dimensions which gives Ellis license to tell any kind of story he wants. The covers reflect the setting by being all over the place. And they're all awesome:
We'll close out Christmas week with a few seasonally-themed awesome covers.
Uncanny X-Men #143
