Cover Of The Day

[MacNimon]

We have DC's 1979 Superstar Holiday Special today (cover dated April 1980!...the date retailers had to remove it from sale) and the issue featured Christmas stories featuring the likes of Batman (with Frank Miller's first work on the character), Legion Of Superheroes, Sgt Rock and Jonah Hex. Superhero, war and western action with a mystery/horror tale thrown in, all wrapped up for Christmas. What more could you ask for?

Read more here.

[Rob McCow]

What I would really like is to know whether it's 'In Quest Of A Dream' or 'In Quest For A Dream'.

Good composition, shame only Batman and Superman really stand out from the crowd. It pays to have a brightly coloured outfit.

[Stuart Wallis]

I think I'd have liked that one at the time, given the mix of genre types. Strange thing though: bearing in mind that "holiday" means Christmas in the US used in this context, the cover date's April...

[MacNimon]

It went on sale at Christmas 1979, Stuart...the cover date is the one which indicates to retailers when to finally remove it from sale! Just like the UK weeklies were always dated the week following their on-sale date (ie an issue dated Weekk Ending say, 25th December would actually have gone on sale on the 19th), the Americans worked the same way but with around a 3-month sales window instead of 1 week. So this issue should have been removed from shelves on 31st March 1980. Admittedly, even using this reasoning you'd have thought a March cover date more sensible.

You'll notice similar cover date discrepancies on all the American covers featured in the coming weeks...

[MacNimon]

Even Doomlord liked to join in the festivities...

[Andrew Curnow]

I remember that one (in fact I think I've still got it). Brilliant!

[Nyder]

You'd better be good, for goodness sake!

[Andrew Curnow]

Luckily I always am, Dave. Well, ish...

[MacNimon]

Today, from Marvel, we have the second (of three) annual Giant-Sized Treasury Editions which were published at Christmas from 1974-76...the 1975 Giant Superhero Holiday Grab-Bag.

Very basically, this was just an American variation of the old hard-covered UK Marvel Annuals we used to get...except that it was a giant-sized (12"x18") softcover, featuring reprints of a variety of Marvel Characters.

[MacNimon]

The Dandy today, Korky The Cat at Christmas...

[MacNimon]

We have our first Christmas trip to MegaCity One today with this Judge Dredd cover from 2008 by Greg Staples...

And here's the original unspoiled artwork...

[Rob McCow]

Good old Dredd. He'll arrest anyone, anytime, anywhere.

[MacNimon]

A nice traditional British Christmas cover from 1981's Whoopee today...

[Rob McCow]

Those smiles are borderline horror magazine stuff! Especially on the baubles - would they bite you as you were decorating the tree? Scary.

[Stuart Wallis]

There's a lot of pleasure to be gained from displaying festive baubles...

[Dirk Gently]

Have you been painting yours red & silver and hiding in the trees again?

[MacNimon]

It's team-up time today...

[MacNimon]

And today, Howard delivers his Christmas list...

[MacNimon]

A Christmas cracker today from Cheeky...

[Rob McCow]

File under 'Bored Artist Draws Boobs'?

[Stuart Wallis]

On that logic there does appear to be a lot of very bored people working on tabloid newspapers...

[MacNimon]

Lets just follow that logic a little bit further...

[MacNimon]

Anyway, changing the subject, today we have our first 2000AD Christmas cover by Alan Davis...

[Rob McCow]

2000AD really is far too good, isn't it? What a fab cover. Love it.

[Jonno]

So long as I keep going with my project, I'll be writing about this very Prog in 2 years, 2 weeks and 2 days time! On the other hand, we'll get to the cover stars in just a few weeks time!