Cover Of The Day

[MacNimon]

Today we have a Brian Bolland double-bill. First up from 2009, we have his cover for the first issue of DC's The Last Days Of Animal Man which was so obviously based on his own cover for DC's earlier Animal Man series, from 1988.

[Rob McCow]

That's rather cool.

[MacNimon]

Pow! was a late 1960s comic published by Odhams which combined action and humour strips, both UK originals and US reprints, in a large-size format typical of the time. The artwork in the reprinted American strips had to be resized and the panels cut and pasted to fit the larger format, and was one of the titles in what came to be known as the Power Comics range which also featured Fantastic and Terrific which weren't so large-sized... those were in what we now consider a traditional-sized British comic.

Although the weekly comics were in B&W, the annuals weren't. Someone wasn't aware of the colour schemes used in the American originals, so some strange looking pages appeared as these panels featuring the Fantastic Four and Thor from the 1970 Pow! Annual show...

[Stuart Wallis]

Interesting colouring... At least grey for the Thing is somewhat appropriate...

[MacNimon]

Who remembers this guy from the mid-70s, a stuntman who called himself The Human Fly and walked on top of airliners while they were in flight?

Naturally, Marvel comics saw an opportunity of a tie-in and so the "World's First Real-Life Superhero" was launched...

[MacNimon]

A Strontium Dog cover today, by Carlos Ezquerra...not from 2000AD though but rather from the 13th issue of Star Lord, the title where he made his first appearance. Strontium Dog, of course, was one of the strips which survived the merger with 2000AD several months later.

[Andrew Curnow]

I got the first couple if Starlords I think, but never continued with it. Was that also where Ro-Jaws & Hammerstein first appeared?

[MacNimon]

It was, in the Ro-Busters strip

[MacNimon]

And while on the subject of short-lived comics which were absorbed by 2000AD, here's another from 1978...Tornado #13, with a cover by Ian Kennedy. The cover image was the first in a series of 'It's Your Turn' cover competitions where readers were invited to submit a story based on the cover, with the winner receiving a £20 prize.

Tornado was an action/adventure weekly boys comic from 1979 - a companion title to 2000AD (in issue one Tharg the Mighty is seen shaking hands with Tornado editor Big E). The theme of the comic was heroes - heroes from the past, present and future. The stories covered everything from Roman gladiators (Black Hawk) and World War 2 (Wagner's Walk) to contemporary characters (Wolfie Smith) and science fiction (Mars settlers in Angry Planet). Like its other IPC stablemate, Starlord, only 22 issues were produced before it merged with 2000AD (issue 127). A Summer Special was released in 1979 and two Annuals followed in 1979 and 1980. Black Hawk and Wolfie Smith were the two standout strips that continued in 2000AD (along with humour strip Captain Klep).

I've got to admit though that Tornado was never a favourite of mine. I tried it for a few weeks but it just didn't grab me in the same way other IPC titles did...a shame, because the type of stories featured were right up my street at the time.

[Rob McCow]

"It's so real the train has come alive!" We often had similar problems making the PS Audios.

[Stuart Wallis]

Ah! so that's why Pip had to go!

[Andrew Curnow]

At one point I had the complete set of Tornado (I don't think there were all that many issues were there, 20 or so maybe?) but far more interestingly, I won a £2 postal order for an ode to Captain Klep, published in one of the later issues.

Wolfie Smith was quite a good strip, although it was very difficult not to expect him to start shouting "Power to the People"!

[MacNimon]

I won a £2 postal order for an ode to Captain Klep, published in one of the later issues.

Captain Klep is nutty,
Captain Klep is great,
Captain Klep is silly,
He goes to work at eight.

Love it!

Here's the page it was printed in, Andrew, from #20...and looking through these issues, it might be worth giving this another chance after all these years. If I ever get around to finishing off Scream, that is...!

And just for the benefit of anyone wondering who Captain Klep is, here's the strip from the issue Andrew's ode was published in...

[Andrew Curnow]

Crikey, thanks Mac, what a blast from the past that is. I've not seen that in... well, in quite a few years shall we say. Probably the small number of readers/contributors which did for Tornado permanently a couple of issues later, worked in my favour!!

I always quite liked Klep; one of the funniest 'jokes' from it was in a strip in 2000AD rather than Tornado (I think) which was called something like "The Case of the Five Bang Six Murdered Cab Drivers". The joke being that everytime the number was given it was given with a bang and an extra number/murder added on. Well, it made me laugh when I was 8 anyway!

[MacNimon]

From 1981, today we have Marv Wolfman & George Perez updated version of a 1960s superhero team, which would go on to become one of DC's biggest hits of the decade...

[MacNimon]

Back to 1988 today, with a short-lived but fondly remembered Marvel UK title from 1988. Dragons Claws was an attempt to emulate the American comic model, with the page size and interior colour, but with content which probably resembled something from 2000AD rather than the typical American comic. At a time when Transformers was Marvel UK's biggest seller, they hit on the idea of attempting a comic aimed at an older readership which was based on the American model...it only lasted 10 issues though, as did its companion title at the time Deaths Head (with which there was a crossover storyline), but the experiment was deemed successful enough in the long run to inspire a whole line of such comics just a year or two later. Dragons Claws was set in the far future and followed a group of armed combat game players who are dragged out of retirement to track down violent renegade former game players, after their game is outlawed.

[MacNimon]

A perfect example of how the British comics industry regularly tried to make the news of a cancellation something for readers to look forward to...here's the final issue of Cor!!! from 1974 before it was merged into Buster...

[MacNimon]

"I will not die so easily, Dr. Who!"....I love how that was actually considered the Doctor's name by many back in the 1960s...

[MacNimon]

A wee bit of history today, with a short look at the first ever Marvel Comic and how it changed through the years. We go back to 1939 for the first ever issue of Marvel Comics, featuring cover star the original Human Torch. It's interesting to see that 3 of these characters mentioned on the cover (Torch, Submariner, Ka-Zar) are still around these days, although back in those days Ka-Zar was just a straight jungle strip featuring a lion rather than a sabre-tooth...

Marvel Comics #1 (cover-dated Oct. 1939) featured the first appearances of writer-artist Carl Burgos' android superhero, the Human Torch, and Paul Gustavson's costumed detective the Angel, as well as the first generally available appearance of Bill Everett's anti-hero Namor the Sub-Mariner (created for the unpublished movie-theater giveaway comic, Motion Picture Funnies Weekly earlier that year, with the eight-page original story now expanded by four pages). Also included was Al Anders' Western hero the Masked Raider, and the jungle lord Ka-Zar the Great, (with Ben Thompson adapting in picture-strip form over the first five issues the text story "King of Fang and Claw" by Bob Byrd from the pulp magazine Ka-Zar #1 (Oct. 1936)) among other one-off stories. It had a painted cover by veteran science fiction pulp artist Frank R. Paul featured the Human Torch, looking much different than in the interior story.

Marvel Comics ran until 1957 with 159 issues, with two name changes along the way. It was renamed Marvel Mystery Comics from it's second issue also in 1939, when it became mostly a superhero comic...

...a title which it kept all the way through till its 92nd issue in 1949 when Marvel (or Timely, as they were known at that time) stopped printing superhero comics. The Torch and the Sub-Mariner would continue to star in the long-running title even after receiving their own solo comic-book series shortly afterward. The Angel, who was featured on the covers of issues #2-3, would appear in every issue through #79 (Dec. 1946).

Other characters introduced in the title include the aviator the American Ace (#2, Dec. 1939), with part one of his origin reprinted, like the first part of the Sub-Mariner's, from Motion Picture Funnies Weekly #1; the Ferret; and writer-artist Steve Dahlman's robot hero Electro (appearing in every issue from #4-19, Feb. 1940 - May 1941). Issue #13 saw the first appearance of the Vision, the inspiration for the same-name Marvel Comics superhero created in 1968. The original Vision appeared in solo stories through Marvel Mystery Comics #48.

The Human Torch was still the cover star at this point, although naturally he disappeared from the cover of the following issue, #93, of the now once-again renamed Marvel Tales...

...when it began concentrating on short mystery and horror stories, a format which continued until the series final issue in 1957.

A mint copy of the 9th issue of this comic, from 1940, is currently available on ebay for only £9,375.88 if anyone's interested...

Marvel Mystery Comics #9

[MacNimon]

Today we have James Bond's first appearance in an American comic, which was marketed as a film tie-in with the release of Dr No...4 or 5 months before the film was even released in America! So Bond wasn't exactly a household name at the time...

Although this was published by DC comics, it was actually a reprint of a British Classics Illustrated comic. The cover artwork for the DC release was completed by Bob Brown, but the inferior interior art by Norman Nodel was very different in quality and style from anything previously published by DC Comics, and like nothing since. It is widely believed that Nodel only had access to the screenplay and some stills at the time he drew, as the film was still in production, and was simply told to make Bond look like Connery and the other major players. Some of the panels are almost straight-duplications of production stills. The comic was brief, running for only 32 pages and used an average of 5 panels per page. For publication in the USA, the British original had its language censored and racial skin tones removed, meaning everyone in the Caribbean was now white.

It also had trouble finding an audience since James Bond was still relatively unknown in America at the time. So much so, the cover reference Ian Fleming's novel ahead of it being a movie adaptation ("Based on the novel and now a United Artists Film Thriller"). But this was further subterfuge, as the comic closely followed the movie adaptation rather than the novel.

Only minor deviations from the film were made to suit the younger audience: Dent has a round left in his weapon after his botched assassination attempt on 007, leaving both parties firing simultaneously when the Professor is killed, and Dr No is electrocuted on a control panel rather than being drowned in the reactor.

DC had an option in the contract to continue a James Bond series for a modest royalty fee if Dr No sold well, but this option was included at the behest of (then DC owners) Danjaq rather than DC, who were understood to be somewhat indifferent to Bond as their focus was their own properties like Batman and Superman. A few months later when "Dr No" hit the silver screen in the States, the comic was already long off-sale, and everyone at DC had already forgotten about Showcase #43. Thoughts only turned back to Bond in 1972 when someone at DC noticed their ten year option was about to expire. Bond was now big business. Carmine Infantino, chief publisher at the time, was surprised to learn about the option and immediately started discussions to launch a 007 comic book series. Jack Kirby and Alex Toth were two of the artists approached to draw it, but with Sean Connery announcing that "Diamonds Are Forever" was to be his last appearance as 007, DC decided to let the option expire rather than launch a series without a new James Bond actor in the public conscious. DC has not published another James Bond comic since.

Years later, George Kashdan, the editor at DC when Dr No was released, said he could not understand why DC went with the anomalous one-off, other than that it must have been cheap and the artwork was already completed. Showcase #43 is now a rare collectors item.

[Rob McCow]

He might have been asked to draw Sean Connery, but that clearly didn't bother him much. Would be a passable Roger Moore if one were to squint a bit.

[MacNimon]

Back to 1972 today and a cover which is very nostalgic for me, personally...it's the first Marvel comic I ever read (Mighty World Of Marvel #6)...my Uncle had been buying it for a few weeks and I spotted it lying around at my grans and started reading it. He then gave me a few older issues to take home with me (but not that weeks because he hadn't read it yet! - I acquired that the following week but soon ordered my own copy from my local newsagent). I'm not the only one who remembers these...my uncle still remembers running to the paper shop on a Saturday morning to get them!

So, featuring a previously unpublished new Jim Starlin cover, this is the comic which introduced me to the worlds of American comics (even if it is a British reprint) and helped me move on from the Dandy, Beano, and Donald & Mickey...

[MacNimon]

I'm taking a short break from this thread for a few weeks, but not to worry it will return shortly with another run of Christmas covers. Not random stuff like last year, though...this years will all be sticking to a theme...a 2000AD Christmas, featuring many of the great Christmas covers of said title and its spin-offs

Not quite sure yet if it'll be a random selection though, or an attempt to do them in chronological order...

[Rob McCow]

Ah, looking forward to it!

[Andrew Curnow]

Me too!