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Rebecca Jansen
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| Posted: 04 January 2024 at 7:57pm | IP Logged | 1
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I feel like we covered something along these lines before naming artists whose work on just the cover could get your coins, but more generally, what are the great runs of covers by artist and/or title?
I'm thinking of examples like Matt Baker's covers for St. John in the '50s. He was inking and possibly also coloring them whereas earlier in more of a production shop situation they were inked and colored by various other hands.
It seems having the artist involved in all aspects is almost a prerequisite to really setting a standard for great cover art. I'm thinking of the Byrne covers for Charlton, early though they are, the colors showed more subtlety than usual, reminiscent of Neal Adams and Nick Cardy '60s cover for DC which I understand they usually colored themselves.
Back to the '50s; Frank Frazetta did a run of Buck Rogers covers for Famous Funnies that could be the gold standard. His ink work, and the choice of colors if he was involved in that, seems perfection. I remember seeing a full color portfolio of those covers on a very early visit to a comic shop, forever afterward kicking myself for not finding a way to afford that as well as my first Elfquests and a Hembeck book.
Another memorable run occurred with late '40s Standard comics. Old hand Alex Schomburg had gotten an airbrush and under a pen-name of Xela produced some very colorful covers for a lot of their jungle queen and space cadet type books. I'd love to have a book of all those collected looking bright and sharp, possibly restored a little if necessary. The insides on the two or three of those comics I ever actually found were very bland and generic sadly.
I'm sure others have some favorite runs to enthuse over... L.B. Cole, Kubert, Wrightson, Kaluta, Perez... if you can imagine them being collected on their own into a coffee table type art book that's the kind of frame I have in mind.
I was thinking over Neal Adams' DC covers of the '60s-'70s and how well colored they were, an educated palette you might say (and educating), and also how they lead into wanting to read the story inside usually. I can't think of one that was hap-hazardly colored so I tend to assume he was responsible always for that aspect. I wonder if he was always as in charge of that with Marvel?
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James Woodcock
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| Posted: 04 January 2024 at 8:35pm | IP Logged | 2
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Oohh, nice topic.
I’ll have to seriously think about this, but am intrigued what others will think.
One run that comes to kind is Walt Simonson’s covers for Star Wars. He was
really hitting his stride, the stories were doing something new. & Pariah
cover was something else.
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Darren Ashmore
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| Posted: 04 January 2024 at 9:11pm | IP Logged | 3
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George Perez did at least the first 50 covers for
New Teen Titans, not counting Annuals, related mini-
series and specials. Not a stinker among them. JB
did the sane during his FF run, again all the covers
were excellent.
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Larry Gil
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| Posted: 04 January 2024 at 9:12pm | IP Logged | 4
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John Buscema Avengers covers. Issue's 48-62. Hands down the winner.
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Rebecca Jansen
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| Posted: 04 January 2024 at 9:38pm | IP Logged | 5
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I had to look up the Walt Simonson Star Wars. I had dropped buying the comic regularly with #40. He also did Battlestar Galactica sometimes. Definitely all well colored!
Michael Golden's Marvel covers would also be coffee table book worthy to me, including Rom, She Hulk, Micronauts, Doctor Strange... they also seemed particularly well colored!
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Kevin Brown
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| Posted: 04 January 2024 at 10:18pm | IP Logged | 6
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Simonson's Thor covers, starting with #337, always caught my eye.
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James Johnson
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| Posted: 04 January 2024 at 11:21pm | IP Logged | 7
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Ernie Chan did some great covers during the 70s with Marvel.
CONAN stands out the most.
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Tim O Neill
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| Posted: 04 January 2024 at 11:22pm | IP Logged | 8
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Rebecca: "...Byrne covers for Charlton..."
****
JB is my favorite cover artist, hands down. His work owns this topic in my
book. I think the Charleton covers are good, but not even close to what we saw
down the road
I think the X-Men and FF covers are at this point iconic and define that era in
comic books.
For me the Next Men covers are the tops. Every one of them excellent,
including the IDW books.
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Doug Centers
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| Posted: 04 January 2024 at 11:32pm | IP Logged | 9
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John Romita on Spider-Man from #39- 97. Got to get so many of them off the rack thru Marvel Tales.
Also Joe Kubert's Star Spangled War run is drool inducing.
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Paul Wills
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| Posted: 04 January 2024 at 11:33pm | IP Logged | 10
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I have to remove John Byrne & George Perez from this list for me because there are just too many and also I'm biased.I was always drawn (pun intended) to covers by Jim Aparo. Here's an example of a cool one - Great perspective, action and intrigue
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Tim O Neill
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| Posted: 04 January 2024 at 11:37pm | IP Logged | 11
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"I have to remove John Byrne & George Perez from this list for me because
there are just too many and also I'm biased."
****
Really? An odd approach since this is literally the John Byrne Forum.
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John Wickett
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| Posted: 04 January 2024 at 11:46pm | IP Logged | 12
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Justice League of America had a lot of great covers from around #70-100. Joe Kubert, Neal Adams, Gil Kane and Nick Cardy all drew some. I especially love #72, which features Hawkman transformed into a pillar of salt. Its hard to find a Kubert Hawkman drawing that doesn't look amazing IMO; especially when it features the winged helmet, rather than the bald one.
Adams on #74, featuring the Earth-One and Earth-Two Supermen battling each other is also amazing.
Edited by John Wickett on 04 January 2024 at 11:48pm
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