Today I buckled down and started bagging and boxing my way through the immense pile of comics building up downstairs. Usually I do this once a year, but somehow 2004 was skipped... so I have over two years worth of books to sort and file away. I'm already out of bags and I'm only into the G's.
Since I'm at a forced pause, here's some of my favorite comic covers within this storage cycle. All these images were stolen from the Great Comics Database, a site that is attempting to index every comic book ever published. It's a great place to burn some hours leafing through cover galleries.
 (Action Comics #806) I thought this was a strong visual era for Action, one of the most venerable comic titles out there. This was part of a series of personality covers spotlighting the new-blood female supporting cast, and this one of Girl 13 was the best. I also really liked the way they handled the title logo in these issues. Not really sure what happened to Girl 13, but she did get a DC Vs. card. |
 (Adventures of Superman #636) When your mag is about somebody as iconic as Superman, you can get away with a shitload of arty covers like this one. This is a nice take on the classic image of Clark Kent pulling off his shirt. Even though this is one of the hoariest of Superman cliches, I'd rather see more high-quality renders like this than yet another variation of Superman punching something. |
 (Batgirl: Year One #9) This whole series had outstanding covers (particularly #2). This one shows a confident, eager young Batgirl. Her cape making a subtle bat-symbol and her head just slightly cropped off the top, making her seem bigger than life. Nice work. |
 (The Amazing Adventures of the Escapist #4) Here's your hero in a clearly un-winnable position. Want to bet he makes it out okay? This one is so delightfully silver age. In fact, given the Escapist's fourth-wall meta-existence, I'm pretty sure this is an homage to something. |
 (Flash #214) You got your vaguely sinister Barry Allen looming in the top right and you have your chief subject matter doing something entirely un-heroic: reading. Throw in the empty costume's neat illusion of calling for silence and you have a cool-ass cover. |
 (JLA #118) Zatanna has been all over the DCU (and Vertigo); nobody can decide if she's a fairly bland magic-using super-hero or if she's an ultra-hip young slacker with fantastic powers. Either way, Identity Crisis put her back on the drawing table. This is a great cover, because it manages to be both directly intriguing to the viewer and it refs a key plot point from Identity Crisis. |
