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What is your favourite run of covers, interior art or stories?
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Started by Flex Mentallo,

55 posts in this topic

Ken Aldred

Ken Aldred

Posted
Posted
Jack Cole's Midnight run from Smash Comics ( nos. 68-85) is, by far, one of my all-time favorites. (Thanks HP.)

 

Smash Comics 77

smash7703a.jpg

 

That's a fantastic Cole page. (thumbs u

 

It's a shame that DC never published a one volume Midnight collection after finishing the complete run of 'The Spirit' in Archive format. :(

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Doctor Svord

Doctor Svord

Posted
Posted
Jack Cole's Midnight run from Smash Comics ( nos. 68-85) is, by far, one of my all-time favorites. (Thanks HP.)

 

Smash Comics 77

smash7703a.jpg

 

That's a fantastic Cole page. (thumbs u

 

It's a shame that DC never published a one volume Midnight collection after finishing the complete run of 'The Spirit' in Archive format. :(

 

That would be a great companion piece to The Spirit. I'd buy it in a heartbeat. It would be nice to have some complete Quality Comics Archives too.

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Doctor Svord

Doctor Svord

Posted
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You can do alot worse than Smash without trying too hard. It's my favorite title by far.

From 1-85 there's always something worth reading, but Cole did seem to be

having lots of fun when he came back to Midnight for these later stories.

 

Yeah man. (thumbs u

 

It's easy to see why it's your favorite title. There's just so much great stuff to be found in those books... Eisner's Espionage , Gustavson's The Jester, Jim Mooney's (Jim Mooney?!) Wildfire, Nordling's Lady Luck, and arguably the greatest superhero art ever produced in Fine/Crandall/Fine's The Ray.

 

Cole's early run on Midnight is really interesting. It has to be a transitional work. It looks like he's trying to figure out how to balance the realistic with the cartoony. He hasn't quite divorced himself from the foundation yet (Realism) so the work has an odd feel. But when he comes back to Midnight later in the title he's got it dialed in and he's firing on all cylinders. It's brilliant stuff.

 

You guys are right on the money. Many of these "lesser" titles get overlooked, and happily, that makes them more affordable for us bottom feeding geeks. The interiors on quite a few GA second and third tier titles are simply fantastic.

 

Without a doubt. (thumbs u

 

That reminds me... I need to finish off my low grade reader run of Sam Hill Private Eye

by Harry Lucey. That's another favorite.

 

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generic user

generic user

Posted
Posted
You guys are right on the money. Many of these "lesser" titles get overlooked, and happily, that makes them more affordable for us bottom feeding geeks. The interiors on quite a few GA second and third tier titles are simply fantastic.

 

if i ever get a custom title, that phrase should be in it!

 

i wondered why heritage started writing "BFG" on my boxes, but now it makes sense (:

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Cat-Man_America

Cat-Man_America

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Posted (edited)

Well, since the intrepid Electricmastro (I almost typed that out as Electricmastrodon, ...my bad) has exhumed another amazing artifact from the amber coils of archived time, here’s mine...

Captain America #1-10 as the inspiration and direction of Joe Simon & Jack Kirby.  This series broke ground in terms of expanding the dynamics of panel creation in wild inventive ways, devised the first double page centerfold illustrations and four new featured character stories in each issue from the first appearance.

S&K were unceremoniously jettisoned after issue ten by a publisher reticent to give them proper credit or agreed royalties.  They would move on to other great achievements at DC, Prize and elsewhere, but those ten issues set the standard for the remainder of the run.  I’m still missing three key issues of those first ten (1, 3 & 4), but possess the rest in grade.  Marvel Mystery is also a contender for outstanding covers through most of the run ...thanks to Alex Schomburg and Syd Shores... and generally impressive interior art and stories.  

Next to Cap and other Timely books there was the overall quality of HIT Comics covers and interiors through around issue 26 (with sporadic greatness thereafter in respect to interior art throughout the run), ...followed closely by CAT-MAN Comics (Holyoke, Continental, etc.) which are just short of purrrrfect and PRIZE Comics (Prize) with winning Jack Binder cover art and top notch featured characters, two of which went on to earn solo projects, ...then the first ten issues of SILVER STREAK (Lev Gleason) many with covers and interior art by Jack Cole featuring battles between main characters Daredevil and the Claw.

Note: Many GA comics fall a bit short either in respect to either covers or consistently good interiors.  Yes, I’m leaving out many great series that aren’t deficient in art or storytelling by other publishers like Fawcett and MLJ, and artists such as Mac Raboy and my personal favorite Alex Schomburg who is known mostly for cover work. I’ve also left off the pentacle of late GA storytelling, EC publications whose bullpen of brilliant artists and writers was second to none.  I’m leaving DC out of the mix although it isn’t for efforts to keep their standards high.  DC had some of the best storytelling of any GA publisher and some exceptional covers are timeless.  Unfortunately, DC’s cover art lacks consistent direction veering wildly from dynamic adventure to hokey humor.  I’m sure this was intentional, bu it blunts the overall heroic impact of costumed heroes.

I’d apologize for the length of this, but it’s too late for that.  Alas, my coffee cup runneth over.  :insane:

:tink:

Edited by Cat-Man_America
Virtual ale added to balance the caffeine. (CHEERS)
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rjpb

rjpb

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3 minutes ago, Robot Man said:

Not a mention of EC? Shame on you so called “comic scholars”. 

Title for title, book for book, genre for genre, hands down the best.

Crime Suspenstories is probably my favorite GA run for stories. It may not be any better than some of the horror or sci-fi runs, but crime is my favorite fiction genre, and Johnny Craig is my favorite EC artist.

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sagii

sagii

Posted
Posted

1)Sam Cooper's run of covers on Blue Ribbon Comics featuring Mr. Justice

2)Joe Simon's run of covers on Speed Comics 

3)Jim Mooney's run of covers on Lightning Comics 

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