Covered 365: Day 130

Detective Comics #130, DC Comics, December 1947 – Artist: Bob Kane.

I remember buying this at the 2017 NYCC, I picked it up for a friend named Tony who loved the cover and loved the story told inside. Tony had been looking for a copy for a while and luckily I remembered this while rummaging through some old Detective bins. The book was not expensive, a couple hundred dollars for a solid looking copy but Tony’s reaction when I brought it to him I’ll remember forever, pure joy. Sadly Tony passed away about a year later, our Detective Comics #130 moment is one of my fondest memories of him.

I too liked Marvel Tales #130, a big hand cover done right!! X-Men #130 is a personal favorite but again you can blame Pat and Laura the disco king and queen of my 1978 high school dance for my love of this comic.

Unexpected #130 is ahem – very well drawn. Falling in Love #130, I think that’s his good luck tree.

My JOWA has to go to Heart Throbs #130, great advice dad.

A great comic book cover matching each day of the year, 1 through 365. Please chime in with your favourite corresponding cover, from any era.

Walter Durajlija
Walter Durajlija

Walter Durajlija is an Overstreet Advisor and Shuster Award winner. He owns Big B Comics in Hamilton Ontario.

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7 Comments

  1. As I already have an international reputation I am going to try to tread lightly here. Let’s just say I didn’t put up my sentimental favorite JLA picture-frame covers as recommendations out of an attempt at objectivity. Let’s also say certain sentimental favorites of others strike me as particularly bad covers and leave it at that.

    Unexpected just missed my cut, I agree with your assessment on that one.

    With few candidates for #131 I think we might be hitting the feared cover desert. GCD is now down to five pages of covers for the issue number. The theme seems to be “lame” – covers that are bad but not bad enough for ridicule.

    My pick is Kid Colt Outlaw, which is surprisingly by Larry Lieber. This is very much in Kirby style, and maybe the figures are swiped, but it still works. My close runner up is Forbidden Worlds, but the goofy face on the monster detracts from a cover that is great, particularly in color scheme. The other covers I liked are Thor and Wonder Woman.

    Some others to note:

    Falling In Love: Mother In Falling in Love.

    My Romantic Adventures: Unfortunately this is a Code book so I can’t offer my answers.

    Spooky – giant glove to accompany the giant hands

    JOWA goes to Superman’s Girl Friend Lois Lane: I am still scratching my head about the chain of reasoning. Lois Lane secretly gave birth to a giant who she chooses to dress like an elf – which is why Superman has to marry her?

    Finally, Blackhawk with “The Rainbow Blackhawks”. I am sure somebody has been over this before, but similar to giant hands, DC had some weird editorial obsession with rainbows in the late 1950s. A precursor seems to have been the Vigilante story in Action #156 (1951), “Riddle of the Rainbow Man”, which didn’t make it onto the cover. In the late 1950s we see a number of covers (I just looked at the Batman and Superman titles):

    Superman #101 (1955) – “Rainbow of Doom”

    Detective #241 (1957) – “The Rainbow Batman”

    Superman #125 (Nov 1958) – “Superman’s New Power” (depicted as him shooting rainbows from his fingertips)

    Blackhawk #131 (Dec 1958) – “The Rainbow Blackhawks”

    Batman #134 (September 1960) – “The Rainbow Creature”

    Maybe there is a very pedestrian explanation – DC looked at the sales figures, and detected what appeared to be a boost when there was a rainbow cover. In context this seems plausible – this was before color TV was common, and certainly newspapers were black & white at the time, so the addition of a rainbow of colors to the cover could have resulted in a visceral draw. I think a related reason could be excitement amongst kids with the knowledge that color TV was out there. Apparently the NBC Peacock was introduced in 1956, so it could be that color TV-starved kids with their eyes on the prize naturally sprung for these rainbow covers.

    If anybody knows the actual history on the rainbow obsession, do tell.

  2. I like the choice of cover, Walt, and would love to see a high grade copy with those colors. Unfortunately, I have seen very few high grade Detective Comics in this issue range lately.

    I have never been a Dazzler fan, so X-Men #130 has always underwhelmed me – again sentiment getting in the way.

    Daredevil #130 really caught my eye as I was browsing covers. It had nice mix of hero and horror that jumped from the cover.

    And I thought Chris’ JOWA nominations for #130 were spot on, and I immediately recognized the return of his favorite cover brunette.

  3. Since Mother’s Day weekend is upon us, time may be short to add comments so I would like to contribute to the pool of nominations.

    Thor #131 – Just love the staging and scene.

    Peter Parker #131 (& #132) – Mike Zeck covers for the “Kraven’s Last Stand” series and each is outstanding.

    And once again, I wholeheartedly support Chris’ nomination of Lois Lane #131 for the JOWA – that cover had to be the inspiration for movie “ELF”.

    And as JOWA for #132 I think PEP comics may get the nod, because I bet Archie is lying to Veronica, and knows exactly how Denise got her nickname “Snake Hill”.

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