Thor #147, Marvel Comics, February 1967 – Artist: Jack Kirby.
Jack Kirby is an artist we sometimes take too much for granted. The King was a master of motion as is evident in this great battle scene. Throw in some Kirby Crackle around Odin and you got yourself the cover of the day.
Action Comics #147’s pretty girls caught my eye and that rocket go cart on Whiz #147 is great fun.
Millie the Model going all Mod is a great cover and the Girls’ Romances Cinderella theme is another great cover.
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.
Who would have thought Loki could pack that hard of a punch! I am surprised we haven’t more Thor gracing our best of covers yet but then I got to looking at them and the best are yet to come! When they really wove more of the cosmic element into the stories the series really became exciting for me as a kid! Prior to that I was a Fantastic Four Fanatic!
Whiz might better rate a Jimmy Olsen award, I’d say.
I don’t think Wayne Boring did very well with pretty girls—not into you Action #247…
But there are some wonderful yet innocent pin-up and swimsuit covers back then, check out Action #130, 133, especially #136, and 163 is a sultry one.
On Superman, a classic is Superman #63 with Miss Metropolis by Al Plastino, and #71 with Supe in a kissing booth, with art by Win Mortimer.
Mortimer is an unsung master of many, many fine covers. He did a mess of great Detective covers around this time, like #160, 164, 167 with Cleopatra, 189, 195 with “The Origin of Batman,” and #202 with a variation on “walking the plank,” with a pirate villain forcing Batman and Robin, at sword-point, off a cliff. All Mortimer! Now HE could draw pretty girls, well-designed covers AND exciting action, too.
I think DC dabbled in pin-up and good girl covers during the late 40s and very early 50s, across part the line, including the teen humor books, then they walked it back to keep things squeaky clean after that.
The Adventures of Bob Hope might be one exception, though, these were packed with cute girl jokes on the covers, like #29, 35, 38, 42, 43, 62 with Can-Can girls. And most other issues, and these are mid- to late fifties and Code approved. Art by by Owen Fitzgerald, a name unknown to me. I am sure DC did these for an older target audience. What 12-year-old cared about Bob Hope? I only discovered these a few years ago, when a dealer’s half-price sale got me going through them. I used to think these were by Mort Drucker, seems like his style. But Fitzgerald did every issue.
Oh, and good point about taking Kirby for granted. He was the heart and soul of so many Marvel titles, for me, none more than Fantastic Four and Thor, which was also a high point for Colletta’s inking around your choice above. Colletta seems to have fallen from grace for not staying true to Jacks pencils, but I I loved those books as a kid in the sixties, and they still look great. And speaking of good girl art, his romance covers and stories—Colletta’s—for Atlas are highly collectible lately, and deserve to be.
Bud, thanks for giving a shout out to Vince Colletta….He brought the viking and the fantasy out of Kirby in those Thor books. Under rated and under appreciated for sure, despite him omitting some of Jacks Art. I never heard Jack complain. Mind you Jack was a pro, and seldom complained. ( Jacks creative rights conflicts with Marvel and Stan are a different story)
I always thought Vince was short shafted as well and welcomed the slightly different look form the Fab Four!
Oh… and just to add… when hero’s got beat up by a villain with Colletta inking they looked like they got roughed up, while Sinnott still made them look pretty darned pretty!
I always liked the look of Superman #61 with the blonde, brunette and red head and yes, those Bob Hope covers are almost all fantastic with most of the sight gags working wonderfully.
As a kid I never noticed the differences with the Colletta inks versus the Sinnott inks but once I started to have a closer look I could see it, amazing what a difference a good inker achieve.
What a fantastic cover, and a true Kirby gem among a great run of Thor covers.
Also, really enjoyed the scope of the comments from today & yesterday – very enlightening and appreciated the insights.