Wonder Woman #178, DC Comics, Sept/Oct 1968, Artist: Mike Sekowsky.
That power pose on the cover of Wonder Woman #178 signaled a new beginning, cover after cover of an empowered Wonder Woman taking charge and kicking butt. Too bad it didn’t last, 20 issues later Wonder Woman covers abandoned the high ground and went with her bound, tied up and in peril seemingly every issue making the year and a half fun of covers this issue launched all the more special.
Another great Thor cover on issue #178 but this time from the pen of the mighty, mighty John Buscema!
And how about Gil Kane’s cover to Batman #178, great looking cover.
Other winners from today include that Strange Tales #178 with the Warlock cover, Girl’s Love #178 with Dash “I’ll ask questions later” Riprock and his bike.
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.
Caught between the longing for equity
And the struggle for the legal tender
We all know how that turns out. (Nos. 188, 192, 196, 199, 200, 205, 207, 219-221, etc.)
Thinking alike today and regardless of chubbiness, Batman is a minor key as a Dave Stevens’s Rocketeer prototype issue. (As we know everybody at CBD adores prototype issues.)
I am going to step away from the mainstream with #179 and pick Strange Adventures. This could be a JOWA but it is just too darn cool. THIS is a comic book cover. Before you mock me, harken back to the golden age of this feature, to the #16 pick, Catman Comics. Strange Adventures #179’s take on this is over the top. Magnify that goul’s face and tell me this is a Code book. “I Buried Myself Alive!” As at the time of publication I was unable to walk I couldn’t make it to the newsstand for this one, but a few years later it would have been the first book off the shelf for me.
The other good ones I saw were G.I. Combat, House of Mystery (another Adams tour de force that doesn’t really say “comic book” to me due to the color scheme), Strange Tales, and Thor (“Thou Shalt Not Miss It!” – bonus points!).
Also some bookkeeping for Walt:
– currently today’s entry is showing the “minutiae” category – however the link looks consistent for Covered 365
– I noticed that #18 doesn’t show up because the link is inconsistent, says “covers-365-day-18”, not “covered-365-day-18”
What a great set of covers Walt. I love the inclusion of the various covers as it now has a feel of an Olympic Medal ceremony, with the winners all standing on the podium waiting for their medals.
And although each of these covers is very deserving, my vote was for the cosmically great Jim Starlin Warlock cover on Strange Tales #178 so I am blaming the low scores from Russian judge for Starlin missing the podium.
But it is always a pleasure to see Starlin, Buscema, and Kane putting forth some worthy contenders, and then an unknown underdog like the WW 178 cover thrown into the mix.
Walter, I guess this is what makes horseraces. I suppose the importance of this cover in Wonder Woman history is big…but it’s hard to get excited about it. I lean towards the skill and talent of the artist, and have always found this era of WW by Andru and Esposito, and now Mike Sekowsky, pretty low on my hit parade. Not without some charm on occasions, but stiff and, frankly, phoned in.
Batman looks like such a stronger piece of art to me, but once again, the key aspect of WW does have to be considered. I am torn
Chris, I have the same problem with your Strange Adventures choice. I find the art stiff, but I will grant you that the idea behind the cover would appeal to readers, as it does to you. I am a huge fan of the Julius Schwartz era of Strange Adventures, which ended with the last Infantino/Anderson cover on #163. I have every issue, and am still upgrading a few… after making the mistake of selling my first run off way, way back.
So I tend to write off the Jack Harris-edited issues that followed, though Infantino did a few nice A-Man covers around #190. It was only with Adams’ Deadman run that Strange Adventures came back to life, in my eyes.
Its hard for me to move away from those old, long-formed opinions! Just as it is easy for me to favor those comics from my first years of collecting. They can have still hold a very special magic, regardless of their innate qualities.
While I understand the significance of the WW cover in regards to its era…as a kid the series lost all its appeal for me and looked as if Diana had entered an adventure romance mode.
The Batman cover is pretty good but the villains should have been called The Rocketing Racketeers… their name seems clunky to me.
The Buscema cover is also pretty awesome, but again as a kid I was disappointed it wasn’t a Kirby cover! As a result I am torn on this one.
Great comments today, personal opinions shining through combined with open mindedness. I like the podium comment Derrick, it opens up a world of puns and wordplay!
I’ll have a look and clean things up Chris, thanks.