Four Color #204, Eastern Color, December 1948. Artist: Paul Norris.
Blame that gorgeous blue fade. Before anyone gives me any flack have a look at the covers below and tell me you wouldn’t want the Four Color #204 at the top of the pile. Paul Norris delivers that crystal clear and crisp Sci-Fi that I love.
I missed it but saw in the comments yesterday Chris calling out Avengers #204, had a look and loved it! Good eye Chris (sometimes).
House of Mystery #204 simply because I don’t think you can find a more Wrightson-esque monster anywhere.
Jim Lee’s cover to Superman #204 is one of the definitive Superman poses, it was like an updating of a standard.
Joe Kubert’s little girl on the cover of Unexpected #204 is 100 times scarier than the demon behind her.
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.
Would Paul Norris be the artist for Famous Funnies #191 Flash Gordon-ish cover? Great Superman cover by Jim Lee.
All great covers although the Superman is the weakest in the group! Hey….if that weren’t Metropolis I could swear thats the same outcrop that Batman lurks in in Gotham!
You are getting predictable. This is two days in a row that I saw a just decent cover and I thought, “Very likely Walt’s pick.” B-o-o-oring. Of course I would choose Avengers or any of the others over this.
You are wright about the Rightson – very far from his best cover but a creature that only Berni could have drawn. I came close on Unexpected but there was too little story for me, just the suggestion of another Exorcist knock-off. Superman is just a poster.
For #205 there is no standout but I will stick with my crush on Kane and pick Thor. I don’t like it quite as much as the last Thor that I picked, but it is still tops for the day. I really wanted to pick House of Mystery, but as beautiful as it is, it has no story, just atmosphere. Strange Adventures has a lot going for it and I could accept it as a pick, but without the decades of love for Deadman I would not objectively pick it as the best. Finally Wonder Woman (1987) is another strong and original cover for the run.
It saddens me to say that I see Captain America as a JOWA candidate. My only consolation is that maybe I should be saddened by once again not understanding the brilliance of The King and grossly underestimating his work. It took me about thirty years to appreciate The New Gods et al., so if I make it to becoming an octogenarian, maybe I’ll then have some sense of what Kirby was up to with this Captain America run.
I think if you replaced Cap with Orion the covers would not be significantly changed! Kirby was given his first big creation on returning to Marvel, and it was his creative playground and his sensibilities had not changed much from his run on The New Gods. Its not my highlight of Kirby’s career but its still Kirby.
By 1976 Jacks art was almost a parody of it self. So boxy and cartoonish, it was hard to enjoy from an adult point of view. Jack had aged fast, after spending 3 years in active duty in WW2, stress no doubt from his battles with Marvel, changes in the size of the artist paper from 16 by 23 to something smaller and just the natural aging process, drastically affected his later efforts. Still like Gerald…I love all things Kirby. The Jack kirby collector and https://kirbymuseum.org/ bring me a lot of joy.
http://kirbymuseum.org/blogs/dynamics/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2013/02/captainamerica_204_16.jpg
Sounds like the only thing predictable is me picking the best cover…
The comment is a good segue into the next two weeks which will be crowded with Adams and Frazetta options. I’ll do my best to try and break free of these two giants but sometimes you just shouldn’t fight it.
Walter, when it comes down to it, the choices are always going to be according to personal sensibilities. Just like music, I can appreciate the difficulty and beauty of opera, but I am not going to choose it for my listening pleasure. So too with your choices on the covers. You’re putting up what you feel is ‘opera’, but some of us just want to ‘listen’ to something else. So, we have our little quips and takes on the subject, all in good fun of course, but ultimately you cannot get a full consensus every time. Thank you for the multi-cover posts, sometimes I get to see things that I never knew about, or cared to know about.
Words of wisdom C.K. thank you.
What I have learned over the years doing these is that differing opinions are the spice of the posts. Sticking your neck out with opinion on line is not for everyone but I’m glad to report that all the challenges I’ve been getting are in good fair and it the proper spirit. Getting roughed up now and then keeps me on my toes as well.