What Is The Greatest Comic Book Cover in History

What Is The Greatest Comic Book Cover in History?

We’re taking a trip through the history of comics to find the all-time best covers. Sometimes, you actually CAN judge a book by its cover.

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There’s an old saying that you should never judge a book by its cover, and for the most part, that’s true. Today though, as we’re taking a trip through the history of comic book covers to find the absolute best gems, it might be better to leave that adage by the wayside.

A discipline all to itself, comic book covers are a gateway to fantastic worlds of brilliant art, epic stories and immortal characters. Sometimes the cover does say a lot. There are many incredible artists in the field who have crafted breathtaking images in service of their book-covers, and this list leaves off some of the very best. But such is our task.

The cream rises to the top, however, and based on criteria including influence, artistic merit, cultural impact and overall style, here are the five greatest comic book covers of all time.

Weird Science Fantasy #29 (1955) Frank Frazetta

Of all the great Golden Age artists who graced the pages of the pioneering Entertaining Comics label, few have endured the test of time, nor influenced as many of their successors, as the incomparable Frank Frazetta. A devotee of renaissance disciplines and the far-flung fantasy worlds of Robert E. Howard, Frazetta took the hyper-realistic style of Hal Foster’s Prince Valiant from the Sunday newspaper funnies and injected his own vision of raw, kinetic drama that served as a harbinger of things to come. Perhaps his best work would be the cover of EC’s monthly anthology series, Weird Science-Fantasy. Repurposed from an unused Famous Funnies Featuring Buck Rogers cover, the image is a masterclass in composition, movement and detail that still holds up today. EC covers were known for their violence and elicitation of shock, but few ever came close to the raw brutality displayed here. A suspense-filled, action-packed scene brimming with so much life it jumps off the page, Frazetta takes the classic, hackneyed “explorer trapped in a land before time” trope and reimagines it as a gritty fight for survival beyond equal.

There’s many stand-out qualities: the fine inking, the intricate expressions engraved on the faces of the explorer and his primitive enemies, the simian quality to the explorer’s wrist as he follows through on the devastating strike, the vagueness as to whom is the attacker and of course whether or not the explorer isn’t about to meet his own end at the caveman’s club. These elements together produce a vivid fever-dream that becomes greater than the sum of its parts. Today the cover is a testament to both Frazetta’s skill as well as the power of imagination within the pre-space-age futurism of the time.

Amazing Spider-Man #33 (1963) Steve Ditko

Steve Ditko, along with his contemporary Jack Kirby, probably contributed more to the Silver Age aesthetic that helped define Marvel Comics throughout the ‘60s and ‘70s than any of their stable. A virtuoso at his craft, Ditko’s fluid, animated style imbued his work on Amazing Spider-Man and Doctor Strange with a spontaneity and depth that smoldered with barely dormant psychological intensity. While his rocky partnership with writer Stan Lee has often served as a point of controversy among fans, few can gainsay the lasting influence of their 38-issue run, nor Ditko’s own impression on the character as the original artist. Perhaps this is why the story-arc generally considered to be the height of their partnership, “If This Be My Destiny…!” running issues #31-#33, is often seen as the definitive Spidey story, and why issue #33 in particular takes a spot on this list.

The cover picks up where issue #32 left off: after defeating Doctor Octopus in his secret lair under the Hudson River, the Web-Head has been buried under a massive hunk of iron he believes too heavy to lift. In front of him lies what he came for: a serum needed to save his Aunt May’s life from a radioactive blood disease he accidentally gave her. The ceiling is leaking, and soon, the harbor will flood the chamber. And Peter Parker is trapped.

What the cover captures in gut-wrenching fashion is something we seldom associate with the light-hearted fare of the ‘60s: true despair. Amidst the cartoonish flair Ditko was known for, we see the hero, his head bowed in utter hopelessness, as gouts of water flood in submerging him. The colorful contrast between bright red and somber blues highlight the atmosphere of claustrophobia, all drawing focus to Petey’s iconic mask. It actively asks the reader, “what do you think is going on under that mask?” an invitation into the mind of our hero in his darkest hour.

The issue opens up with this very scene, offering no respite to the reader. Like Dave Gibbons would later demonstrate in Watchmen, the use of the cover as an inciting image of the story adds a certain immersiveness to the experience, a technique Ditko got in spades. This addition to the formula only strengthened the cathartic moment of the issue when Spidey manages to hoist the impossibly heavy machinery over his head in one of Lee’s greatest written sequences (as homaged in the climax of Spider-Man: Homecoming). A classic cover for a timeless tale.

Green Lantern (Vol. 2) #58 (1971) Neal Adams

The backstory surrounding the cover to 1971’s Green Lantern #58 is one of the most fascinating in the history of comics. Since the mid-‘50s, the major comic book publishers had entered into self-censorship agreement under the “Comics Code Authority”, in which they agreed to keep the content of their stories free of sex, violence and other lurid details, including the words “horror” and “terror” in the titles of their books. None other than Stan Lee eventually broached the spirit of this agreement in Amazing Spider-Man #91, also published in 1971, forgoing the code certification found on all of their titles at that point and depicting Norman Osborne struggling with addiction. Later that year, DC decided to follow suit, resulting in Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams producing one of their most powerful works.

The controversial issue ran amidst the merging of Green Lantern’s title book with Green Arrow, and came on the heels of their cross-country journey exploring the changing culture of America in the late ‘60s, early ‘70s. The Comics Code, among other draconian measures, specifically required that “crimes shall never be presented in such a way as to create sympathy for the criminal” within a comic book story. So it was a major shock when Green Arrow’s sidekick Speedy ended up attacking him with a gang of heroin dealers, with Speedy himself in the grips of possibly fatal addiction brought on by the absence of his mentor.

It’s not just the gripping, grounded portrayal of two costumed heroes addressing real-life issues. Nor is it Adam’s attention to the human elements within the piece that make it so powerful. What makes this cover so powerful is how it really brings home in stark and sober terms that, fantastic and wonderful as the world of superheroes may be, not all problems can be solved through the administration of justice. Sometimes, we just have to be better to people. And even heroes make mistakes.

Heavy Metal Magazine #4 (1977) Moebius

The ‘70s was a hotbed for all things weird and wild in comic art and when true, bonafide geniuses get in on the action, magic can break out. So it was when French artist Moebius, also known as Jean Giraud, got together with Les Humanoïdes Associés and began printing Métal Hurlant in 1975. A man who brought dreams to life with pen and ink, Moebius introduced Arzach, an irreverent, pterodactyl-riding fantasy hero in a lush, yet opaque world of surreal imagery. His eye-catching style eventually found its way to America with Heavy Metal Magazine in 1977, and earned a spot on this list.

Edited from the epic splash page found within the issue itself, in this jaw-dropping cover, entitled “Arzach Rides Again”, Moebius channels a retro sense of wonder with the contemporary psychedelic ephemera of the ‘70s. Featuring a brilliantly-colored alien landscape, the action involves the gathering of a mysterious army of monsters as the titular grim-faced glider flies across the field. On exhibition is Moebius’s impossibly well-trained attention to detail, as each creature great and small appears fully-formed straight from the mind of the artist.

The elicitation of awe emanating from the image is one that still pushes the boundaries of what comic style can accomplish when placed on the very frontiers of imagination. Other Heavy Metal artists like Richard Corben, Howard Chaykin and Bernie Wrightson all produced incredible covers for the title, but none ever quite matched Moebius’s unadulterated dreamscapes of excitement, mystery and adventure.

All Star Superman #1 (2005) Frank Quitely

Superman may not be the most exciting character and his recent failures to ignite success on the silver screen suggest that depicting him relatably for a mass cinematic audience can prove to be a challenge. Even so, beneath all the criticism and failed permutations, there is an ineffable spark of hope that keeps the character close to our hearts as superhero fans. It’s because Superman represents the best of humanity: a near all-powerful, godlike figure who uses his abilities to keep an eye out over his adopted home and makes sure everything is all right. A hero we can admire and, above all, trust.

A great image of a classic hero can be a tall order. How can we expect a depiction of a character as storied as Superman to add anything new to our understanding? In 2005, Frank Quitely stepped in, and assuaged all our fears with this cover. While DC’s All-Star label didn’t end up expanding quite as far as they must’ve hoped, Quitely’s All-Star Superman mini-series was critically lauded as a fitting tribute to the classical depictions of the Man of Steel. It’s easy to see why looking at this cover. Clearly drawing from Golden Age influences like Simon and Shuster, Quitely delivers the erstwhile Clark as an earnest, confident man in his pajamas, sitting on a cloud and gazing off with serene attentiveness as the sun rises over the city his protects. A concoction of childish whimsy and grown-up realism mixed together to create an understated yet powerful image of a hero everyone can understand.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/greatest-best-comic-book-cover-ever/

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