Good Cover/Bad Cover 1966
Bad Cover JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA# 46, Mike Sekowsky
Sheesh. The influence of the BATMAN TV series was in full swing here. The three 3D sound effects larger than the characters are a good example. Batman getting top billing (in some JLA issues around this time, he took over almost completely) and the generally silly art are all signs of CAMP (ick). (Camp was for people who couldn't admit they loved old comics, cliffhangers etc and made fun of them while secretly enjoying them.) I am particularly miffed at the treatment one of my favorite Golden Age characters receives here. The Sandman first appeared in 1939, one of DC's very earliest heroes. At first he worked as a Green Hornet-swipe complete with gas gun. Soon, though, he got a streamlined purple-and-gold costume and benefitted from the apex comics team of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. The Sandman was a founding member of the Justice Society of America. Here, in his first appearance since 1945, his triumphant return shows him squashed ignominiously under Batman's butt, like Larry having Curly fall on him in a Three Stooges short.
Man, I didn't even mention the remarkably ugly "Go-Go Checks".....
Good Cover THE FANTASTIC FOUR# 51, Jack Kirby
Also from, 1966, this compelling Kirby cover. The brooding figure of the Thing dominates the scene, but immediately we see Reed in some sort of distress behind him and Sue pleading for the Thing to help. What's going on? Why is the Thing not responding? Add the dramatic story title "This Man... This Monster!" and I'm hooked. The candy store owner got my dime and two pennies. Even better, the story itself was excellent and no let-down at all.
It still cracks me up that the editors at DC thought Marvel's success was due to "Bad Art" (that is, Kirby and Ditko) and ordered their own house style be made cruder and simpler. They didn't see it was conviction, drama and creative energy that Marvel art was selling.
Sheesh. The influence of the BATMAN TV series was in full swing here. The three 3D sound effects larger than the characters are a good example. Batman getting top billing (in some JLA issues around this time, he took over almost completely) and the generally silly art are all signs of CAMP (ick). (Camp was for people who couldn't admit they loved old comics, cliffhangers etc and made fun of them while secretly enjoying them.) I am particularly miffed at the treatment one of my favorite Golden Age characters receives here. The Sandman first appeared in 1939, one of DC's very earliest heroes. At first he worked as a Green Hornet-swipe complete with gas gun. Soon, though, he got a streamlined purple-and-gold costume and benefitted from the apex comics team of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. The Sandman was a founding member of the Justice Society of America. Here, in his first appearance since 1945, his triumphant return shows him squashed ignominiously under Batman's butt, like Larry having Curly fall on him in a Three Stooges short.
Man, I didn't even mention the remarkably ugly "Go-Go Checks".....
Good Cover THE FANTASTIC FOUR# 51, Jack Kirby
Also from, 1966, this compelling Kirby cover. The brooding figure of the Thing dominates the scene, but immediately we see Reed in some sort of distress behind him and Sue pleading for the Thing to help. What's going on? Why is the Thing not responding? Add the dramatic story title "This Man... This Monster!" and I'm hooked. The candy store owner got my dime and two pennies. Even better, the story itself was excellent and no let-down at all.
It still cracks me up that the editors at DC thought Marvel's success was due to "Bad Art" (that is, Kirby and Ditko) and ordered their own house style be made cruder and simpler. They didn't see it was conviction, drama and creative energy that Marvel art was selling.