BRONZE AGE BONANZA: Kubert! Kirby! Byrne! MORE! — Welcome to BRONZE AGE BONANZA — our monthly series that looks at the greatest covers of the Bronze Age — exactly 50 years later. For more info on this feature, click here. — Hey, check out that fancy new BRONZE AGE BONANZA banner by our pal Walt Grogan! I’ve even retrofitted it into the two other 1976 posts so far. (Links below!) Now, dig the TOP 13 COVERS OF FEBRUARY 1976 — RANKED: — 13. Tarzan Family #63, DC. This month’s Jawsmania entry. — 12. Batman Family #5, DC. As I’ve said before, just about every Batman Family cover will make this list on sentimental value alone. This one just also happens to capture the sheer fun of those Batgirl and Robin team-ups. Plus: Dig the Batgirl and Robin floaters on the left and the Ace and Signalman busts across the bottom. The joy of comics. — 11. Doomsday + 1 #6, Charlton. Another reminder that John Byrne was destined for superduperstardom. — 10. Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery #67, Gold Key. Here’s my theory, which is totally untrue: George Wilson decided to sneak in a cover about Harvey Dent getting dragged off to Arkham Asylum and this is what was going through Two-Face’s mind. — 9. Superman #299, DC. The Man of Steel vs. the Sinister Six, er, Nefarious Nine. — 8. UFO Flying Saucers #10, Gold Key. This is just fecking great. I mean, how seriously cool would that be if it happened to you? Then again, that’s just a Tuesday night in Gotham City. Anyway, I’m not 100 percent sure that this isn’t a reprint of an old cover, given how everyone’s dressed in 1976. But I can’t find any indication, so here it is. Wowza. — 7. The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #22, Marvel. A straight-up badass cover by Ken Barr. You just know that White Tiger has these guys just where he wants them. — 6. Marvel Feature #4, Marvel. Frank Thorne at his Frank Thorneiest. — 5. Tomb of Dracula #44, Marvel. This one always stands out among all the great Colan/Palmer Tomb of Dracula covers because of the bold and counterintuitive use of rainbow colors. A dazzling display, and Palmer may have done the colors himself. — 4. Planet of the Apes #19, Marvel. As much...
Happy Valentine’s Day! By CHRIS FRANKLIN Dick Giordano was many things to comics: a pioneering editor; a trend-setting executive; an indelible inker; and an amazing penciller. And those pencils may be best known for drawing superheroes, but he cut his teeth on romance titles back in his early days working for Charlton Comics and later provided art and covers for DC’s romance line as well. So, when long-time Valentine’s Day card purveyor Cleo Wrap decided to release the Super Friends Action Valentine Playbook in 1980, what better artist to call than Dick Giordano? Giordano provided nearly every illustration in this tome full of traditional valentine cards (which we’ll focus on today) and action crafts, most of them new to this publication. I had two copies of this book as a child, and I simply wore each one out. The Valentine’s Day aspect was honestly unimportant to me. It was the beautiful art that grabbed me. The heroes looked classic, but modern. These were the DC heroes of the Bronze Age. In my mind’s eye, this is the perfect version of those characters. Giordano, along with Neal Adams and Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez (both of whom he frequently inked) set the template for what these characters look like for all time to me, not only in the comics, but in a bevy of merchandise and promotional art. In some ways the Valentine Action Playbook was like the prototype of the famous 1982 Style Guide that Garcia-Lopez and Giordano provided artwork for… just with a Valentine’s Day theme. Without further ado, let’s take a look at 13 spectacular Giordano illustrations that I’m sure you’ll love — on Valentine’s Day and every day after! — Let’s start with an actual married couple, Aquaman and Mera! Bonus points for whoever wrote the text on these. Nice fish joke. Plus, Storm the seahorse! — Batman and Robin chasing the Joker? Giordano could probably draw this in his sleep… but it would still look fantastic like this! — Romance between this power couple? Was someone channeling the New 52 a good 30 years early? — You just got friend-zoned by the Dominoed Daredoll. For some reason Batgirl was called “Batwoman” in this book. Was DC playing around with changing her name, like they did with Hawkgirl/Woman around this time, or was it just an error? —...
BRONZE AGE BONANZA: Kubert! Kirby! Byrne! MORE!
The perfect Valentine’s Day tie-in — except with some suspense thrown in…
With some predictions mixed in…
