In Retroactive I’ll take you on a visual comic cover tour of the past covering all the covers for a particular series. Each entry will cover an entire year and I’ll always have one comic from DC and one comic from Marvel. At the end of each edition of Retroactive I’ll select my overall favourite cover for that year for each series. Last time on Retroactive we covered Detective Comics 1940 and Amazing Spider-Man 1964. If you need a refresher, just click HERE. With that said, let’s begin:
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Detective Comics (1941)
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Detective Comics #47(January 1941)
Detective Comics #48(February 1941)
Detective Comics #49(March 1941)
Detective Comics #50(April 1941)
Detective Comics #51(May 1941)
Detective Comics #52(June 1941)
Detective Comics #53(July 1941)
Detective Comics #54(August 1941)
Detective Comics #55(September 1941)
Detective Comics #56(October 1941)
Detective Comics #57(November 1941)
Detective Comics #58(December 1941)
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Amazing Spider-Man (1965)
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Amazing Spider-Man #20(January 1965)
Amazing Spider-Man #21(February 1965)
Amazing Spider-Man #22(March 1965)
Amazing Spider-Man #23(April 1965)
Amazing Spider-Man #24(May 1965)
Amazing Spider-Man #25(June 1965)
Amazing Spider-Man #26(July 1965)
Amazing Spider-Man #27(August 1965)
Amazing Spider-Man #28(September 1965)
Amazing Spider-Man #29(October 1965)
Amazing Spider-Man Annual #2(October 1965)
Amazing Spider-Man #30(November 1965)
Amazing Spider-Man #31(December 1965)
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Favourite Covers
Okay, so our journey through the past is complete for this week but which covers reign supreme? For Detective Comics, the crown goes to: Detective Comics #51. I love the way Batman’s cape flows here as he swiftly attacks the criminal who was intending on murdering the helpless Robin who sure got tied up a lot on these various covers. Batman’s silhouette created by the lantern light is a real nice touch as well. For Amazing Spider-Man, the title goes to: Amazing Spider-Man #28. The use of colours and blacks on this cover is phenomenal. I especially like how the majority of Spider-Man’s body essentially bleeds into the surrounding darkness while his red webbing design stands out dramatically. Really creative cover for its’ time.
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So that’s it for this week. Agree/Disagree? Which covers are your personal favourites from this week? Comment below!
The Speech Bubble 
Reblogged this on Collecty.net.
In my opinion, the more the background is detailed, the more the cover is worthy. That’s why Detective Comics # 50 and # 52 are my favorite covers of the week. And that’s why I love Dial H covers so much.
Even nowadays, a lot of pencillers spend as less time as possible drawing the background, no matter if they are drawing the cover or an interior page: some of them act like this because they are lazy, some others because they think “Who cares? The reader will only notice the characters.” Which is false, especially in the Batman world, where Gotham is the real main character, not Bruce Wayne or his allies.
The clearest example of a lazy penciller who doesn’t care about backgrounds is Rob Liefeld. There’s one thing about his artistic style that I can’t stand: not the irrealistic anatomy, not the ridiculously oversized weapons, not the feet, not the pouches, but the total lack of background. I didn’t mean to say that he draws the background hurriedly: I meant to say that, 9 times out if 10, HE DOESN’T DRAW IT AT ALL! Look at Deathstroke # 12: there are rarely any backgrounds, which are instead replaced by dull colors with speed lines or, in some instances, NO COLOR AT ALL!
Anyway, the hatred surrounding Liefeld definitely is overblown. His art definitely has some big flaws, but his works are not eyesores, and sometimes he even writes good stories. I also like him as a person: even if I don’t have a Twitter profile, I read his tweets from time to time, and it is clear from what he writes and from the pics he shares that he’s a good husband and a loving father. This shouldn’t influence me when I judge him as a writer and artist, but nowadays it’s very hard to find a man having the moral values I mentioned, and the fact that he has them makes me forget he doesn’t know how to draw feet.
Talking about Liefeld, did you notice the digs Lemire has been taking at him since the Rotworld story arc started? He made Animal Man & co. kill the Rot copies of ALL the DC characters Liefeld worked on. And Snyder took a dig to Scott Lobdell as well, making Swamp Thing & co. fight the Rot copies of the Teen Titans. Lobdell and Liefeld are close friends, so it’s not a coincidence. Obviously there is a feud between comic book writers, and they are using DC characters and comic books to fight it. I’m not the only blogger who noticed these digs, and I think it wasn’t a very classy move. But Lemire and Snyder are giving us so many wonderful comics that I can turn a blind eye to the digs they took.
As usual, I went off the point. I started talking about a ’40s comic book, and I ended up talking about a ’10s feud between comic book writers. But the switch from a topic to another is the best part of conversations about comics, in my opinion. : )
“That’s why Detective Comics # 50 and # 52 are my favorite covers of the week.”
Nice picks as well. Always glad to hear someone else’s opinion as the world would be pretty boring if we all agreed on the same thing.
“This shouldn’t influence me when I judge him as a writer and artist, but nowadays it’s very hard to find a man having the moral values I mentioned, and the fact that he has them makes me forget he doesn’t know how to draw feet.”
That was a great line!
“Talking about Liefeld, did you notice the digs Lemire has been taking at him since the Rotworld story arc started?”
I did not. Great observation. Payback for that ugly twitter war between Snyder and Liefeld? If so, Liefeld deserved it for he was totally out of line there.
“As usual, I went off the point. I started talking about a ’40s comic book, and I ended up talking about a ’10s feud between comic book writers. But the switch from a topic to another is the best part of conversations about comics, in my opinion.”
Agree with you on that!
I agree, the feud started because of Liefeld’s awful tweets. Anyway, Lemire and Snyder shouldn’t have replied in such a spiteful way. Perhaps they did it in a laughing tone, but they appeared childish. Also, when someone provokes you, the nastiest trick you could play on him/her is treating him with indifference: if you show so much grudge, you couldn’t make him happier.
Once I saw a documentary about the Kennedys, and the voiceover said that Bob obstinately sticked to the Irish habit of never writing anything as much as he could. I think that a lot of Twitter addicted should do the same, because it’s not the first time that I hear about a celebrity stiring up a huge trouble because he/she can’t control his/her fingers.
Thank you for your reply! : )
P.S.: Obviously Snyder’s success is gnawing Liefeld. It’s the same old “All About Eve” story.
“All About Eve”? What is that exactly?
I meant to say that Liefeld is a former star, and he’s so much envious of the success current stars are having that he can’t avoid to talk about them in a poisonous way, even if, generally speaking, Liefeld is a good person.
“All About Eve” talks about a theater actress who is hugely popular, until a younger one upstages her. Exactly what Liefeld went through after his short period of success. Thank you for your replies! : )
Thanks for explaining. Much appreciated and I see where you’re coming from. Nice comparison indeed.
Kinda of amazing how these superheroes have stood the test of time. They’re as popular now as ever.
And they shall continue to be for generations to come. Despite the constant reboots and retcons, as long as they remain true to their core concepts they will never go out of fashion.