In ‘Covers Album’ each Tuesday, we ask comics creators, publishers, and commentators to pick three of their favourite comic covers… but with a small twist. One must be chosen for inspirational reasons, one for aesthetic reasons, and one for pure nostalgia!
This week’s Covers Album spotlight is on writer David Avallone (Red Sonja, Vampirella, The Shadow), the co-creator of Drawing Blood, alongside the legendary Kevin Eastman…
Inspirational Choice: New Gods #7 (1972) by Jack Kirby and Mike Royer (DC Comics)
When I was a little boy, my (Jewish) grandfather bought me a book of Bible stories. The Tower of Babel, Noah, Moses, David & Goliath, etc. The illustrations are mostly what I remember. I had a vague notion that these stories were the basis of my grandfather’s religion, but if I’m honest, this was really my introduction to epic science fiction/fantasy. Wild stories about ancient civilizations I didn’t understand, separated from me by a gulf of time so vast, they might as well be alien. The illustrations were amazing: colorful and emotional and vivid.
Why do I mention this? Because a decade later, when I was introduced to Jack Kirby’s New Gods, I had the same uncanny and powerful feeling. In 1979 I was a 14, and a huge fan of space operas like Star Wars and The Micronauts. I had an older friend, a big comics fan named Mike Weiss, and Mike got a little tired of hearing about Star Wars and The Micronauts, and he handed me this issue – not #1, but #7 – to introduce me to what he called “the real thing.” He was right, and from then on I became a Kirby superfan.
Look at this cover. Who are these two guys? What is this landscape they inhabit, full of dead warriors and broken technology? Why do they fight? What the hell is that crazy animal the one guy is riding? How can you resist finding out? Any cover that serves up that many compelling questions – which can only be answered by forking over your quarter and reading it – is doing the job and doing it brilliantly.
Aesthetic Choice: Elektra: Assassin #2 (1986) Bill Sienkiewicz (Epic Comics)
I wanted to be careful, writing this essay, not to pick covers because of what was behind them… but sometimes the two are inextricable, and I loved this series when it was coming out in 1986. I will probably commit heresy and say that in my heart of hearts I found Elektra: Assassin much more compelling than The Dark Knight Returns. I await the tumbril with my head held high.
I had noticed Sienkiewicz’s work before this series. How could you not? I wasn’t an X-reader at the time, but browsing the racks, I would always Marvel (cough) at the covers on The New Mutants. Bill was doing things no one else was really doing just then: a one-man revolution in an already revolutionary time. Every cover in this series is striking and memorable, and on any other day of the week I might have picked a different one. I thought about going with the cherubs, guns and hearts cover of number 7, but I think that one gets plenty of attention.
This cover is not particularly pretty – the issue IS titled “The Ugly Man” – but aesthetically it combines styles I love in a way that is very common in Bill’s work. Call it Pulp Surrealism, a mix of high art and painterly flourishes with pure eye-grabbing entertainment. It is literally arresting: a government agent is pointing a gun right at you… an image that echoes all the way back to the last shot in Edwin Porter’s early silent film The Great Train Robbery. This really stood out on the racks.
Nostalgic Choice: Star Spangled War Stories #135 (1967) by Russ Heath (DC Comics)
The art is by Russ Heath, and it’s not even remotely the best work Russ was capable of. No one drew war comics like Russ Heath. He could stage action sequences better than Steven Spielberg, and his dedication to getting the gear right is legendary. His interiors on comics like this, and Sgt. Rock, were incredible. But the quality of this particular cover is not why it’s stayed with me.
This might have been my first comic. I can’t say for sure, but it’s definitely the first one I remember. I was three when it came out, so I don’t know if my dad bought it for me from a candy store spinner rack, or a garage sale, or a convention he went to as a guest. All I know is that it blew my little mind and stuck with me forever. It is completely insane.
Don’t ask how the dinosaurs got on board that landing craft. Or why the two enemies are joining forces to shoot at them… rather than running for their lives. (I was amazed to find out this cover predates by a full year the Lee Marvin/Toshiro Mifune film Hell in the Pacific, which has the “two stranded pilots getting along” plot… but no dinosaurs.) In later years I heard this run of comics referred to as “The War That Time Forgot,” but I don’t particularly remember that from the time I was reading them. But I loved them, and I really loved Darwyn Cooke’s beautiful tribute to them in the first issue of New Frontier.
David Avallone has kicked around Hollywood for over thirty-five years and still has some of his sanity left. In addition to a long career spent mostly in indie films, he writes comics. He’s mostly known for writing pulp heroes like RED SONJA, VAMPIRELLA, THE SHADOW, DOC SAVAGE, ZORRO, JOHN CARTER and creating comic adventures for real world icons BETTIE PAGE and ELVIRA, MISTRESS OF THE DARK. Currently he’s writing for the animated series BATWHEELS on MAX. His original comic DRAWING BLOOD, is co-created by Kevin Eastman. He is the second best-dresssed man in comics, which might be a pretty low bar.
Article by David Avallone
Those first two are uncommon top picks out of their respective series. Then again, I do own all three of these. More Russ Heath!
I wanted to be as personal and idiosyncratic as possible… but these were honestly the first three covers that popped into mind anyway.