COVER STORIES for 02/25/2007
COVER STORIES INSTALLMENT #94
Welcome, faithful readers (and those of you joining us for the first time) to the 92nd installment of Cover Stories, the weekly column in which I, Jon B. Knutson, present a group of covers with a common theme!
This week's theme? Well, it's one that I hope you'll enjoy looking at... the theme is "Sexy!" Yes, these four covers will feature some of the sexiest women presented on comics covers! I have a lot of these covers archived here at Cover Stories Central, so you can be sure we'll revisit this topic again!
As is my wont, one of the covers this week is from a Superman title, and I've chosen Action Comics 366 to lead off this week's column!
I'm sure most of you will recognize this as the work of Neal Adams, who is known for his sexy women (among many other things, naturally). Now, Supergirl on this cover isn't as blatantly sexy as she was presented, say, on her 1970s comics covers... but can you really argue that she is, indeed, very sexy here? (Although, to be honest, I've long felt that Kurt Schaffenberger did the sexiest Supergirl ever... but I digress).
"The Substitute Superman!" which leads off this issue, was, I believe, the final chapter of the multipart "The Death of Superman" (no, not the one with Doomsday, the one with Virus X), and was written by Leo Dorfman with pencils by Ross Andru and inks by Mike Esposito. This issue had it all... Supergirl, Superman, Batman, Flash, Green Lantern, J'onn J'onzz, Aquaman, the Bizarros, Lois Lane, Kryptonite... a real fun read, and one I wouldn't mind seeing reprinted as a special trade paperback (along with the rest of the story, natch).
Also in this issue, Supergirl starred in "Stanhope... Off Limits!" by Cary Bates and Kurt Schaffenberger... and I don't recall what the story was about (heck, I could be misremembering the lead story, too!).
Here's All Top #13... and honestly, doesn't the title of this book seem most amusingly appropriate, especially given the cover appearance of Rulah, Jungle Goddess? She nearly is all top, if you get my meaning (and I know that you do). Still I think the sexiest feature of Rulah on this cover has to be those shapely legs. The colorist should be given some credit for making her sexy, too, with the shading and highlights.
This book was published by Fox Comics, and the cover was probably by Matt Baker, probably the king of Good Girl art! Inside, as the cover promised, was "The Ravishing Rustler" starring Rulah with art by Baker; The Phantom Lady in "The Fire Fiend" with art by Baker; "The Sinister Safari," a text feature; Jo-Jo in "Adventure of Darkness" by Baker (I'm guessing Jo-Jo is another babe, but I could well be wrong); and Blue Beetle in "The Nightmare of Blood."
Courtesy of Nick Cardy, who could draw sexy babes with the best of 'em, here's Aquaman 48, with an unconscious Tula (aka Aquagirl) in the foreground... and has she ever looked better? Not that she looked at her best when she was unconscious...
In this issue, we lead off with "A Kingdom to Re-Build!" by Steve Skeates and Jim Aparo, which was reprinted in Adventure #499, and "How Aquaman Got His Powers" by Ramona Fradon, reprinted from Adventure #260.
How Aquaman Got His Powers? I thought he was born with them...
Wrapping things up with another DC cover, here's A Date With Judy 76, which was based on the long-running radio series. This cover features not just one babe, but five! Definitely a nice bit of artwork here, isn't it? So far as I can tell, this cover was by Bob Oksner (there's no info in the Grand Comics Database, sadly), who was the artist on Supergirl in the 1970s... bringing us full circle, doesn't it?
Join me next time for another installment of "Cover Stories," and the theme will be another 1-10... and in the meantime, you can check out my blog at http://waffyjon.blogspot.com for other musings and ramblings by me, or email me with comments about this column at !
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