Ten Classic Comic Book Covers

One man's opinion 🙂

In honor of the new Batman movie, here are ten iconic comic covers for your enjoyment. These are presented in no order and not exclusive 🙂 There are plenty of other iconic images I could have chosen.

Detective Comics #31 / Batman #227

Starting off with the Dark Knight, here are two covers presented as one entry. The original is brilliant and Neal Adams later homage is even better. To me these are the greatest Batman covers of the Golden and Bronze Ages respectively.

Dark Knight Returns #1

Continuing with Batman, we have this cover by Frank Miller for the first issue of his seminal Batman story.

Personally this cover still fills me with a little bit of awe. I was young when this book hit the stands and the anticipation of it was pretty intense. When I saw it, I felt like it promised something pretty amazing. It turned out to be better than I hoped it would be. The cover, while simple in design, speaks to so much of the classic mini-series heart it's uncanny. A truly brilliant design.

Supeman #14

My favorite Golden Age cover. To my mind it's the symbol of what WW2 covers could be. Sure, the Timely covers of the time were fantastic in their lurid detail, but to my mind this simple image beats them all handily.

Incredible Hulk #340

Going more modern for a second…

I'm not even that big of a fan of Todd McFarlane or Wolverine and even I love this cover. It's the ultimate McFarlane image for me and I think the same holds true for a lot of other people. Classic in conception.

Captain America Comics #1

Not the greatest Captain America cover artistically, historically this cover can't be beat. Cap burst onto the scene in December 1940 (a full year before Pearl Harbor) and on his first cover he's punching Hitler in the jaw! Classic stuff.

Action Comics #1

C'mon… it doesn't get any more classic than this! 1st Superman. This cover has been copied and referenced so many times it's not even funny.

Speaking of funny, this is the only comic on the list that was used in the Simpsons twice as in a gag.*

Amazing Fantasy #15

This is another one that really needs no explanation. This is the king of Silver Age books and that fact alone gets people excited for this cover. Add to that the fact that it's a truly iconic image of Spider-Man and the inclusion here is a no-brainer.

And I'm not even that big of a Spider-Man fan.

Weird Science Fantasy #29

EC + Frank Frazetta = possibly the greatest comic book cover of all time. I know a lot of people are quick to disagree with that pronouncement and even I, an unabashed fan of both Frazetta and EC, have a hard time with it from time to time. Regardless, the fact remains- this is one cool cover. The power and energy of Frazetta's art is basically unmatched and it's in full display here on this savage cover.

More Fun #54

There were a lot of great More Fun covers. To me, this one is the best. The massive figure of the spectre and his simple, dramatic pose make for an impressive image.

Iron Man #128

Probably the most memorable cover of my youth. With the possible exception of Gene Colan's brilliant cover for Iron Man #1, this might be the best Iron Man cover of all time.

* "Homer's Barbershop Quartet" and "Homie the Clown" are the two episodes. To quote Wikipedia:

In the "Homer's Barbershop Quartet" episode of The Simpsons, Homer sees a copy of Action Comics #1, along with the United States Declaration of Independence, an Inverted Jenny postage stamp sheet and a Stradivarius violin at a yard sale all for 5¢ and tosses them aside as "junk".

In the "Homie the Clown" episode of The Simpsons, Krusty the Clown uses a variety of highly valued items to light his cigarettes, including a $100 bill and a copy of Action Comics #1.