The 100 Greatest Silver Age Comic Book covers of All Time!

#9

The Brave and the Bold #70

While this cover contains the dreaded DC go go checks of the sixties, (so readers could differentiate their books from Marvel), this cover still explodes, mainly because the two title characters are in actual mortal physical combat! This was very rare in the sixties. Most of the time they were just squaring off to one another, facing each other as they began combat, but not actually engaged in the actual activity of fighting. Infantino pulls out all the stops on this beautiful battle cover. What’s more, you can’t tell who is actually winning or losing between them! Quite a feat since it looks as if they tore up half the city. With a beautiful violet backdrop, as well as the carnage all around them, this book definitely has to make the list.

 

The 100 Greatest Silver Age Comic Book covers of All Time!

#6

Fantastic four #55

These are the kind of covers that rocked DC comics from retaining the title of the world’s largest comic book publisher, a title they had retained since the forties, to second tier, as Marvel was gaining market share very quickly during the mid sixties, and finally passing them a few years later! No wonder. With Kirby at the helm, the Fantastic Four was indeed becoming the “World’s Greatest Comic Magazine.” New characters were being invented at an extraordinary pace! Black Panther, Watcher, Silver Surfer, Galactus, the list goes on and on. Compare the cover of this book to the latest Superman or Batman comic of the same year and month. I wasn’t collecting yet when this book hit the stands, but it must have been a jaw dropper. It’s a jaw dropper now! After all this time, it’s still hard to find a more beautiful cover that has ever graced a comic book. Not all of his covers, but when Kirby was in his prime, his better battle covers almost seemed like ballet.

 

The 100 Greatest Silver Age Comic Book Covers of All Time!

#4

Iron Man #1

While I never considered Gene Colan an exceptional cover artist, this book sells in the thousands in high grade due to the merit of the cover art alone! It’s dynamic, unbusy, (even with all the smaller images in the background), and the color scheme attracts the eye like a magnet! No cover even comes close to matching it when it comes to introducing a character into his own book. The book  flew off the spinner racks in under a week, leaving a ton of Captain Marvel #1’s (which was done by the same artist with a very similar color scheme) behind.

 

The 100 Greatest Silver Age Comic Book Covers of All Time!

#3

Strange Tales #107

This cover, in my opinion, is so sixties! A beautiful design. The placement of the characters, as well as the open white space behind them, is rarely done so well. This book appeared well before I started collecting, so I never obtained it off the spinner rack. Even during the 70’s when I was actively hunting it down at cons and such, it was very elusive. It was unheard of in a grade above very fine. I still don’t know what one with white pages and a sparkling white cover looks like. Little did we know that Kirby was just getting warmed up.

 

The 100 Greatest Silver Age Comic Book Covers of All Time!

#2

Amazing Spider-Man #50

I was collecting Marvels with a full passion by the time this book hit the drug stores. I waited so patiently for this book to arrive, but alas, I never managed to find a copy of it on the newsstand. All the stores I hit didn’t have it, they were all sold out, and my bicycle could only take me so far. It’s considered a classic cover, and I’m sure all the lucky individual kids who saw it on the spinner racks had to have it. Romita at his prime, with the very first story (done over a hundred times) of Spidey finally hangin up his costume due to all the problems being Spider-Man have caused him, must not have hurt sales one bit. A detailed analysis of the book can be found at www.danina422.com.

 

The 100 Greatest Silver Age Comic Book Covers of All Time!!

The 100 Greatest Comic Book Covers of All Time!

These are in no particular order, but are what I consider the greatest silver age comic book covers of all time! I will be posting what I also consider the number 1 greatest comic book cover of all time once the list is complete. I hope to list one a day, so check back often. This is quite an undertaking, and ideas for your comic cover choice will be considered.

#1

Thor #137

This is one of the very first silver age Marvels I bought off the newsstand, so I may be a bit bias considering it. But there’s no denying the fact that for sheer explosive power, nothing matches this great Kirby Thor cover! Even with Vince Colletta inking it, I consider it one of the most graceful and powerful covers that Jack Kirby has ever created, and that’s saying a lot. Enjoy.

 

Al Jaffee reveals secret to the Mad Fold-In!

Here’s 87 year old Al Jaffee, looking spry as ever, revealing his secret to creating his Mad Magazine Fold-In!

 

Fantastic Four #12 in 9.4 fetches over 40,000!!

According to Pedigree Comics, a 9.4 CGC graded copy of Fantastic Four #12, featuring the first meeting between the Hulk and Fantastic Four, fetched $41,200!

The copy in question is one of only five to receive a 9.4 grade from the experts at the CGC but sticks out because the pre-grader, one of three who reviewed and graded it, called it a 9.6, which is almost unheard of for this notoriously tough issue to locate in high grade! It has off-white pages and is also perfectly centered, also a big plus with high grade collectors. When you combine the history of the issue with the beautiful condition of this copy you can see why a passionate collector would pay over $40,000 for it.

 

Batman 156

Here’s a nice purchase from Comiclink a few months back. It’s special to me, because one, I grabbed it off the stands as a kid, got rid of it, and when I went back to collecting, could never find a copy in decent shape. Two, CGC has this one listed in their inventory as only 22 total graded. That makes for a very scarce book, when you consider there’s been a lot more Superman 1’s graded than that. It also has the classic cover designation, which doesn’t hurt, plus the fact that it was still in Batman’s outer space/alien period. Enjoy.

 

9.8 Iron Man and Sub Mariner #1 on Comiclink!

What a book! I bought this book off the stands in ’68 for 12 cents. This has to be the most beautiful copy I have ever seen of this book. The bid is up to four thousand, and the seller is asking eight. It’s only a one shot on top of that! Wow!