The Wiggly Reader #2 (1998)

“I’m a history bug and grew up reading Mad, so John Kerschbaum’s amazing cover featuring a theater full of John Wilkes Booths fighting dozens of Abrahan Lincolns is right u my ally. Sic Semper Funny!”

Wolverine (1st Limited Miniseries) #2 (October 1982)

“Frank Miller is the best at what he does, in this case setting the standard for how to draw a badass Wolverine.”

Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen #79 (September 1964)

“Fred Hembeck reintroduced a generation of comics fans to the pleasures of Mort Weisinger‘s super-silly coves, and, being a Beatles fan, this on is more popular than Ringo in my book”

Marvel Super Heroes: Secret Wars #4 (August 1984)

“Speaking of silly cover, this Marvel cover does  great job of conveying the supreme strength of of Ol’ Green Genes – so tiny underneath all that rock! – but the text pushes it into absurdity. 150 billion tons?”

Mad #11 (May 1954)

“This classic by Basil Wolverton is so simple and so great that is doesn’t matter that it’s a parody of a magazine that went under before most of today’s comic readers were even born.”

Amazing Spider-man #262 (March 1985)

“This came out in 1984, long before the movies – or Alex Ross – made photo-realistic pictures of super-heroes commonplace, making this cover stand out.”

Weirdo #3 (1981)

“Back when I was an angry, disaffected youth, I took the message of this cover as my personal motto. Since then, I’ve lightened up a bit but I still like the starkness of this one – and the word balloon reflected in the water is a nice touch.”

Batman: The Dark Knight #2 (March 1986)

“I told you Frank Miller was good! DC comics‘ Batman is barely contained on the cover and he’s pushing hard to stand up straight and bust out altogether. He’s probably furious that Alfred didn’t get to iron his suit.”

Yummy Fur #25 (July 1991)

“A good example of the difference between super-hero and alternative comics: An unwanted intruder is a commonplace situation in super-hero comics, but in real life it would be scary as hell.”

Thor #337 (November 1983)

“On the other hand, sometimes it’s nice to see someone just breaking stuff.”

Thanks to Comic Buyer’s Guide. This favorite comic book cover list was originally published in January 2011.

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Bucky in bondage was yearly Captain America cover tradition and Bucky was always waiting with a masochistic smile on his face as Captain America punched his way through bad guys such as Hitler, Japanese torturers and a bunch of masked villains and general evil-doers. Kind of makes you wonder whether Bucky was really a unwilling victim or a sexually confused teenager. But I digress…

Check out our other list of the Best Captain America Comics.

Captain America #6

See what I mean, why is Bucky so happy? I guess you could say he knows he is saved now that Captain America is here, but deep down I wonder if the constricting nature of the ropes and the limited movement he is allowed is somehow adding to his flee and excitement. Just me?

Captain America #24

I mean, come on, how hard is Bucky really trying to get out of the predicament? His finger tips are tied down and he can’t remove himself from this bondage? I cry foul! Those are just strings! Try Bucky, try!

Captain America #38

Ignore the extremely racist depictions of the Japanese race (we were at war with them so cut the artist a little slack), and you will see that Bucky and a buxom blonde beauty are both restrained on this Captain America Cover. Luckily for the male readers the blonde is straining a bit harder than Bucky.  At least Bucky isn’t staring (see sexually confused adolescent remark at the beginning of this post).

Captain America #32

I know all missiles look phallic, but I sometimes wonder… On a side note, how helpful is Captain America going to be when his parachute is obviously not working correctly and unless he is a wizard with untying knots, I think Bucky is a goner. Dang those Japs!

Captain America #28

Holy double jeoparady! (sorry, wrong sidekick) But now Bucky is not only strapped down but pointing spikes are soon to be a major life change for our boy with the swashbuckling boots! Thankfully we are made aware of just how serious this is by the top box being labeled as weighing a whopping 5,000 pounds. At least Bucky looks genuinely frightened here. Maybe he was finally getting too old for this crap.

Captain America #21

Okay, this cover is actually more about Bucky being tortured by fire and slowly being roasted alive than being tied up in ropes. I am sensing another theme in these covers – endangering the life of a minor? child neglect? Maybe Captain America wasn’t quite the hero we thought. Poor Bucky looks to be the sacrificial goat most of the time.

Captain America #14

Sure, Bucky is strapped down with red leather bindings, Captain America is swinging in on a strategically placed rope, some creepy guys are poisoning Bucky with gas and all that is very exciting, but what catches my attention is that creepy Imp character on the left side. What is his story? I guess he didn’t last long as America’s newest laugh sensation. If he was helping Captain America I can only assume he was eventually tied up and gassed, stabbed and electrocuted.

Captain America #8

Now this feels right. Nazis have kidnapped Bucky, of course, and have him wrapped tightly ready to be mummified while some crazed half mummy creatures help the Nazi soldiers. Notice the spikes in the sarcophagus. Wasn’t being tied up and buried alive enough. You have to stab the poor kid too?

And to end this list of  Bucky in bondage with a bang, we have the most reviled man in the history of the world tying up our little hero. Hitler binds Bucky in issue #2 of Captain America and so the die was cast and the tradition of Bucky in ropes was started.

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World’s Finest Comic #172 (DEC 67)

“I think this Curt Swan/George Klein cover may have been on the first comic cover I ever read. I loved having my two favorite heroes together in the same family in this imaginary story.”

Detective Comics #370 (Dec 67)

“This Carmine Infantino/Neal Adams illustration was one of the first I ever remember seeing. Batman’s shredded costume struck me as a dyanmic way of conveying the punishment he was experiencing.”

Batman #207 (Dec 68)

“This Iv Novick cover reflected an epotimized the motif of the ‘death trap’ cliffhangers that I was seeing on the ’60s Batman TV show.”

The Brave and the Bold #84 (Jul 69)

“Of all the examples I could list, this book is the one most responsible for my becoming a comics artist. It’s also the first time I became acutely aware of Neal Adams’ art, and it’s the only comic cover I ever tried to copy.”

Aquaman #45 (Jun 69)

“The naturalism, mood, and dynamism of Nick Cardy’s gigantic talent is on full display here. This issue also marks the first time I saw Jim Aparo‘s art (on the inside story).”

Eerie #23 (Sept 69)

“I didn’t even see this when it was first published and I didn’t even become aware of Frank Frazetta‘s work at all until a few years later, but this is the first painting of hit I eventually did see, and it like opening my eyes for the first time.”

Amazing Spider-Man #101 (Oct 71)

“Gil Kane and John Romita created this cover, which started me off as a Spider-Man fan. Gil’s always been a favorite of mine due to his drawings’ dynamic anatomy.”

Tarzan #207 (Apr 72)

“The animal dynamism and swift and sure brushfwork of Joe Kubert’s art was introduced to me most forecefully with this cover.”

The Brave and the Bold #109 (Nov 73)

“This is one of the first Jim Aparo covers I saw, and it shows how dyunamic his work was back in the early ’70s and why I became his fan.”

Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction #6 (Nov 75)

“I chose to include this Frank Brunner cover because the interior story it’s illustrating was such a challenge to my own beliefs at the time that I wrote and illustrated a rebuttal in comics form (unpublished)!”

Thanks to Comic Buyer’s Guide. This favorite comic book cover list was originally published in May 2011.

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Marvel Team-Up 68

The cover (via Marvel Tales) to perhaps the first Spider-Man comic I ever owned.  Nostalgia aside, I just love it!  Unconventional in that the hero is not facing the camera and the monster is the star of the show!  Man-Thing lunging towards the obviously startled Spider-Man is probably my all-time favorite cover by any artist!

Fantastic Four 249

One of the best covers that goes along with one of the best slugfests in comics history!  The image of Gladiator standing over the demolished Fantastic Four…how could anyone resist this comic?

Alpha Flight 5

My favorite Alpha Flight cover, just an amazing job…I really don’t think I have the artistic vocabulary to explain what I love about this one!  Just go look at it!!!

Amazing Spider-Man Annual 12

Spider-Man vs Hulk…perhaps my two favorite comic characters battling it out!  I’ve always wished there was Byrne art to the interior of this comic.

Daredevil 200

When I think of Daredevil comics, this image of DD standing over the fallen Bullseye is always the first cover that comes to mind.  That’s rather impressive considering JB is not associated much with DD.

Fantastic Four 243

Everyone vs Galactus!  Nuff said?  Galactus is one of the best characters in the history of fiction.  Seeing all the heroes teamed up against him was just incredible!

FX 1

Two words:  Giant.  Gorilla.

Incredible Hulk 314

This cover has entered the realm of iconic images of the Hulk.  With all those villains in the background a comic reader would just have to buy this one to see what was going on!!!

Spectacular Spider-Man 101

The best cover featuring Spidey’s black costume.  Striking all around.

X-Men 133

Wolverine at his best by the artist who draws him the best!

1. Fantastic Four #159

This is a list of covers as chosen by John Byrne himself. These are John Byrne’s favorite covers and do not include any of his own covers. If you want to read more from the genius of Mr. Byrne, please visit Byrne Robotics, his personal forum. Here are John’s favorite covers starting at number 10 and going through number 5. We’ll post part II next week, which will contain John Byrne’s top 5 covers of all time.

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Okay, so now I had an idea and knew of many Schomburg covers I would want to include, specifically Startling Comics #49, one of my personal favorite covers of all time. Who doesn’t love an Robot with an overactive sense of romance? So I spent some time (translation: half a day) looking for covers that dealth with the topic of female bondage.

But as my search lengthened I realzed that there were a lot of comic book covers that with had images of female bondage and even a few with male and alien bondage. As I started saving some particularly interesting choices I noticed that a certain female was making an  appearance more often that any other. Now I know many readers will say, “duh, of course,” but I was somewhat surprised to see Wonder Woman being tied up, trapped and chained on so many covers. And many of the covers were more recent issues, not just those from the Golden Age.

Upon even further review it became obvious tha phallic symbols were also penetrating many of the covers. Rockets, darts and torpedoes were “popping up” with great frequency, with each weapon intent on ruining her good name. But I digress…

The best bondage covers of all time will have to wait for another day. This day we focus on our Amazonian princess and her efforts to untie, unchain and escape the juvenile entrapments that so frequently put her in mortal danger and sometimes unintentionally humorous situations.

Every effort, believe me, was made to find only the most obvious choices. When you work with a lasso, golden or not, you are bound to tie up a few people and have it used against you from time to time. I tried to include covers where the artist was in on the joke, so to speak. Other criteria used  were: how suggestive was the cover; did the artist go out of his way to make it an inside joke; was body positioning more for the pose than the action; and finally, was the point of view set up to titillate. Please include any covers in the comments you feel are noticeably absent. Now, stick around and see just  how fit to be tied Wonder Woman can be!

Oh, one final observation. I have done my best to place the Wonder Woman covers in chronological order. In doing so, it became obvious that our star-spangled warrior princess became a fan of plastic surgery. Her growth in certain areas was truly a “wonder.”

Wonder Woman #24

In her earlier days, Wonder Woman was a bit more fancy, getting dolled up for her forays into crime’s underbelly. Her bodice is very revealing and looks to be open down to her lower back. Extra long eyelashes, curled hair and tight-fitting uniform all play well together which was certainly on the mind of the artist. It is only natural that Wonder Woman be be tied up on the cover while she ties up her attacker, the Mask.

Wonder Woman #68

“The daring Amazon find herself in an explosive trap,” so the caption reads. Once again our heroine has managed to get herself tied up and this time on a buoy of all things. Death approaches in a very phallic, and not to mention, an angry-red colored, torpedo. I’m guessing the artist had a very involved dream about Diana the night before the cover was created.

Wonder Woman #146

Only 78 issues later and Wonder Woman is once again tied to a buoy. And the Lock Ness monster look like he has romantic intentions for her, or so I would imagine. Why else would she be wearing high-heel red shoes? I mean really, why else would she be?

Wonder Woman #161

The irony here is wonderful. One scantily clad woman is being tied up by a soon to be scantily clad woman. The one doing the undressing (unraveling?) is a few thousand years old, but I’m betting she held up pretty well. Just look at the hour glass figure under those cloth strips.

Wonder Woman #188

I can only assume that any pretense that Wonder Woman is an actual female hero for young girls to admire has been thrown out the window by this issue. Except for the red masthead reading “Wonder Woman” I would have no idea this is Wonder Woman comic book. She more closely fits the part of a sex symbol who usually gets attacked and has her clothes ripped off in strategic places to statisy the Comic Code Authority. At least she is wearing sensible white shoes.

Wonder Woman #196

Wow.

“Wonder Woman” is in quite the revealing position. So, imagine you are the parent and your child asks you to buy them a comic. “Can you describe the cover,” the helpful parent asks. “Sure,” says the wide-eyed innocent youngster. “Wonder Woman is on the cover with her wrists chained, the back of her shirt ripped open with a bulls-eye on her back showing and she is wearing very tight white short pants showing off her firm buttocks.” I’m assuming if the child is a teenage boy he will be buying two copies, one for reading and the other for…um, reading in the bathroom.

Oh, and just how does all this play into her origin as the cover reads.

Wonder Woman #205

Not the first time and not the last, Wonder Woman is tied up by her own golden lasso. Kind of makes you wonder why she keeps it around. It is used as a convenient rope for the bad guy more often than anything. Another recurring theme is also back. Instead of being torpedoed by a red phallic object as in Wonder Woman #68, this time she is riding a large purple missile. Oh my, that looks worse on screen than it sounded in my head.

Wonder Woman #207

Count them. Nine Amazons wearing revealing outfits, while while one of them strikes a pose (arched back and hand on hip) over two other women who are helpless, both bound and gagged. Comic book for children or adult video box cover? You be the judge.

Wonder Woman #219

No surprise to anyone, Wonder Woman is tied up with her own magic golden lasso (the magic seems to be tying up its owner), and this time she has an audience of six men…and one has a video camera? What? Almost seductively, Wonder Woman smiles and teasingly asks, “What are you waiting for? I’ve made myself helpless!”

Elongated Man, a name dripping with double entendre, films the whole affair, giving this cover a very voyeuristic feel. Nice that he just wants to watch to see how she “gets out of the trap” instead of actually helping her out. The casual crossing of his legs is a nice touch-he really is relaxed and ready to see some “action”.

Wonder Woman  #229

“Perverso the Robot”, also known as the Red Panzer, watches with a bit too much glee as Diana is about to meet her end and be violated by yet another angry-red missile. Just how does she get herself into these situations?

Wonder Woman #231

While Wonder Woman isn’t tied up on the cover, I felt the true intent was focused on bondage by trapping her in a tight space. I may have excluded this cover, but the overly arched back and thrusting bosoms were too much to ignore, so to speak. Feels like the beginning of a peep show with Steve and his lady friend watching Diana gyrate around inside a glass pyramid.

Wonder Woman #298

Even in death Wonder Woman can’t catch a break from being used as a sexual device. Frank Miller does a great job showing how bondage and Wonder Woman are forever partners even unto death, as her skeleton, with a beautiful head of hair, remains tied up for all future generations to see.

Wonder Woman #19, Volume 2

One hot chick posed seductively on a bed, drink in hand, and cleavage all the way to next week. The other female is chained helplessly and laying unconscious on the floor AND dressed in a sexy costume. How could this comic cover go wrong?

Wonder Woman #67, Volume 2

Did you even notice Wonder Woman has a black eye, or that there are skeletons in the background? Yeah, me neither. Strategically ripped clothing and chained helplessly, seems to be a formula for WW covers. Bolland did many covers with Wonder Woman and you can see why. The pencils for this cover are below. I like how the masthead has the additional words, “in chains”. Couldn’t most of the covers had added something similar like, “in ropes” or “in a cage” or “in her lasso” and so on.

Wonder Woman #86, Volume 2

Technically she isn’t tied up, but she is being restrained. I really included this just for the “butt-in-your-face” shot on the cover. You know the artist planned this.

Body Doubles #4

And we end with a bang! Three sets of full heaving breasts, three woman dressed like pole dancers and one being tied up (by her own golden lasso once again) make this cover more inline with a book that should be behind the counter rather than one on a comic book rack. God bless the nerdy, young and imaginative men who dominate the comic book industry!  

Presented here is the second installment of the Wolverine art appreciation covers and the artists who inspired them.

Amazing Spider-man 590

Amazing Spider-Man 590 Variant Wolverine Art Appreciation Cover

Amazing Spider-man’s variant art appreciation cover by Paolo Rivera in the style of C.M. Coolidge. Cassius Marcellus Coolidge is best known for his sixteen paintings of anthropomorphic dogs comissioned by Brown & Bigelow, nine of which feature dogs playing poker. Of the nine paintings in the poker series, A Bold Bluff is the direct inspiration for Rivera’s cover. Waterloo is the follow-up painting where we learned if the bluff worked on not. A Bold Bluff and Waterloo sold for $590,400 in 2005, obliterating the previous record high for a Coolidge painting that went for a mere $74,000. Dogs Playing Poker is certainly one of the most copied paintings in history.

C.M. Coolidge - A Bold Bluff

C. M. Coolidge - Waterloo

Besides being a painter, Coolidge was an inventor, and patented “Processes of Taking Photographic Pictures.” Commonly known as Comic Foregrounds, these are the painted Boardwalk cut-outs where you place your head for a photo opportunity that we’ve probably all used at one time or another.

Comic Foregrounds invented by C.M. Coolidge

Runaways 9

Runaways 9 Variant Wolverine Art Appreciation Cover

Runaways’ variant art appreciation cover by David Lafuente in the style of Alphonse Mucha. Mucha was an unknown Czech artist living in Paris until he debuted a poster on January 1, 1895, in a new unconventional style. This poster was for the play Gismonda starring, one of the great actresses of the time, Sarah Bernhardt. The poster was an instant success and Bernhardt signed a six year contract with Mucha. Art Nouveau (originally called the Style Mucha) was born.

Alphonse Mucha - Gismonda

Mucha’s style had a revival in the psychedelic 60′s and his influence can be seen in many posters of the time, like this one for Pink Floyd by Hapshash and the Coloured Coat.

Poster by Hapshash and the Coloured Coat - Pink Floyd, 1967, CIA-UFO Club

Moon Knight 29

Moon Knight 29 Variant Wolverine Art Appreciation Cover

Moon Knight’s variant art appreciation cover by Juan Doe in the style of Pablo Picasso. Picasso is best known for co-founding the Cubist movement, and for creating art in a wide-variety of styles and mediums. One of his most famous paintings is the proto-Cubist Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (The Young Ladies of Avignon). This oil painting depicts five nude prostitutes at a brothel on Avinyó Street in Barcelona. The African mask-like faces on two of the women start Picasso’s two-year long African-influenced Period. This period directly leads into Cubism. In Juan Doe’s cover, we can see influences from not only those two periods, but also Picasso’s Blue Period as well.

Pablo Picasso - Les Demoiselles d'Avignon

Daredevil 118

Daredevil 118 Variant Wolverine Art Appreciation Cover

Daredevil’s variant art appreciation cover by Juan Doe & Russ Heath in the style of Roy Lichenstein. Lichenstein was a prominent American pop artist, influenced by both advertising and comic book art. In an interview in 1997, shortly before his death from pneumonia, he said, “Picasso himself would probably have thrown up looking at my pictures.”

One of his most famous and earliest pop art paintings is Whaam!, which is based on a panel by Jerry Grandenetti from DC’s All-American Men of War #89. Most of Lichenstein’s famous works are not quite exact copies of panels by the likes of Jack Kirby, Tony Abruzzo, Irv Novick, Russ Heath, as well as Grandenetti.

Roy Lichtenstein - Whaam!

Panel from All-American Men of War #89

Crying Girl, was one of the artworks featured in the movie Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian starring Ben Stiller.

Roy Lichtenstein - Crying Girl

Ghost Rider 34

Ghost Rider 34 Variant Wolverine Art Appreciation Cover

Ghost Rider’s variant art appreciation cover by Alina Urusov in the style of Tōshūsai Sharaku (Japanese Woodblock). Even though Sharaku is one of the great masters of Japanese woodblock printing, very little is actually known about him, including his true name or his date of birth and death. One theory is that Sharaku is not actually a “who” but merely a collective of artists that worked for the same woodblock print house.

Sharaku did not try to realistically portray his subjects, unlike earlier masters. He, instead, exaggerated their facial features and tried to portray their psychological realism. In the woodblock directly inspiring this cover, the actor Otani Oniji II is shown in the role of Yakko Edobe. A yakko is a manservant a samurai would utilize to perform violent acts. The ruthlessness of this samurai henchman is translated perfectly in the Wolverine version by Urusov.

This cover is my personal favorite of all the Wolverine art appreciation covers. What I really want to know is, how did Sharaku know to put an X-men symbol on his woodblock over 200 years ago? That’s a Nostradamus-like prediction!

Tōshūsai Sharaku – Otani Oniji II, dated 1794.

We’ve now covered 11 of Marvel’s 16 art appreciation covers through part 1 and part 2. Tune in soon- same Wolverine-time, same Wolverine-channel for part 3!

Presented here is the first installment of the art appreciation covers and the artists who inspired them.

War Machine #5

War Machine 5 Variant Wolverine Art Appreciation Cover

War Machine’s variant art appreciation cover by Fiona Staples in the style of John Singer Sargent. John Sargent’s Madame X was painted in 1884, and was a scandal in French society because of its sexually suggestive pose. The model, Madame Gautreau was humiliated after the portrait was displayed at the Paris Salon, and Sargent himself soon left Paris for London permanently.

John Singer Sargent - Madame X

Exiles #1

Exiles 1 Variant Wolverine Art Appreciation Cover

Exiles’ variant art appreciation cover by Jason Chan in the style of René Magritte. Painted in 1964, one of Magritte’s most famous paintings is The Son of Man as well as many other art prints. It was featured heavily in the Pierce Brosnan film, The Thomas Crown Affair where his many accomplices dressed in identical suits and bowler-hats.

René Magritte - The Son of Man

Amazing Spider-Man #592

Amazing Spider-man 592 Variant Wolverine Art Appreciation Cover

Amazing Spider-man’s variant art appreciation cover by Paolo Rivera in the style of Salvador Dalí. The Persistence of Memory, painted in 1931 is probably the most famous Salvador Dali painting, and an obvious inspiration of the Spider-man cover which even has the same branch in it. Dali later painted a variation, The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory, whose influence can also be seen in the Spider-man cover.

Salvador Dalí - The Persistence of Memory

Salvador Dalí - The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory

Captain Britain and MI13 #12

Captain Britain and MI13 12 Variant Wolverine Art Appreciation Cover

Captain Britain’s variant art appreciation cover by Skottie Young in the style of Edward Gorey. The Gashlycrumb Tinies by Gorey was first published in 1963 and tells the tale of 26 children (one for each letter of the alphabet) and their untimely deaths in rhymes. 2010 American Idol finalist Siobhan Magnus has a shoulder tattoo featuring art from the book.

Edward Gorey - The Gashlycrumb Tinies

Siobhan Magnus - Edward Gorey Tattoo

Uncanny X-Men #508

Uncanny X-Men 508 Variant Wolverine Art Appreciation Cover

Uncanny X-Men’s variant art appreciation cover by Laura Martin in the style of Vincent Van Gogh. Van Gogh painted many self portraits in his lifetime. It is thought many were painted while looking in a mirror, so that the left ear in the painting was actually his right ear in the mirror. And speaking of ears, following a confrontation with Gauguin in 1888, Van Gogh ran to a brothel & cut off his left ear lobe. He handed the severed ear to a prostitute named Rachel and asked her to, “keep this object carefully.” Eww!

Vincent van Gogh - Self Portrait

Hulk #11

Hulk 11 Variant Wolverine Art Appreciation Cover

Hulk’s variant art appreciation cover by Ed McGuinness in the style of a cave painting. Cave paintings are among the oldest known works of art on the planet. Some of the most famous paintings are found in the Lascaux Cave in France, which has paintings that date to 17,000 BC. The Chauvet Cave, also  in France, has even older cave paintings dating back to 30,000 BC. Perhaps the oldest known art is in the form of Petroglyphs (rock carving) found in caves in India which date to at least 290,000 BC, and may be as old as 700,000 BC.

A horse from the Lascaux caves

Stay tuned true believers for parts 2 & 3, where we cover all 16 of Marvel’s variant Wolverine Art Appreciation covers and the inspiration behind the tribute.

Continue reading, part 2 >>

So when you think of these two superheroes racing, you know the story is going to be interesting and therefore the covers should set the pace, so to speak. Here are the best 9 covers featuring Superman racing The Flash. Please include your comments and if you wish to add a comic cover image in your comics you can do that as well.

DC First: Superman/Flash

Superman vs. the Golden Age Flash (how does his helmet stay on?) and it looks like Superman has a slight lead. This actually looks like a moment caught in time, a photographer catching the photo of a lifetime, if you will. Serious looks of determination shows these two heroes are doing their best to prove who is the fastest. Great facial expressions of pure determination make this a top racing cover.

World’s Finest #199

How can you not love this cover. One set of happy children, one group of sad children. The kids rooting for the loser shed tears for their fallen hero. But the top portion is where this cover really shines. Batman holds the “finish line” in his hands and shouts, “Here They Come!” Hordes of onlookers cheer their heroes as they come in for a photo finish. Again, Superman uses his outstretched hand to give him an edge as he does in a few of these covers.

I love this cover because it harkens back to the days when the comics were so over the top. Batman couldn’t  have time to get the words out before they streaked by and the audience wouldn’t even see the racers, yet clearly they do. Classic DC comic.

Superman vs The Flash

A beautiful painted cover of an anthology that actually contains the greatest races of all time between Flash and Superman. Alex Ross captures the moment so well, but I think the Flash is a little to buff for his character.

Superman #199

Who is the Fastest Man Alive? This comic cover features some divided heroes on the issue. You have Batman rooting for Flash, a possible precursor to today’s DC universe where Superman and Batman aren’t the best of friends, and Hawkman in the rooting against Flash. What would make superheroes choose sides, this cover makes you want to find out. At least Superman makes this an fair footrace by not flying.

The Flash #175

Superman’s jawline is the real story in this cover. Maybe the incredible speed is distorting his face? They certainly have a long way to go, all the way to “The End of the Universe!” it would seem. Superman is usually shown as the jerk in many covers featuring him against another superhero and this cover is no different as Superman smugly states, “I finally got you to admit you’re not the fastest man alive, Flash!” I guess he isn’t using his super-humility powers.

World’s Finest #198

I’m guessing this race is in outer space as the Flash literally flies off the starting line to an early lead. We see a similar trend in these covers as Batman is involved the race. DC declares there MUST be a winner. I guess fan backlash was too much after earlier races were some how unfair, a tie, or one of the heroes threw the race for some good reason.

The Adventures of Superman #463

Another classic cover where the heroes are at odds and their hero friends stand by and watch helplessly. I’m sure Mr. Mxyzptlk has something to do with that, but the question is asked once again, “Who is really the fastest man alive? The Man of Steel or the Flash?” I guess the races before never really settled the issue. Blue Beetle seems into it, even if Batman is a little subdued.

The Flash #209

I like this cover because a lot more is happening that you first see. You have to appreciate Michael Turner’s work on this cover, his beautiful line work really shows through, especially combined with a superb coloring job. The action behind Flash and Superman is what makes this cover so good. It doesn’t look like a race so much as a chase and everyone is after the Flash. Dramatic poses, wonderful use of perspective and some of DC’s best heroes make this a winner.

Limited Collector’s Edition: The Greatest Race of All Time!

Superman vs The Flash with all the heroes cheering them both on. Take a closer look to see why this cover is so good. While Superman and Flash have those steely looks of focus, the heroes behind them aren’t nearly as serious. Wonder Woman is literally jumping for joy (how does she stay in her top) and Robin is raising his arms in pure excitement. But the best is Batman’s desperate look of pleading. It looks like he has some serious money bet on the race. As usual, Aquaman is regulated to the back of the crowd. He is so far back that the Atom is almost as big as him.

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