Saturday, September 12, 2015

Time in a Bottle -- a Comic Covers Genre


Doug: Last Monday's reviews of the JLA/JSA/All-Star Squadron crossover comics has me thinking about covers with hourglasses on them! Commenter Frank drew a direct comparison between the covers of All-Star Squadron #14 and Avengers #79 -- bravo, Frank! I dug up another few covers for you to chew on, and because I'm guessing this won't be a huge list, let's expand it to covers with timepieces in general -- calendars, watches, stopwatches, grandfather clocks, et al. Don't be late with your suggestions...




 

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Steranko's cover for SHIELD 7. A classic.

-sean

Martinex1 said...

The only hourglass cover I can think of (correctly) is Marvel Super Action #17. It's a reprint of Avengers Annual 2 but with a different cover, and definitely has the two Avengers era teams in an hourglass. I say "correctly" because in my head, I thought I pictured a variety of covers from Defenders and other team books with the characters in an hourglass, but when I looked they were actually in glass globes, crystal balls, or viewing devices. Funny how the mind plays tricks.

Edo Bosnar said...


I know there's a bunch of covers with various time-pieces on them, but I'm blanking out at the moment; the only one that comes to mind is the cover to Animal Man #30. Never actually read that series, but I've seen that cover reproduced and posted at about a dozen different places on the internet over the past decade or so.

Dougie said...

What a coincidence! I was just talking about these images with one of the kids in one of my junior English classes yesterday! We started with Avengers Annual 2 ( in a Dorling Kindersley book) then moved to the JSA.

marksweeneyjr said...

A memorable 'hourglass cover' that comes to mind is from Legionnaires #61, by Jeff Moy/Cory W. Carani, which played upon the reboot/multiple incarnation aspect of the team. The top part of the hourglass is filled with (then)current Legionnaires, the bottom half is filled with members whose outfits date from the 60s.

Poor Triad/Triplicate Girl is caught in between the two halves, her head & shoulders in the 90s (the 2990's, of course) and her skirt & go-go boots straight out of the 60s.

Very cool cover!

Anonymous said...

I love Avengers #79 cover.....I bought it for a couple bucks from Comics and Robots (RIP) what an AMAZING cover!

Also, I'm currently seeking a support group......my LCS will be closing at the end of this month....RIP, Superior Comics....sob....

starfoxxx

Martinex1 said...

I agree that Avengers 79 is a classic. The villains look crazed with anger.

I found a few more hourglass covers. DC's 1999 series of Hourman had two in a short series. Issue 12 had a fairly nice homage to those classics, and issue 25 with the series finale had a nice play on time running out.

also Marvel's New Warriors #50 and Incredible Hulk #367 has a Simonson Hourglass. I think the Hulk had an issue with Kang and a crushing stone year on his back, but I can't find it.

Anonymous said...

The first one that jumped to my mind was the third issue of the Legionnaires 3 miniseries from 1986.

Mike Wilson

Humanbelly said...

Hulk #135, MX1.
(Is the immediate response from the embarrassed Hulk-fan mega-geek. . . without pausing to think, let alone check. . . )

HB

ColinBray said...

A loooooong way back - Star-Spangled Comics #70 for some clock-based action:

http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/marvel_dc/images/0/01/Star-Spangled_Comics_70.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/300?cb=20090102021623

Your hourglass offerings make for some great covers, Doug. It must be the dramatic potential of the subject.

I too especially love the Avengers #79 cover. The Lethal Legion totally fill and dominate the page.

ColinBray said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
JJ said...

Watchmen #12 features a timepiece, and a bloody one at that. And I can't let this unique BAB post go by without commenting on the cover copy for Avengers #79. "Lo! The Lethal Legion!" I just love that. What was it with Marvel and the word "lo"? Biblical. And of course you have the classic Marvel alliteration. Marvel cover copy makes me smile. Pure fun. Possible topic? Or has that been done already? -JJ

Humanbelly said...

I totally 2nd your topic suggestion there, Ozone.
When FOOM did it's bibliographic retrospective pieces on a title, they'd always include the title of the story in the listings, and there was always a notable chunk of them that led boldly with that lovable sense of rather tin-plated gravitas.

"Lo, the Leader Lives"
"This Man, This Monster"
"This World Not His Own"
"Ten Rings Hath the Mandarin"

etc, etc--

HB

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