June 1979: DC Comics Cover Parade, conclusion

Doug: Surprisingly, this is only a 2-parter. I looked through DC's offerings for June, 1979 and found most of what you'll see here, as well as those books that were in the previous post. I looked into July's books, and found only the first issue of World of Krypton. I went ahead and included it here, even though it doesn't fall under what I was looking for -- bi-monthly publications. I'm thinking what we have in this thin line of comic-offerings is the result of the so-called "DC Implosion" of the late '70's.

I'd mentioned last time that since the cover logos hadn't changed at all from the previous discussion (June, 1976) that I was going to just display the entire cover. Looking through some information on these covers, I found that the cover artists could occupy a Bronze Age Hall of Fame -- Ross Andru, Dick Giordano, Joe Staton, Dick Dillin, Walter Simonson, Jim Aparo, et al. However, reader Andrew Wahl raised an interesting point with his comment that he enjoyed the logo aspect of our little forays into cover history. Andrew, you prompted an idea to pop into my head, and I hope you'll like the result -- stay tuned!

On with today's conclusion:

Sgt. Rock #329 sports a nifty Joe Kubert cover... the way it should be. I've said it before, but I'll say it again -- I just never got into the military comics. I'm sure they were replete with their own drama, wonderful characters, etc. I'm just a superhero zombie.

I have to file Super Friends in the same category as the Looney Tunes, Disney, and Spidey Super Stories comics -- by the time I was 13, I would not have been caught dead looking at one of these at the store, let alone buying one. However, now I can appreciate the "simple" art of Ramona Fradon and others.

Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #252 was coming close to the title character's departure from his own mag (which would occur with issue #259). The art on this cover is by Dick Giordano, and is not in my opinion among his finest work. It's somewhat amateur-looking if you ask me. Love seeing Wildfire, though -- he was always one of my favorites from this era.

Seriously, if I have to tell you who the cover artist is on this Superman mag, then you've never read a Bronze Age Amazing Spider-Man. This is a stock pose from our friend Ross Andru. The inks are by Dick Giordano. Wow -- some of these artists were really busy this month!

I mentioned that this is the only book from July to be included on the list. Ross Andru again provides the pencils (he seems like DC's version of Gil Kane -- the go-to cover artist) for the cover, although Howard Chaykin did the interiors. This book was a history of Superman's family in the years before he was born.

I'm a bit confused with this Joe Kubert cover for Unknown Soldier #228 -- is that French Marshall Henri Petain (who led the Nazi puppet regime in Vichy) on whom Hitler is pinning the medal?

Yeah -- Mike Grell! That's what I'm talking about! Even if it is a half-naked, displaced warrior-dude. I liked Conan and Ka-Zar, but I never got into Warlord. Like being to a large extent a superhero zombie, I was also a Marvel Zombie!

All I can say is that June must have been werewolf month at DC. This is the third cover this fella's turned up on, and the third one this month by Kubert! Get them conquistadors, ya lycanthrope!

"Scalphunter"... and to think this was in the post-civil rights era.

Jose Delbo provides the cover art here, with WW looking a lot like Lynda Carter (at least her figure). The art evokes the simpler style of Ramona Fradon on that Super Friends cover we saw earlier. Keep in mind, Wonder Woman was (don't know if this is still true) one of only three characters to be published continuously since 1940. That's a mighty distinction!