Who's the Best... Captain America Cover by Mike Zeck?

Doug: Thomas F. is back with another Who's the Best? covers post. And he has some beautiful offerings for your consideration today.

Thomas F.: Talented penciler Mike Zeck got his start in the comics industry at Charlton Comics in the early Seventies. Most of his subsequent work, though, was for Marvel, with the occasional cover or one-page job in an anniversary issue for DC. Most of us are most familiar with Zeck’s artwork in the pages of Secret Wars, GI Joe, Master of Kung-Fu, and the highly successful 1986 The Punisher limited series which ran for five issues.

Incidentally, the first Thanos solo story, featured as the backup tale in Logan’s Run #6, was also penciled (and inked) by a twenty-seven-year-old Mike Zeck in 1977. As for why the story was included in the pages Logan’s Run #6, of all places—and not in The Avengers—tight deadlines was the official reason cited.
But for me, some of Zeck’s best work was in the pages of Captain America. During his popular run on the book, which lasted from 1978 to 1986, Zeck turned out some truly striking covers, many of which would make fantastic posters or pinups. I couldn’t help but notice that the cover of Captain America #277 is obviously a swipe of Neal Adam’s Detective Comics #395, from 1970.I’ve selected a dozen of my own favorite Zeck covers here. (If I had to choose just one, it would be a tie between #332 and Annual #8.)

Which do you like most, and are there any you feel I’ve left out?

  

 

*Doug: Apologies to Thomas and our readers for the less-than perfect lay-out today. You know I wanted those covers to be justified on the margins. But it just wasn't happening!

If I Had A Buck... Deja Vu Again!

Martinex1: Did you ever have the feeling that you've seen a comic cover before?   Some call it an homage.  Some call it a swipe.  Some call it a tribute. Whatever you call it, there has been a long tradition of honoring classic covers with a retake or reimagining.  Today's $1 Challenge explores this artistic tendency.

Recently we looked at the "Pieta Cover" and the myriad versions of that memorable pose.  Comic covers like the iconic Fantastic Four #1 have been recreated too many times to collect them all here. If you search the web you might find dozens of examples.  Here we will look at archetypal covers as well as the oddball and obscure.  A number of artists have handled the pencils, but John Byrne seems to enjoy the process as many of the examples below are his.  Sometimes he even paid homage to his own earlier work.  Other covers are from the likes of Mike Zeck, Ron Frenz, Pat Broderick and John Buscema. 


Modern comics have started to recreate the classics regularly; I've tried to stick to comics from the 20th century (but there may be an exception or three because I particularly liked the styling).  To make it challenging, sometimes I have included the original inspiration and for others I have only included the inspired.   Do you recognize these?  A couple even reference images from sources other than comics!

There are more than 40 opportunities today, choose your favorite 4 and get the conversation rolling. And please try not to repeat your comments!