Seeing that Ernie Chua (Chan) cover reminds me that there’s probably an excellent documentary waiting to be made (if it hasn’t already) about the influence of Filipino artists in the American comic industry of the 70’s onward: Chan, Tony DeZuniga (the first one in, according to Wikipedia), Alfredo Alcala, Nestor and Frank Redondo, Alex Nino, Gerry Talaoc, Steve Gan, among others, not to mention their successors like Whilce Portacio, Rafael Kayanan, Steven Segovia, Carlo Pagaluyan, Philip Tan, Mike Del Mundo, Francis Manapul, and probably others I don’t even know of. I’ve seen articles and YouTube “documentaries” about that wave, but it seems like a subject that could stand up to a real documentary feature (I mean, they’ve got their own museum!). Of course there are other artists of Asian descent (among many other cultural backgrounds) working in comics past and present, but the Philippines has surely produced the largest output of creatives over the longest period of time, especially those older guys who worked when Asian representation in Marvel and DC characters was rather minimal. I also sometimes wonder how many of these artists were just assumed to be of Latino/Spanish origin (i.e. Mexico, Spain, South America) back in the pre-internet-with-photos-everywhere era.

One of my all-time favorite DC covers. For a time I had a real bad itch wanting to buy the original cover art. Ernie Chan penciled the cover and Frank McLaughlin inked it.

Funko Pop chose it as the basis for their Captain Marvel Cover collection piece.

Guess the character below didn't really go anywhere.

Issue #3's cover always creeped me out as a kid.

Quite funny, I just picked up gem mint copies of that mini-series last week. Not sure DC will ever collect much of Bronze Age Superman.

BLACK TERROR gets my vote.

The first 40-50 issues of that What If run are some of my favorite Marvel Comics.

I was so intrigued by the idea of What If...? that I got a subscription in middle school. Even though the only Marvel comics I read were ​​G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero and some of the X-Men titles, I went for it. Since I didn't know a lot of Marvel, I enjoyed many of the issues (a few, I had no clue and I wasn't interested). My subscription was issues #38-#50, which looking back, actually did have many X-Men stories.

This one, in particular, I was literally thinking about today. Specifically, that moment when Spider-Man has embraced his new multi-arm reality and shouts while taking down a villain, "That's right, six! Count 'em, SIX!!!"

Lot of dialogue going on this cover. Also a Whitman logo!

You'd think the Whitman logo would command a big premium but I'd say generally they only add about a 10-20% premium to the regular issue. Much harder finding them in minty condition, however. Instead of shredding them or ripping the cover in half as a retailer return, Whitmans would be lightly marked with a thin marker slash in the small UPC box. Came across many Whitmans like that.

Is Fighting Yank throat punching the Lindbergh baby kidnapper?

I recently found a shop that stocks old Dell comics in their dollar bins. Hoping to come across this, which has to be one of the all-time creepiest comic covers.

Yes, that Circus Boy cover is creepy as all gets out.

I have been meaning to note that the Phantom Zone 2 cover from upthread borders on veering into women in refrigerators territory (scratch that, it does go into this territory). It is rather rough showing a woman splayed out on the floor bloodily beaten down by a trio of guys.

Even if you are someone who goes around decrying how "woke" and over PC things are nowadays, that cover should give you pause. I get that grindhouse/exploitation flicks are by design meant to be hard to watch, and this cover is kind-of like those types of films, but showing a woman that has graphically been beat down just makes me feel dirty looking at it.

Back to a lighter note, for some reason I really like that Justice League America cover (talking about the Zatanna cover, but the Captain Marvel one is also quite dynamic), the Elektra / Predator cover is actually a pretty nice looking piece of art, and the Spider-Hulk cover is not good but rather enjoyable to look at and makes me smile.

Speaking as someone who was absolutely terrified of clowns as a child, did kids ever actually like clowns?

The Phantom Zone cover mentioned doesn't bother me because it is Supergirl. I mean, if it was a regular girl, maybe, but she is an "indestructible" superhero. Would it be viewed as sexist if you did it differently just because she was a woman superhero? I am sure no one would have problems with several female villains perched over the body of a bleeding/dead male superhero they just beat the shit out of.

And spoiler that Circus Boy cover. Jesus. The stuff of nightmares. And I wasn't a kid that was ever bothered or afraid of clowns. I just thought they were weird. obnoxious and usually unfunny.

Speaking of violent...how about this one from 1944. Jeez!

I was going to post just this yesterday but didn't want to offend.

Jeez, that Circus Boy cover is bizarre! I think what creeps me out the most is the clown's feet! I mean, what the hell??

I just barely recall the show on TV. Fun Fact: Circus Boy is Mickey Dolenz of the Monkees!

They spent a lot of time working on the title for this comic.