We like red. There, we’ve said it. Out of the bag, it is. Here are some of our favorite comic book covers that are soaked in red. What a beautiful color.
Amazing Spider-man #50: Iconic image. Our pick for best Spider-man cover. Yes, ever. What’s inside? 1st appearance of Kingpin and a soul searching that leads Peter Parker to throw away his suit and figure he is done with vigilantism for good. Of course, he is sucked back in because — “WITH GREAT POWER COMES GREAT RESPONSIBILITY!”
The Avengers #57: Pretty much as red as you can get. No other colors on this cover other than black and white and they only serve as shadow and light respectively. What’s inside? The 1st appearance of The Vision (who is a very cool character … most of the time).
Frank Miller’s Ronin # 1: Frank Miller’s art took a weird turn in Ronin. His personal project was pretty far out there compared to the more mainstream work he had done on Daredevil. We were already fans when we picked up Ronin as back issues because The Dark Knight Returns had just come out and we wanted to find anything by Frank that we could get our hands on. Anyway, besides the billowing eastern get-up, we like the look of this cover with all the thatching and, of course, the wonder color red.
Mage: The Hero Discovered #10: Issue number 7 of Mage was the first comic book we ever bought. The maxi-series is still one of our favorites. The technology today is so much more advanced than in 1985, but the vibrancy of the four-color printing on Baxter paper that was the rage in the 1980s blew us away. This issue also has a lot of red in it and for that we are grateful.
Punisher War Zone #1: The 1990s was the Dreadful Decade of the Gimmick. We will write a future post on that but suffice it to say that after a fantastic run of experimental, creator-driven stories and art in the 1980s, the early 1990s were all about the collectability side of the comic book hobby. Pure garbage was coming out right and left and in order to hook the consumer, comic book publishers turned to technologies that were already making an impact on the ugly step-sister of the collectibles hobby (sports cards) for flash and pizzazz that they hoped would compensate for the terrible stories inside. Covers often became the only reason to buy a comic book. Chromium and lenticular surfaces were big “wows” as were die cuts like this comic. Of course, the prices jumped like crazy for the increasingly not-so-special “special” books. The $2.25 price tag on this issue was a dollar more than the average cover price in 1992 when this was released. That was a lot back then. Anyway, we have to admit we really liked this cover. Still do.
Mister X Volume 3 #4: This comic book came to our attention because we had fallen in love with Stig’s Inferno and since Vortex was the publisher of both, there was an ad for Mister X in one of the Inferno issues. It was some of the most stylish stuff we’d seen to date and the covers were fantastic. Later, the rights to the series migrated to Caliber Comics. We bought those issues but still haven’t read them – no idea why, just haven’t. Anyway, this is one of many good covers and it’s also our favorite of the outstanding red ones (Volume 1 #1 and Volume 1 #12 (the later of which is our favorite cover overall by creator Dean Motter) are also fantastic). Take a look at all of the covers in this gallery.
Rocketeer Adventures #2: This is a reprint of Dave Stevens’ fan-favorite comic book from the 1980s. We love the art, the stories, and we are even proud to admit we love the Rocketeer movie (even though it was Disney-fied). This gorgeous Art Deco cover demonstrates why the Rocketeer is a comic worth admiring.
So, there you have it. This was just a small snapshot of some fantastic red-colored covers that we love. Which one do you like best? You’re welcome to comment on other red covers you really like.
Thank you and good night!
We have focused much of the attention on this site towards popular movies and music. Returning now to weightier matters, the next phase will include the addition of new resources on comics. The first of what is to come is a picture gallery of Mister X comics. Mister X is the brain child of Dean Motter, a specialist in “antique futurism” storytelling (meaning stories that are told from the present about the future from the past’s perspective. more on that below). Mister X is the quintessential mystery man. Who is he? Where does he come from? What’s behind those dark glasses? What little we know about him is that he claims to be the architect of Radiant City, an experiment in modern construction where architecture was considered as the primary theme in developing a Utopian community. The thought was that the buildings and city themselves would create a positive psychological impression on its denizens thereby increasing their productivity and happiness. Tragically, the opposite effect occurred and the residents of the city began going insane. Murders and suicides became commonplace. The dark subculture of the seedy night club world emerged with a cast of gangsters and other not-nice people. Mr. X desperately attempts to fix the abomination he created but finds there are forces working against him. Obsessed with his mission, he injects himself with an anti-sleep serum to allow him to work 24 hours a day. Unfortunately, insomnia has its price and Mr. X must deal with his own delusions and demons.
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