Favourite comics: Superboy #182 - the first meeting of Superboy and Batman by Bob Brown , Murphy Anderson and Leo Dorfman

Superboy was a comic that I only really interested me when it featured the Legion of Super-Heroes however, there were the odd exceptions where the urge to pick up a copy of the boy of steels comic minus the Legion was overwhelming. One such issue was Superboy #182 featuring an intriguing cover by the great Nick Cardy in a story where Superboy uses a machine, a 'time-scope' that can see into the future, a DC staple in telling "what if" type tales back in the day. The added interest in this tale was that this story tells of the first meeting between Superboy and a young Batman,or rather the Executioner!

In addition to the above main story this issue also featured an "Album of Unsung Heroes" tale and a reprint of a Super-baby tale

The horrific beauty of Nick Cardy's covers - From Ghosts to the Witching Hour

As most readers of this blog will be aware I am am a massive fan of Nick Cardy's covers. Cardy (1920-2013) was one of the top comic book artists of the 20th century and was easily one of the greatest cover artists ever. His covers graced most genres but perhaps he was best known for his horror covers (although DC never used the word ‘horror’ in the 1960s and 1970s) . Along with Neal Adams and John Buscema, Nick Cardy was instrumental in cementing my love of US comic books with his unique and enthralling covers that begged you to pick up the comic book to find out more about the stories contained within - although these were rarely as good as his wonderful covers suggested. To celebrate , below are some of my favourite Nick Cardy “horror” covers.

Above: "The Witching Hour" comic was one of the best of DC's mystery comics line featuring not only some of Nick Cardy's best covers but it also featured some amazing strips by the likes of Alex Toth, Neal Adams and Bill Druat. Issues 31 & 45 are 2 of my all time favourite Nick Cardy mystery covers .

Above: The Unexpected #147 - This was the first DC mystery comic that I bought based on the cover alone back in 1973.

Above: Secrets of Sinister House # 5 - I wasnt aware of this title until I saw in in a bargin bin for £1 a few years ago - I only purchased this for the cover and the fact the tale was set in Scotland. Its a bit of a strange book for DC at this time as the entire comic only featured one story.

Above: The cover to the collected "Witching Hour" Showcse collection featuring my favourite Nick Cardy mystery cover from issue 4 of the comic. I was hoping to feature 13 covers but sadly these are my last Nick Cardy mystery/horror covers.

Favourite covers: Batman: 100 Page Spectacular - DC-14 -by Nick Cardy

As I have stated many times before, I have a great fondness for those thick US 80-100 specials, especially those published by DC in the early 1970’s. There was just something appealing about these books with their thick spines and the classic reprints all contained within the confines of some of comics greatest cover. I have waxed lyrical in the past over some of these stunning covers that still take pride of place in my collection and to this list I have to add the above classic cover by legendary artist Nick Cardy for DC-14, from February 1973.

Although all issues in this series featured some form of a wrap-around covers, it was only issues DC-6 to DC-14 that featured a continued cover illustration (others featured either a poster type back cover or a reproduction of the front cover without the logo). Above shows Cardy’s cover in its full glory (illo taken from DC Wiki as my copier isn’t big enough to scan the full cover).

Above: The table of contents page from this issue.

The above page containing an article on the contents of this issue.

The DC 100 page Super-Spectacular series ran for 19 issues that were published between 1971 – 1973. This series had a strange numbering system, for example the first 100 page spectacular (Weird Mystery Tales) started with issue 4 (there were no issues numbered as 1,2 or 3) and with issue 7 the numbering system was changed to add the prefix “DC” (ie. DC-07 – DC-22)to the number. In addition some issues like DC-13 which featured Superman (above), were also numbered as part of the regular Superman series, in this case Superman issue 252. From issue DC-14 - DC22 the title of the series was changed to "100 Page Super-Spectacular".

Favourite comics: Justice League of America issues 100

Published in June 1972 (with a cover date of August) the above issue of Justice League of America (cover by Nick Cardy) was my first and the tenth JLA/JSA “crossover” which as luck would have it also coincided with the 100th anniversary issue of the JLA. The story “The Unknown Soldiers of Victory” written by Len Wein and drawn by Dick Dillin and Joe Giella was the first part of a 3 part story arc that would take place over issues 100-102. JLA issue 100 has remained one of my all time favourite US comics since the day I first purchased it in my local newsagents after school on a rainy afternoon in November 1972. After all these years I can still remember the excitement of seeing that cover on the spinner rack sporing the banner "33 heroes" many of them being characters I had never seen before. I was in fanboy heaven!

The story itself revolves around the 100th meeting of the JLA where the members are holding a special gathering. However no sooner does the meeting start than they are summoned to Earth 2 by the Justice Society of America to assist them in battling a giant hand that is about to crush their planet. Struggling to win the batttle Dr Fate contacts Oracle, a cosmic entity who informs them that the only way to defeat the giant hand is for them to find the Seven Soldiers of Victory as only they can defeat the menace. As the Seven Soldiers of Victory have been disbursed over various time periodsof Earth’s pasts the Oracle transports the JLA/JSA in teams of three to find the members of the Seven Soldiers of Victory.

This was a pretty special issue packed with golden age heroes many of whom I had never heard of before but I thoroughly enjoyed seeing them illustrated by (then) modern artists.

The story would continue in issues 101 and 102 which to this day I have still not managed to read. One day I will track down those 2 issues and find out how it all ends. I do know that the Red Tornado plays a major role having read JLA issue 106.

Covers from DC Wiki

Top Tens: Nick Cardy - DC’s cover king!

Looking at my collection of DC comics it has become very clear to me that I picked up many of their titles in the1970’s based firmly on the wonderful covers produced by artist extraordinaire Nick Cardy. In the 1960’s to 1970’s Nick Cardy was DC’s undisputed cover king and in that time he produced many of the companies most memorable and iconic covers. Although Cardy was best known for his work on Aquaman and the Teen Titans (covers and internal art on these particular comics) he also produced numerous other covers for DC including (but not restricted to ) the Flash, Spectre, Superman Romance, western, war and a plethora of mystery comics. Unlike many of todays "poster" based comic book covers, everyone of Cardy's covers were so well illustrated and based on the actual content of the comic that they would make any prospective purchaser want to buy the comic. Below are ten of my favourite Cardy covers:

Cover taken from DC Fandom page.