Since modern comic publishers told me to go away, i've been spending a lot of time digging through old comics instead. Often i'm struck by the difference in covers on the old comics.
Sometimes they're nothing more than interior panels or pages with a little more text slapped on.
Sometimes the cover seems to be an afterthought, stapled on at the last minute from whatever was laying around the office.
Sometimes they're Fun in a way we never see any more. Heroes know they're on the cover and break from the stories to just play and have a good time with the readers.
And sometimes, they just grab me. That's the case with Punch Comics -
The covers for Punch started off solid. The first perhaps from George Tuska?
The second issue had an 'Anthology Cover' that worked well to advertise the contents from Charles Sultan...
...and then things got Odd.
Issues 3-8 don't seem to have actually existed. There's no reference to them, zero listings in databases - absolutely nothing i can find on them, nor any comment their absence.
But, two and a half years later, #9 appeared with a terrific cover from Gus Ricca -
Followed by another great Ricca cover, featuring Master Key -
Then we got the silohuette cover at the top of the page. Could Ricca be the unknown artist who created it? Not a whole lot of clues to work with on that cover, but i do like it very much.
After that, we got two more eye-catching covers from Gus Ricca. (Yes, the signature changes, but it's still him)
Ruben Moreira bent my reality a bit with his nice moody cover for #14 -
The stylized MK (for Master Key) and mood had me thinking for a moment that Mike Kaluta was considerably older than i had thought. Reality corrected itself fairly quickly. (but a look at the news tells me that reality is still broken)
As of issue 15 Paul Gattuso took over the covers for most of the rest of the run, with Master Key as the usual subject of the covers (perhaps by editorial edict after that sweet cover on #10) -
There were also a couple of cartoon/gag covers along the way before the title ended with #19 (above) as the final issue.
But, as with the beginning of Punch Comics, the end got weird. The next issue may or may not have a cover from Gattuso, featuring Rocketman (not pictured) for a change...
...but #21 did indeed feature his work up front, and back to the Master Key eye-beam pics...
...but they never, to my eye, reached the glory of the Ricca days again.
So, what the hells? Didn't it stop at #19?
Superior, a Canadian company, picked up the title and continued publishing it after the series was canceled by Chesler/Dynamic. It only last 4 issues, and it ended appropriately with this cover -
To make things more strangely confusing, there were apparently two more issues published after #23 - #30 later that year, and #31 about two years later.
I am wholly ignorant of those two anomalous issues, so we'll stop here. For now. There's some fun stuff inside, too.
Sometimes they're nothing more than interior panels or pages with a little more text slapped on.
Sometimes the cover seems to be an afterthought, stapled on at the last minute from whatever was laying around the office.
Sometimes they're Fun in a way we never see any more. Heroes know they're on the cover and break from the stories to just play and have a good time with the readers.
And sometimes, they just grab me. That's the case with Punch Comics -
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The covers for Punch started off solid. The first perhaps from George Tuska?
The second issue had an 'Anthology Cover' that worked well to advertise the contents from Charles Sultan...
...and then things got Odd.
Issues 3-8 don't seem to have actually existed. There's no reference to them, zero listings in databases - absolutely nothing i can find on them, nor any comment their absence.
But, two and a half years later, #9 appeared with a terrific cover from Gus Ricca -
Followed by another great Ricca cover, featuring Master Key -
Then we got the silohuette cover at the top of the page. Could Ricca be the unknown artist who created it? Not a whole lot of clues to work with on that cover, but i do like it very much.
After that, we got two more eye-catching covers from Gus Ricca. (Yes, the signature changes, but it's still him)
Ruben Moreira bent my reality a bit with his nice moody cover for #14 -
The stylized MK (for Master Key) and mood had me thinking for a moment that Mike Kaluta was considerably older than i had thought. Reality corrected itself fairly quickly. (but a look at the news tells me that reality is still broken)
As of issue 15 Paul Gattuso took over the covers for most of the rest of the run, with Master Key as the usual subject of the covers (perhaps by editorial edict after that sweet cover on #10) -
There were also a couple of cartoon/gag covers along the way before the title ended with #19 (above) as the final issue.
But, as with the beginning of Punch Comics, the end got weird. The next issue may or may not have a cover from Gattuso, featuring Rocketman (not pictured) for a change...
...but #21 did indeed feature his work up front, and back to the Master Key eye-beam pics...
...but they never, to my eye, reached the glory of the Ricca days again.
So, what the hells? Didn't it stop at #19?
Superior, a Canadian company, picked up the title and continued publishing it after the series was canceled by Chesler/Dynamic. It only last 4 issues, and it ended appropriately with this cover -
To make things more strangely confusing, there were apparently two more issues published after #23 - #30 later that year, and #31 about two years later.
I am wholly ignorant of those two anomalous issues, so we'll stop here. For now. There's some fun stuff inside, too.
cover art by indicated artists for the indicated issues of Punch Comics (1944-48)
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