Friday, March 11, 2011

The Best Worst of 90's Cover Gimmicks Week, Day #6

As far as gimmicks go, our entry for today actually makes a lot of sense for comic books...the lenticular cover!

Superman Forever #1


What other gimmick captures the action and movement that are such a big part of the stories contained within them? In my opinion, none of the other ones can.

With the cover to Superman Forever #1, Alex Ross outdid himself with a multitude of painted images (six, maybe?) that show Clark Kent transforming into Superman and flying off.

I assure you that the actual cover is more impressive than my scanned copy, so check it out the next time you're wandering around the comic book store.

Oh, and if you have a spare $60,000 laying around, the original artwork for this cover can be yours!

Artwork by Alex Ross

Superman Forever #1
June 1998
Copyright (c) DC Comics

2 comments:

  1. I'll go ahead and admit... I wasn't a huge Superman fan of Superman comics until Kingdom Come or so, and I still remember just stopping cold in my tracks when I saw this cover the first time. I don't even really remember what's inside, but I bought the comic entirely for the novelty value of the cover. I still like Ross's vision of Superman, and I like the iconic take of Superman and the change from Clark Kent to a speeding blur. Maybe a little heavy handed to go lenticular, but its a neat effect.

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  2. Hey League-

    Thanks for stopping by and joining the conversation. This comic saw the comeback of the original Superman costume after the electric blue suit and the Superman Red/Superman Blue saga. It was a story that definitely warranted a gimmick, and turning to an artist like Alex Ross who does the iconic Superman so well was a no-brainer.

    I've kind of grown indifferent to Alex Ross' stuff over the last four or five years, but there's something about his Superman (and this cover in particular) that still gets to me. Awesome stuff.

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