PLANET COMICS #46 comic cover

Fiction House's main tactic for comics was to throw a babe up on the cover, which had the side effect of the company running a large amount of female heroes, including Sheena of the Jungle, Senorita Rio and Mysta of the Moon. Like DC's Wonder Woman many of these went the light bandage route but every now and then things would be majestically subverted, as in this issue of Planet Comics showing the Lord of Jupiter getting lifted to safety by an amazon who seems several inches taller than the hero.

DAZZLER #35 comic cover art

Back in the day when comics sold to people under the age of 40 sales of even lower-performing titles were big numbers. As a result cancellation was something of a last resort instead of an annual exercise. Dazzler had been launched to tie in with disco but naturally by the time Alison's adventures were out the genre had become a lightning rod for hatred. Despite a change in direction the mutant songstress struggled to shift comics, so Danny Fingeroth had her switch to acting hopeful. To help promote the new format a series of nine covers were created by Bill Sienkiewicz, who was a serious heavyweight at the company. They didn't really help Dazzler but they looked superb.

HEART THROBS #121 Comic Cover

 

The title of "Most Turdish Guy on a Romance Comic Cover" is hotly contested due to the gigantic number of contenders but this chap has to be in the discussion for sure.

CRIME SUSPENSTORIES #22 comic cover

 

While no comics fan should ever seek to justify Frederic Wertham's attempts to cover his shame over the Phantom Lady giving him an erection there's no doubt that EC Comics seriously pushed the envelope with some of its' covers. Indeed perhaps the only surprise over this Johnny Craig cover is that it crops off before the actual point where the dead-eyed blonde's neck has been severed.

ANGEL AND THE APE #1 comic cover

 

As sixties humour comics went Angel and the Ape stands up pretty well thanks to really leaning into way-out sixties chic. The title, pairing PI Angel O'Day with ape partner Sam Simeon, probably reached its' limit in the original seven issues. The title also covered Sam's day job working as a comic artist, initially for one Stan Bragg - an obvious but not necessarily unwarranted drive-by on Stan Lee.

SPIDER-WOMAN #1 cover

Possibly to combat the usual fanboy claims that Marvel were getting too woke (as no other explanation makes sense) in 2014 they enlisted Milo Manara to produce a variant cover for the relaunched Spider-Woman series. Yes, Milo Manara the artist of, among others, The Art of Spanking. Unsurprisingly Twitter exploded, even after Marvel slapped the title over Jess' ridiculously defined cleft.

The Cross and the Switchblade comic cover

Spire Christian Comics was publisher Fleming H Revell's attempt to take evangelism to the four color crowd. Their output ran from relatively sane stuff like adaptations of bible stories to Revell's attempts to directly address American ills of the time such as Communism and flick knives in the most histrionic way he could. Like many Spire titles, art was provided by Al Hartley, an Archie veteran who went born again in 1967/

My Greatest Adventure #52 cover

Good grief indeed. Dick Dillin really nails the sort of expression likely if your head turned into a sun and melted everything around you.

New Universe advert

Launched in 1986 with this stunning promotional image drawn by Bill Sienkiewicz, the New Universe was Marvel's first attempt to launch an all-new imprint. Sadly the talent on the titles themselves was largely less stellar, typified by so much of it being written by the amiable but limited Mark Gruenwald. Four of the eight launch titles were cancelled within a year of their debut, and the line as a whole was wound down in 1989 to widespread apathy.

Girls' Love Stories #148 cover

Romance comics of the sixties and seventies are masterpieces, combining melodrama, outdated slang, way out fashion, exploitable speech bubbles and beautiful crying gals. This one by Nick Cardy is a brilliant example, featuring as it does a groovy girl improbably named Nan.

Zenith Phase 3 comic page

Published in 2000AD during 1989 to 1990, Phase III of Grant Morrison's revisionist superhero epic Zenith remains a genuine classic, featuring a pantheon of semi-forgotten British superheroes. Dynamic, moody black-and-white art from Steve Yeowell helped, such as this page featuring Miracleman (not that one; well, not quite) and Tri-Man battling the possessed Jack Flash. Oh indeed.

Venus comic advert

Beginning publication in 1948, Timely's Venus came into a struggling market. While Bill Everett drew the promo he wasn't avaliable for the title. It started off as a kind of superpowered romance title before morphing into a science fiction-slash-horror series. It lasted 19 issues, with the last three coming after the company had reorganised as Atlas. Some fifty years later modern successor Marvel would revive Venus as one of the Agents of Atlas.