Admiral Snackbar’s Curious Covers

Many thanks to Admiral Snackbar (AKA the honorable LAND-HO! Calrissian / r2-Detour) for sharing this one with us.

Here are a handful of covers I’ve been wanting to mention for a while. Some are really cool and a couple are just strange. Hope you enjoy.

1) Official Marvel Index to Amazing Spider-Man # 1 (back cover pictured)
I found this in a $1 bin and was pleasantly surprised when I saw the back cover. You may recall this was the original cover drawn by Steve Ditko for Amazing Fantasy #15 but they ended up wanting Jack Kirby to do it. So his became the famous cover we all know and love.

I didn’t know about this cover art until the very rare and very expensive 1:200 variant for Amazing Spider-Man #700 came out. I really loved the art and the history but not for that price. so if anyone on CHU wants Ditko’s version in their personal collection, the back cover of Official Marvel Index to Amazing Spider-Man # 1 , the original-original  ASM #1, is a super cheap way.

2. Silver Surfer #19

I saw this image while watching Marvel youtube videos and was very confused. I hadn’t seen this art anywhere.  The first series ended with Silver Surfer #18 so I really not sure what this was.  Was if just fan art or something?  Nope. So doing a little digging and talking with Anthony, and it turns out that Silver Surfer #18 had solicited issue #19, which was supposed to take a more savage turn. The series was canceled and the book never came out. Still, a cool piece of history. Marvel has published unpublished issues, maybe we will see the next issue after all.

3) Ka-zar the Savage #25

This was a $1 bin find at SVCC in August.  grabbed it because I collect early Spidey crossovers, but there was also something strange about the cover. I realized there was no bar code box in the lower left corner.  I think it looks cool.  It turns out that all issues of this series after #9 are like this.  Have you seen any other series from the early ’80s that also left off the bar code box?  I dont know why they did it and I’d never seen an example of it til I found this cover.  A little bit odd and kinda cool.

4) Captain Victory #1

I’d also never heard of this one when I saw it but it’s instantly recognizable as Jack Kirby art.  Captain Victory though?  Not exactly Kirby’s finest work.  I’m sure Pacific Comics was ecstatic to be doing a book with the king but I thinks and no offense to a legend, but  he was phoning it in at this point.  There was some imagery we have seen before, especially in his DC work. Perhaps this cover was the inspiration for the explosion of 90’s characters who were always portrayed bristling with ridiculously huge and silly-looking weapons.

5) Wonder Woman #2

This cover is just awesome. No real explanation other than you can’t go wrong with zombies at high altitude. I love the art because it has that pre-code horror vibe, but then it’s also a Wonder Woman cover. bizarre.