Comics UK

Here's one to mull over.

In another thread, it was mentioned that 2000AD's first issue cover wasn't very amazing. I won't argue since the free space spinner took up the whole page which didn't leave much else. But then again in the past, comics did quite often do that. For example: The New Hotspur, The Victor, Action, Speed, Buddy, Champ to name a few.

I personally loved those style of covers with their prominent "No.1"s as this signified that a new (and hopefully exciting) comic had just hit the newsstands.

However, ignoring whether the comic was any good or not, is there a No.1 cover(s) that particularly stands out or that you liked?

A few come to mind:

The Crunch with the prominent "No.1" above a fist powering out of the page at you.
Krazy Comic but then I always found their covers more exciting/fun than its sister humour comics.
Eagle (1982) with the Mekon bursting out of the page at you.
Eagle (1950), a complete contrast to the others with its muted No.1 under the logo and with the simple "Eagle - The New National Strip Cartoon Weekly" at the top. But the Dan Dare strip featuring the lift off of the Kingfisher was excitement enough. It certainly worked for my dad.
Starblazer with no fanfare that it is the first issue but its cover got me hooked nevertheless.

Hmmm. I am surprised that there has been no response to this thread. I would have thought that a few people had come across a first issue of a comic which cover caught your eye in some way.

Ah well.

This is one of my favourites, Sid. It dates from 1953, and I was particularly attracted by the yellow and red masthead. It reminded me of some of the mastheads on Adventure, which of all Thomsons' story papers was/is my favourite. Also of course I have always been a devotee of football fiction. I have seven of the first twelve issues but I don't know how many there were altogether. According to Denis Gifford's The British Comic Catalogue 1874-1974 he didn't know either!

I also liked the Crunch #1 cover and I like the simplicity of Commando #1 and the vibrancy of Thundercats #1 but my personal favourites would be most of the 70s UK marvel comics, especially the Silver Surfer on #1 of Superheroes.

Wizard #1 from the 70s was awful!

School fun number 1 and Wow! number 1 had great free gifts..
loved the funny face and wiggly worm and nice first covers..
David Mostyn for Wow
Robert Nixon for School Fun
http://www.petergraycartoonsandcomics.b ... trips.html

For me, if we are going to look at good examples of issue 1 covers then I can think of three that have yet to be mentioned.
D C Thomson were masters of the splash cover and it shows in how exciting they could make the first issues appear. In contrast, they always made the IPC covers look less appealing, but Fleetway got it right with the cover for Starlord.

I was going to mention The Crunch but Sid beat me to the punch there.

TV Century 21 No.1 (1965). The newspaper style cover made it look like no other comic, and what kid could resist a headline that declared STINGRAY LOST!

Smash! No.1 (1966). A busy full page illustration by Leo Baxendale. Again, like no other comic on the stands at that time.

Warlord No.1 (1974). Limited to two fiery colours (red and yellow) and a single figure charging at the reader, gun blazing, it looked much more dynamic than other comics of the time.

Cor!! No.1 (1970). Excellent logo, and the cover strip in the shape of a glass of pop to promote the free gift. Art by Mike Lacey.

For me it'd still be hard to beat the impact Wham! #1 had all those years ago!

philcom55 wrote:For me it'd still be hard to beat the impact Wham! #1 had all those years ago!

I came to Wham! fairly late, in December 1965, so I missed the first issue. Agree on its impact though. Again, like no other comic of the time.

Several years before I was born but I imagine the cover of Eagle No.1 in 1950 with its bold red corner box and full colour Dan Dare strip must have looked so impressive on the shelves. As would Mickey Mouse Weekly's striking full colour cover back in 1936 amidst the mostly black and white and two tone covers.

Thanks, guys, for responding.

I remember seeing the first issue of Warlord with its striking logo on the shelves but I passed on it as I was still really into humour comics at the time. It was when 2000AD came out that I got into older comics.

For me, Battle Picture Weekly's first cover would have stood out better but I found it looked too similar to Warlord. Though to be fair to both comics, I was only judging by their covers since I never actually read them then. I since know better.

SID wrote:Thanks, guys, for responding.

I remember seeing the first issue of Warlord with its striking logo on the shelves but I passed on it as I was still really into humour comics at the time. It was when 2000AD came out that I got into older comics.

For me, Battle Picture Weekly's first cover would have stood out better but I found it looked too similar to Warlord. Though to be fair to both comics, I was only judging by their covers since I never actually read them then. I since know better.

For me, the Battle cover suffered from being almost all free gift art and a little bit of cover, so it always looked too busy and lot a fair bit of impact due to that. However, opening the pages and reading the comic was another story!

colcool007 wrote:For me, the Battle cover suffered from being almost all free gift art and a little bit of cover, so it always looked too busy and lot a fair bit of impact due to that. However, opening the pages and reading the comic was another story!

I agree. I found the a number of new comics' first covers consisted of just the comic logo, a "No.1" and displaying the free gift. And though not exactly striking, I did like them. Here are a couple of examples.

Hotspur #1 from 1933 was pretty dynamic and exciting.

As was Masterman #1 And I've always liked Meteor #1, which was also the only issue. Misty #1 does the job nicely but, perhaps,it's my memory of that spectacular page 3 that sways this one.
Unfortunately, I can only add 3 attachments.

You're right Sid, number ones can be dodgy! Some of the ones that I really enjoyed are;

Starlord No. 1
Warrior No.1
Crisis No.1
Deadline No.1
The New Eagle No.1
Scream No.1
Captain Britain No.1 (1980's)
Hoot No.1
Oink No.1