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I totally would have put the Romita Jr cover higher.

I was expecting the Art Adams FANTASTIC FOUR 2-parter where Ghost Rider, Spider-Man, the Hulk, and Wolverine take over to make the list somewhere, even as an honorable mention...

[...] ChrisFralic wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptHere the top five covers with Ghost Rider as a guest star! Enjoy! HONORABLE MENTIONS. So many good covers, so some good ones had to miss the top five… Rich Buckler’s Marvel Team-Up #91. It’sa great idea for a cover, but the execution is … [...]

Any cover with the flaming cycle gets an automatic passing grade.Any cover with the glass shield/skull eyes front cowl gets an automatic fail.Any cover with the Thing riding a sky-cycle like a real hog gets an A.

I think I would have included the Avengers #214 cover by Bob Hall with Ghost Rider attacking Iron Man. It was my first exposure to the character and it's an awesome visual.

http://www.comics.org/coverview.lasso?id=35875&zoom=4

#2 looks like John Romita Sr. inks...

The Defenders cover at #1 is pretty cool, I would've rated both the 'Death Race' and definitely the JRJR cover over all the others though.

I agree with Dave Lewis, one of the covers from the FANTASTIC FOUR drawn by Art Adams should have been in the list.

I don't remember if the cover was cool or not but maybe the JRJR drawn Wolverine/Punisher/Ghost Rider from the 90's?

The first cover by Rich Buckler is actually pretty lame.

#2 looks like John Romita Sr. inks…

Yeah, I'd imagine that would be Romita on inks, to give Spidey the standard look.

As for the new FF, I figure if Ghost Rider is not the focal point of the cover, how high can it really rank?

The Art Adams FF covers ARE quite nice, though - just not for this list.

I love that Slapstick cover. I still have all of the issues of that mini.

I agree 100% with Gil regarding that Avengers cover. It was my first exposure to Ghost Rider as well and established him as a top level threat/tough guy. My view on Ghost Rider has always been colored by that issue.

I really enjoyed that issue of Avengers, but I never liked that cover, and it was one of the first covers I thought of when I thought of this list (That and the Golden Defenders cover), and my thought about it was, "I don't think that will make my top five."

That said, it probably does deserve at least an honorable mention, so I'll add it!

I'd have put MTU #15 at the top. One of the greatest covers ever.

I like that on the MTU 15 cover Spidey managed to work a second "Too Late!" into his rather wordy rejection of Ghost Rider's help.

Loving the MTIO and Human Fly love - two faves from my kidhood.

That Human Fly cover is the perfect example of how a cover should work.
When the Human Fly book was out I was a big Ghost Rider fan but had no interest in the Human Fly.
BUT - I bought and still have that Human Fly issue, because GR was on it.

And that ladies and gents is what a good cover should do. Make you want to buy a book even if you have no interest in the title character.

On that MTU #15 cover, most of the inking actually appears to be by Frank Giacoia - take a look at the linework and detail in Ghost Rider's jacket, the ties on the train tracks, etc. But Romita almost certainly contributed some inks, especially to the Spidey figure. Romita was, I believe, art director at Marvel at the time and often made touch-ups/corrections to other people's work, especially on covers. (Take a look, for example, at Mar-vell's head on the otherwise Starlin-drawn, Milgrom-inked cover to Captain Marvel #29.) The Grand Comic Book Database also attributes MTU #15 cover inks to both Giacoia and Romita.

What's your problem with Ghost Rider's skull on MTIO #8, Brian? It's not as if any of these are entirely anatomically correct renderings of the human skull.

I agree with your #1 selection of that stunning Defenders cover, but my #2 would have been the Avengers one.
The Avengers issue came as I recall a couple of years after the Ghost Rider book was cancelled, in it the Rider was a truly demonic, frightening figure, viciously hateful towards his former teammate the Angel and powerful enough to threaten Iron Man and (briefly) Thor. The cover captured the story so well and has always been one of my favorites. That was a great Avengers run.

The Slapstick issue also has, inside it, one of my favorite Ghost Rider moments ever. When Slapstick first meets Ghost Rider, he immediately shouts, "Oh my God, that man's head is on fire!" and dumps a bucket of water on him.

Really, when you think about it, it's a pretty natural response.

The Avengers issue came as I recall a couple of years after the Ghost Rider book was cancelled, in it the Rider was a truly demonic, frightening figure, viciously hateful towards his former teammate the Angel and powerful enough to threaten Iron Man and (briefly) Thor. The cover captured the story so well and has always been one of my favorites. That was a great Avengers run.

While I enjoyed the issue, I looked at it different than you. When I read it, I thought, "Oh, here's Shooter finishing up his leftover Ghost Rider plots in a totally random other book," which was par for the course for Marvel back then (Greg Hatcher had a great column on this practice, awhile back - and the practice got a lot of attention recently when Steve Gerber passed away, and everyone recalled when his Omega story was wrapped up in the Defenders).

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I've always found it a shame that so many great covers from around the time of Avengers 214 were marred by that giant honking ad bar along the top.