CBR Live! Archive
The Top 75 Most Iconic Covers in DC History - Day 7
Okay, in case you didn't see the introduction, the concept is that each day up to and including the 23rd of November, I'll be posting four iconic covers from DC Comics' 75-year history. On the 23rd, you folks will get a chance to pick your Top 10 out of the 90 choices. I'll tabulate the votes and I'll debut the Top 75 Most Iconic Covers in DC Comics History on November 30th. In the meantime, feel free to e-mail me (bcronin@comicbookresources.com) with suggestions for covers for me to use!
Here's the next four covers! And click here for the master list of all the covers posted so far!
- Posted on November 7, 2009 @ 04:06 PM






24 Comments
Wesley Brown
November 7, 2009 at 4:21 pm
These are all iconic. I've seen that Flash poster in almost every comic store I've ever been in.
Keep up the great covers.
Adam
November 7, 2009 at 4:24 pm
Don't know (I'm just not a Sandman guy.), yes, kinda-but-I-think-the-Starro-one-takes-it, and yes.
Dan K
November 7, 2009 at 5:18 pm
2 and 4 definately. 1 and 3 not so much.
Kurt Onstad
November 7, 2009 at 5:37 pm
Even as a big Sandman fan, I have to say: the issue, iconic. The cover, not so much...
Dave
November 7, 2009 at 5:43 pm
I actually have 2. I'm going with #4, though
Tom Fitzpatrick
November 7, 2009 at 6:17 pm
I'd go with covers 1 and 4.
Absolutely gorgeous cover of Death on the Sandman by Dave McKean.
You can't almost beat a "Bolland" cover of the Joker.
Eric
November 7, 2009 at 7:45 pm
I don't think that Sandman cover is even the most iconic cover of DC's Death.
Greg Geren
November 7, 2009 at 7:56 pm
Gotta pick the Flash or Justice League. The Killing Joke cover is a great cover, but not what I see as iconic. Don't get Sandman. Never have seen the appeal. That cover does nothing to change my opinion.
Namor
November 7, 2009 at 8:11 pm
Number 4, definitely.
Omar Karindu, with the power of SUPER-hypocrisy!
November 7, 2009 at 8:22 pm
Sandman to me doesn't really have iconic covers, just an iconic sense of cover design with no particular ones standing out. (It drives me nuts buying back issues, in fact, because all the covers share the same look and the numbering is often nearly-illegible due to the color combinations.)
Mike Blake
November 7, 2009 at 9:34 pm
That's not the Starro cover (that story was in The Brave and the Bold#28), but the Appellax meteors story, the JLA origin that didn't appear until issue 9 of their own title.
There's something to be said for most of these, but I've got to go with The Killing Joke
chad
November 7, 2009 at 11:09 pm
hard choice even though ever time i see the killing joke it reminds me how evil the joker truely is . so had to go with sandman for the cover is so dark like ink was spilled. or maybe the artist used a real photo for it.
NInjazilla
November 8, 2009 at 1:28 am
4 is a top ten cover
sgt rawk
November 8, 2009 at 7:54 am
Killing Joke, yes.
stealthwise
November 8, 2009 at 9:42 am
Killing Joke, yes, I can't help but think that the others will get left in the dust.
Mason King
November 8, 2009 at 11:32 am
Hands down, Flash #174. When all is said and done, I bet we'll see more Infantino covers than any other artist. (Well, we haven't seen the barrage of Adams covers yet, but still.) His stuff just leapt off the page, and his use of the title logo in the cover concept broke ground in a big way (okay, in mainstream newsstand work, at least; Eisner was all over it in the 40s). His covers scream "iconic." I'm sure well see that Batman/Blockbuster cover soon. All of these are great, though. Bolland may be the best cover artist of the last 25 years.
dhole
November 8, 2009 at 12:46 pm
I agree with Omar in that Sandman (and maybe Dave Mckean in general) has some beautiful covers, but not really iconic. They all have a vague, indefinable quality that makes them nearly impossible to describe, as opposed to a stark image like Superman hefting a car (we haven't seen that yet, have we?).
Having said that, I guess the Death cover is probably the best Sandman candidate in that you can actually identify who is on the cover, but I still doubt this will rank very high.
2 and 4, on the other hand, are perfect.
Rob Schmidt
November 8, 2009 at 12:58 pm
I agree with Dan K. and the others: 2 and 4 definitely. 1 and 3 not so much.
Rob Schmidt
November 8, 2009 at 1:00 pm
P.S. ACTION #1 appeared in Day 1 of this project, dhole.
Brian Cronin
November 8, 2009 at 1:01 pm
No Action #1 yet!
DanLarkin
November 8, 2009 at 3:39 pm
I love 2 and 3, reluctantly concede the iconic status of 4, and not so sure about 1. McKean's Sandman covers have never done much for me. Great series, but I the covers don't resonnate with me. I suppose it would be odd for Sandman not to be represented on this list, and that cover's okay enough, I guess. I hope we get to see one of Bolland's Invisibles covers make the cut. Volume 2, #1, maybe?
Jacob T. Levy
November 8, 2009 at 6:58 pm
As others have said: great series, great McKean covers, but "iconic" doesn't really capture it.
JLA #9 is famous and memorable, but again, not at the Starro level, and really memorable just because it's a milestone story.
The other two are top 50 for sure, and maybe top 20.
Matt D
November 9, 2009 at 6:22 am
I'm not sure about that Sandman cover. 95% of the people who have read that comic read it in trades and never even saw that cover except for maybe as a blur between turning pages.
JoeMac
November 9, 2009 at 7:04 am
Are TPBs, like the Killing Joke, fair game? Do they have to be original stories, or can they be collections? Could the cover of The Death of Superman TPB be a contender, for example?