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Friday, May 04, 2007

Aquaman Cover to Cover, Part 5: Aquaman #45 by Nick Cardy - 1969

sgAnother stunning Nick Cardy cover, this is a rare book from the time that doesn't feature a whole bunch of cover copy. Perhaps when editorial saw this powerful, moody piece that they realized they shouldn't muck it up with a whole bunch of text?

The colors are beautiful, the texture is perfect, and again, it makes you want to read the story. Is Aquaman really dead? Who is this mystery woman crying over him--it sure ain't Mera!

Back in 1998, when I got my Aquaman sketch by Mr. Cardy at the San Diego ComiCon, while he was drawing I asked him if he ever had any trouble from DC when he was submitting these wonderfully innovative covers. He said something to the effect of "Nah. There were so few of us willing to do comics back then they let us do what we wanted most of the time."

An era when there were more comics to be drawn then there were artists to do them? Now that was the Golden Age of comics!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Rob & FOAMers-

Those beauty late-Silver covers, by artists really in their
"maturity," and before comics got smaller & more cheesily printed, are gems...

The kind of freedom mentioned by Nick to you, is why a lot of great artists - Jim Aparo, Tom Sutton, Steve Ditko, Pat Boyette - worked at "B company" Charlton!

Great weekend,
-Craig

Dixon said...

This is the sort of comic book cover that you never forget--especially if you've become attached to the character! As you note, these covers are not only beautifully rendered and striking in their subject matter but they lend themselves to the issue's storytelling as well. I'd have to say, Rob, that this is the most beautiful cover we've seen so far. Cardy was a master.

Anonymous said...

Hey Rob, Hurry up with the Nick Cardy Mera covers!!!

I met Nick Cardy at Wizard World Philly two years ago, and was very impressed with him! I hope he is there this year, so I can get him to do a sketch! I'll have him do Mera instead of Aquaman, though.

-george

rob! said...

the final two covers this week will not be Nick Cardy ones, simply because i wanted to "spread the wealth" a little bit. if i didn't, the whole week coulda been NC covers!

Anonymous said...

Man, that is a beautiful cover, but what DOES happen on the inside? Ha, you've really got me curious!

Anonymous said...

Hmm ... All beauiful covers but no Aparo, as of yet ... I wonder if my favorite Aquaman (or should I say Adventure Comics) cover will make the grade ...

As for those great Nick Cardy covers, a few years ago I contacted Fred Hembeck to commission a reinterpretation of a Cardy Aqua-cover. Choosing one cover to get Hembeck-ized was murder! Finally, I went with Aquaman #55 - " The World in the Ring!" and Fred turned in a great job.

Of course, my absolute favorite Cardy cover (and my second favorite comic book cover of all time) is Teen Titans #28. Aqualad slugging Robin - does it get any better than that?


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