Paying homage to past artists or famous pictures is a custom that is most likely nearly as old as fine art itself. The homage cover, subsequently, is the method comic book artists routinely pay tribute or often even parody previous prominent artists and/or famous covers from well established titles.
Since cover art is such an important part of the comic book collecting as well as reading experience (as I explain here), paying homage with cover imagery has ended up being a extensive as well as prominent trope in comics.
With so lots of homage covers existing, it would be futile to try to listing them all in a blogpost, instead, in what follows, I have a easier goal in mind. In this post, I want to try to narrow down the crop of homage covers focusing on a few of the most collected as well as desirable homage cover art.
Desirability, in turn, will be judged by existing graded copies as well as fair market value of recent sales.
To start, we can narrow down the requirements that can be fixed to establish cover art as having ‘homage’ status. Obviously, the method of providing homage in art can draw from different mediums. Comics have borrowed from advertising, oil painting, popular sculptures, etc. In this publish I will focus only on homage covers that are tributes to older comic book covers. For example, is there a a lot more famous superhero/monster cover than Marvel’s extraordinary Hulk #1?
When we see it for the very first time, the picture of Bruce Banner standing with the looming shadow of the brute Hulk behind him jumps out at us. For a cover to be a appropriate homage it need to be immediately recognizable as catching the important features of the original. In the situation of The extraordinary Hulk #324 (October 1986), we can see a best homage to the extremely very first Hulk comic as the return of the original Grey Hulk is announced.
Incredible Hulk #324 is as a result a desirable homage cover, as its 205 overall CGC submissions as well as fair market value of $100.00 in licensed 9.8 condition attest. That said, nobody is trading their graded copy of Hulk #181 for it. So what are the most prominent homage covers? In buy of desirability, right here is my listing of the top five homage covers placed from least to a lot of extremely sought:
#5) Deadpool #11(November 1997) – Pete woods outstanding fantasy #15 homage
One of the most famous marvel Silver Age covers is the extremely very first appearance of Spider-man in outstanding fantasy #15. Steve Ditko’s heroic introduction of Peter Parker to the world is immediately recognizable. That’s why the number 5 a lot of desirable homage cover on my listing is Deadpool #11. “With fantastic Power Comes fantastic Coincidence”, as well as it’s no coincidence that this is one of the a lot more collectible Deadpool covers. With 122 copies on the CGC census as well as a present FMV of $130.00, Wade Wilson was provided the superhero treatment as well as fan’s approved.
#4) What If? v1 #10 (August 1978) – journey into secret #83 homage
The introduction of the Mighty Thor in JiM #83 may not be the very best Thor cover Jack Kirby ever drew, however it’s one of the most famous as well as memorable. The method Kirby makes Mjolnir jump into action spinning wildly, provides the comic an immediately kinetic high quality that imprints itself on the viewer’s mind. When Jane Foster very first chosen up the enchanted mallet in What if problem #10, it was natural that John Buscema paid homage to an artist he already owed such a fantastic debt. What if…? #10 is my number 4 option for a lot of desirable homage cover. With a overall of 277 copies on the CGC census as well as a fair market value of $240.00 in graded 9.8 condition, conjecture on Jane appearing as Thor has driven up costs on this otherwise satisfying comic.
#3) outstanding Spider-Man #306 (September 1988) – Todd McFarlane pays tribute to Joe Shuster
When it pertains to superhero comics, no cover is a lot more famous than Joe Shuster’s art for action Comics #1. Todd MacFarlane, who is no complete stranger to homage covers, probably accomplished his finest homage yet with the cover of Spider-man #306, his tribute to the comic that started it all. With a fair Market value of $130.00 as well as 797 copies on the CGC census, this is my number 3 pick for a lot of desirable homage cover.
#2) Superman #233 (January 1971) – Neal Adams’ Superman #11 homage
When it pertains to the guy of Steel, the cover of Superman #11 conveys his power in a single image. however while the golden Age Superman was a lot more powerful than a locomotive, we understand that as the years went by he started growing in strength, to the point where he was virtually invincible. nothing conveys the immense stamina of the contemporary age Superman much better than Neal Adam’s homage to Superman #11 – showing the guy of Tomorrow shattering Kryptonite chains. The beginnull