So among the announcement of the 2006 USPS issues (Judy Garland, Mickey Mantle, Harley-Davidson, Where the Wild Things Are, etc.) was a sheet of 20 DC comics-related stamps–10 character designs and 10 comic book covers related to those characters:[ul]
[li]Batman (Batman 1 - 1940)[/li][li]Superman (Superman 11 - 1941)[/li][li]Plastic Man (Plastic Man 4 -1943)[/li][li]Hawkman (Brave and the Bold/Hawkman 36 - 1955)[/li][li]The Flash (Flash 111 - 1959)[/li][li]Green Lantern (Green Lantern 4 - 1963)[/li][li]Supergirl (Daring New Adventures of Supergirl 1 - 1982)[/li][li]Wonder Woman (Wonder Woman 22 - 1987)[/li][li]Aquaman (Aquaman 5 - 1989)[/li][li]Green Arrow (Green Arrow 15 - 2001)[/li][/ul]
So comic fans–reactions? Any egregious oversights? I’m not familiar with these covers (more of a Marvel man myself)–anyone have any links they can provide?
And speaking of Marvel, they’ll be getting their own release in 2007. So who are the 10 that should make the list, and what covers would you choose?
I’m disappointed that it’s all superheroes. I know how people think of comics today, and it’s where DC has its greatest success, but no Watchmen? No Sandman?
I do like that they’ve pulled from different eras, and most of the covers are pretty nice (I really like that Green Arrow one). But I’m disappointed that there’s not at least one New Gods cover. I’m sure ther’ll be plenty of Kirby in the Marvel set, but still.
Well, given that they’ll be one stamp with the comic cover and one with an individual character design, they might alternate between “classic” and “modern” looks for all the heroes.
Man, that is one hideous representation of Aquaman. And the Batman and Plastic Man covers place too much emphasis on the sidekicks. (The Hawkman cover, OTOH, works nicely with Hawkgirl in the background and a villain in the foreground–the latter, having no features, doesn’t detract from Hawkman’s being the focus of attention in the panel.) The only reason I can think of for Supergirl to be included at all is because they felt they had to include at least one other female besides WW. Will the Flash stamp include the word balloon? That would be very annoying, since it wouldn’t be legible there.
The Green Arrow cover is a very cool choice that will still look great reduced to the size of a stamp.
You mean Action Comics #1? A classic image, but Superman himself is rather small in the frame. This one is a nice, clean image, although it makes Supes look short.
And it’s pretty much THE iconic Superman image, aside from ripping open his shirt to reveal the S-Shield. How many times since has he broken chains on a cover/merchandise/promo image/etc? Action #1 (And Superman #1) is imitated fairly frequently by other books, but breaking the chains has been revisited by Superman family titles far more often and is, thus, more appropriate, to my mind.
Probably because although Aquaman was created in the 40s, he was a backupcharacter in anthology titles and rarely rated the cover. He didn’t get a solo title until the late 60s and has been cancelled and relaunched numerous times since. Same with Green Arrow, who had to wait until the 80s to healdine his own book (not counting Green Lantern/Green Arrow).
An eclectic collection of covers from the earliest days of DC to relatively recent (Cliffy’s links are in chronolgical order), but all the heroes featured are either Golden Age or early Silver Age. The Plastic Man cover isn’t even a DC cover, as Plas was published by Quality Comics and wasn’t acquired by DC until year later.
The selection of characters (outisde of Green Arrow) seems to go for those with the highest Q-rating with the general public. The only missing character known by the general public (outside of Robin, wh’s featured on the Batman cover) is Captain Marvel, and there might be legal reasons why he’s not included.
Superman has also already appeared on a U.S. stamp issued as part of the “Celebrate the Century” series (1930’s set of 15) in 1998. Here is a view of the entire sheet.
