Sunday, November 29, 2009

2009 Martian Manhunter Archives Vol. 4 Create-Your-Own Back Cover by Tom Hartley



For a brief period, J'onn J'onzz was the cover featured star of House of Mystery. Six of those covers garnered stories in this volume, and we only need four for the back of the dust jacket. Why don't you take your picks?

The Martian Manhunter Archives Vol.4 back cover web page, as explained by its creator:

This uses some complicated javascript that may not work with all browsers... Attached is a screenshot of the back cover page that you can post to your blog... I'd like to know which covers everybody picked. Please post your choices to this comments thread.


For me, #143 is a lock, as it's the first Manhunter cover, and a swell Zook spotlight. Next, #145, my personal favorite of these issues. #146 just because it's a nice cover to an almost decent story, and close with #147, for the gonzo factor.

4 comments:

LissBirds said...

I've got HoM #144, 146, 143, and 147 in that order. The rationale being: 144 is very dynamic and eye-catching and nice and simple. 146 shows J'onn weakened (often a position he finds himself in) and asking Zook for help and is very well-drawn. The next two show Zook gone bad. I'd want those last so people wouldn't get the wrong impression about Zook. He's one of the good guys!

Tom, I can't wait for arvhives #5! I want to put #153 on the back, a really awesome cover, and it has J'onn saying our favorite catchphrase: "Fire! My one weakness!," plus it's a two-part "blockbuster" featuring Prof. Hugo. I actually ordered this issue and can't wait for it to come in so I can frame it.

Tom said...

I'd also have to pick the giant Zook cover, #143. I'll also go for the weird silliness of "The Orchestra of Doom" (147) and "The Beings in the Color Rings" (148). That's only 3, but none of the others do anything for me. You say #145 is your favorite, so I'll go with that.

Here's the FRONT cover, if anyone's interested:

http://home.nethere.net/tomhartley/mmarchives4.jpg

Tom said...

Vol. 5 will only have 3 Martian Manhunter covers, #151-153, so the back-cover will have a "back 3" and there won't be a create-your-own-back-cover page. Instead, I'll just make a back-cover mock-up, as I did with Vol. 1.

Do you have any other '50s or '60s Martian Manhunter back-issues beside HoM #153, or will this be your first? I don't have any, so I envy you. If you frame it, please post a pic of it hanging on your wall.

LissBirds said...

This will be my first, Tom. I was going to originally buy an old JLA issue, but decided I wanted J'onn on his own. When it comes in and it's all framed (and sitting on the wall next to my framed Silver Age Mystery in Space!)I'll definitely post pictures. Good thing about liking not-so-popular heroes is that the Silver Age back issues don't break the bank. I'm eying HoM #144 next. :)