Superheroes Who Lost Their Covers to Hot Dames!

also, in 1948, Green Lantern lost his cover to a dog!
http://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/212/400/212_4_38.jpg

_Comic Book Nation_ (a pretty good synopsis / analysis of the life & death of the comic book industry & its cultural impact / resonance, especially the pre-SOTI era) (link!) had a section on the predominant use of gals w/ gams on comic covers - I think it had to do w/ the success of crime comics & all the debauchery contained therein, & other non-crime books trying to hop on the wagon w/ the Rita Hayworth lookalikes snagging cover real estate from Blue Beetle & his ilk.

I was amazed that book suddenly got to about the seventies and accelerated into the year 2001 in a single bound. Moore gets about a paragraph. It reads like a bad case of 'not my period, chief' - he should've cut it off at the end of the sixties because the last bit really disappoints after the in-depthness before.

Yeah, Vic, you're right on - I think the link I offered says there's a new version of the book w/ a new addendum, but I don't know if it'll do much to add anything to the sketchy post-60s comic world. After reading the first few chapters, I was REALLY hoping for the same sort of depth and discussion of the world of comics after Marvel came to life. Nothing much on the underground comix, either - it's almost like the author wanted the content of the book to reflect the impact he belived comix had on society during the era he discusses, and since the impact of comix (in the US) waned after the 60s, he skips over 30+ years of history. Weak.

Well, he talks big about comics' impact on society, but the book seems to actually be the other way round, all about the impact of society on comics. A better idea of comics in larger society can be found in any in-depth Batman book, him being the mad changeling of comics history. Either Will Brooker's excellent book or that one with the close-up batman's face on the front and all full of pictures of bat-pinatas... the Complete History or something...

For a chameleonic cultural icon, Bats had been very stagnant for about 20 years, now I come to think about it. No wonder poor old Hopkins has nothing to say.