My Top Ten Savage Sword of Conan covers.

Not that I'm a violent man but there are times in this life when all I want to do is pick up my broadsword and hack a monster to death.

The only problem is I can't because I've already killed them all.

Happily, I can at least seek solace in the adventures of Conan, a man who's clearly determined to follow in my footsteps.

And that leads me to fling together another of those Top Tens that always push up the site's visitor numbers. This time, I'm looking at the covers of Marvel/Curtis's Savage Sword of Conan. How impressed by their covers I remember being when I was a mere lad.

As so often with these things, I've not given them any sort of ranking, as doing such a thing tends to hurt my brain, and so they're posted here in a purely random order.

What does strike me is how many of them are from the title's early days. There are some covers I like from later on in the mag's run but I don't like them enough to put them in the Top Ten. Plus, a fair number of them are badly marred by what, to me, seems to be a highly unsympathetic typography that destroys their chances of feeling suitably Howardian no matter how hard the artist tries.

It's issue #1 and I've only just discovered that this cover's by Boris Vallejo. It doesn't look as photographic to me as his usual efforts. It also feels a lot livelier and more comic-booky than I'm used to from him.

Neal Adams shows what he can do when let loose on our favourite swordsman.

And what he can do is give us a bold image with an elegant background.

Mike Kaluta gives us a dynamic scene where the strongly-lit characters contrast starkly with their black background.

That might not sound like a big deal but an awful lot of the covers that I rejected failed to make it because their total lack of colour variation between background and foreground made them fail to grab the attention.

This was the first issue of the mag I ever had and probably my first ever exposure to the work of Boris Vallejo. It had a huge impact on me.

Nowadays, I do feel that, accomplished as he was, his practise of painting from photos means his work does lack the energy and character of Frank Frazetta who he was clearly influenced by. Still, it's all lovely stuff to look at and he was clearly the king of the Savage Sword of Conan cover artists.

It's Vallejo again. I know I said I wasn't going to put the covers into any sort of order but I must confess this is easily my favourite. It has Conan being crucified. It has a giant skull. It has a vulture. How could I not love it?

Alex Nino and Frank Magsino give us a subterranean battle to the death.

Boris Vallejo again.

I'd say this is the least impressive of the Vallejo covers, with it all looking too much like models posing but it would definitely have made me want to buy it when I was a kid, so it makes the list.

Vallejo again.

My main memory of this issue is me throwing up halfway through reading it.

Fortunately, it was because I had a bug, not because I didn't approve of its cover.

Bob Larkin. I don't like the painting style on this cover as much as on the others I've chosen - because it all looks far too clean and modern for my liking - but what matters is the sheer strikingness of its imagery, with our hero about to be swallowed by a well-known movie star.

My Top Twelve Marvel UK Planet of the Apes covers - plus Special Bonus Feature!

Some mad fool once declared he hated every ape from Chimpan-A to Chimpan-Zee.

I refuse to listen to him.

We all know there's no finer sight in all the world than that of an ape talking and waving a rifle around whilst trying to kill you.

And so it is that I choose to inflict my twelve favourite covers from Marvel UK's 1970s Planet of the Apes comic upon humanity.

As so often with these things, being both wishy-washy and lazy, I print them in no order of preference...

It's the issue that kicked it all off in style - marred only by some less-than-stylish captioning.

.

I hated this cover at the time, thinking it a massive comedown after the painted cover of issue #1.

I've since come to appreciate the beauty of its layout. Just as I came to appreciate the addition of Ka-Zar as back-up strip.

Was this this issue in which Gullivar Jones put in his first appearance?

Planet of the Apes?

Ka-Zar?

Gullivar Jones?

With all this, surely Marvel UK was spoiling us.

Is this the one where an ape and a human hate each other but then, thanks to injuries, learn to work together for their mutual good and become friends - only for them to be killed by a group of warring ape and human mutants?

Oh, the bitter irony.

I believe this was the cover to the story based on a certain Mark Twain tale involving King Arthur and a modern day time-traveller.

Despite appearances, I do know the title of that Mark Twain tale but, given its length, I can't be bothered to type it all out.

I think we can all guess which movie this was an adaptation of.

It's bad news for Cornelius, as Marvel tackle Escape From the Planet of the Apes.

And now it's bad news for Zira.

To be honest, you'd need a heart of stone to not to blub your eyes out at the end of that movie.

Now we get to Conquest of the Planet of the Apes.

To be honest, Conquest is my least favourite of the original POTA movies. I did find it very sterile and a little dull, with ham-fisted racial analogies that themselves might be seen as somewhat racist.

It would appear we've got yet more Conquest, though I'm not sure how the cover fits into that.

I'm no David Attenborough but that river slug look suspiciously like a  giant toad.

Is that Jason and Alexander I spot on the cover, or is my memory playing tricks on me?

I remember once copying this cover in my sketch book - but redrawing the leading ape figure as one of the subterraneans from the legendary Doug McClure flick At The Earth's Core.

You see? I'd rather draw subterraneans than Caroline Munro, that's how Sc-Fi I am.

Potential further reading and viewing:

SPECIAL STEVE DOES COMICS BONUS FEATURE:

I can also announce I've had a request.

And it's not the usual one.

In recent days, John Pitt's contacted me to request I post the covers from Titan Books' 2002 reprints of the Dark Horse adaptation of Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes. I must admit to having been previously unaware of the existence of such a comic, and the covers seem to be hard to find online. So, just for John, here they are (courtesy of Graham Hill and Neil Foster @ The Forbidden Zone).

The Top Ten Jim Aparo Spectre Adventure Comics covers.

Hooray! This is going to be the easiest Top Ten I've ever put together - mostly because Jim Aparo only actually did ten Spectre Adventure Comics covers.

It's also going to be easy because I'm not going to bother putting the covers in any kind of order, other than that in which they were first published.

This is because many long-term readers of this blog'll already know what my favourite is. A strong hint would be that it's got plenty of purple in it, proving the Incredible Hulk was right all along and that, in the world of comics, purple and green really do go together.

This was my first exposure to the Spectre. I can even tell you where I got it; a newsagents near Blackpool Pleasure Beach. It was run by a woman with light hair. I don't know what she was called. But how I thrilled as the cowled crusader melted one villain and reduced another to a skeleton.

 This is one of the few Aparo Spectre stories I never had, and can thus tell you nothing of its contents.

I didn't have this one as a child either. I have, though, read it since. Actually, I can't remember just what happens in it but have no doubt that had I read it when I was ten I'd be able to regale you with exactly how the villain meets his fate.

You can't go wrong with killer shop window dummies - and the Spectre didn't either. The villain thought he was Billy Big Potatoes but soon found himself as roasted as a spud.

Thanks to the twists of Fate, I had two copies of this. I do believe it's the one with the legendary buzz saw sequence.

The Spectre finds himself up against a gas-happy would-be Nazi. Needless to say, gruesome deaths soon follow.

 I've not read this one since childhood but I do recall it introduced me to the word, "Barracuda."

I've not read this one since childhood either but I suspect a museum may have been involved - and stuffed gorillas.

It's time to gasp in horror as Jim Corrigan suddenly finds himself alive again. But for how long?

I didn't have this one either. As it wrapped up the storyline from the previous issue, this was a matter of some concern to me. Happily, I've since read it and am happy to reveal that normal Spectre service is soon restored.

Sadly, after this issue, the Spectre was replaced in the comic by Aquaman. Oh the indignity of it all; to be supplanted by a man who's never melted a villain in his life.

Jim Starlin's All-Time Top Ten Mighty World of Marvel Covers.

As we all know, in the 1970s, there was no one quite like Jim Starlin when it came to Cosmic-ing up comic books. It seemed like, given half-a-chance, he could even have turned the adventures of Roy Race into an intergalactic epic.

But the man they call Judo Jim had a more important part to play in comic book history than even that.

That's because, for several months, he was the main cover artist on Marvel UK's flagship title Mighty World of Marvel. This was before his cosmic heyday but, even in the early 1970s, the seeds of his future greatness were there for everyone to see.

Therefore, Steve Does Comics gives its not in the slightest bit definitive list of Jim Starlin's ten greatest Mighty World of Marvel covers.

Remember, this list is compiled without the aid of insight, taste or expert knowledge and makes no claims to being at all right in its opinions.

10.

Spidey comes up against a surprisingly stylishly dressed Lizard, while the floating heads of the Fantastic Four and the Hulk look suitably startled.

9.

That bounder Dr Doom's up to no good - both of him.

Daredevil's so sickened by it all that he can't resist throwing away his stick.

He'll regret that later. You never known when you might need a stick.

8.

It's Doom vs Spidey.

Do my razor-sharp senses spot a helping hand from Jazzy John Romita on the figure of Spider-Man?

7.

The Hulk gets zapped.

6.

It's brain vs brawn, as the Leader causes his usual mischief.

5.

How can the FF possibly hope to defeat both the Sub-Mariner and Dr Doom?

I reckon they'll be fine as long as no one tries to launch the Baxter Building into outer space.

4.

This was the first issue of Mighty World of Marvel I ever read - and what a way to start, as Spidey battles the FF.

3.

The FF vs the Hulk.

Daredevil's throwing his stick away again.

Will he never learn?

2.

If the sight of the Hulk smashing through a wall doesn't make you want to buy a comic, then what would?

1.

Spidey might have quit the comic but a new hero's introduced to readers, as Daredevil makes his entrance.

All scans from the Grand Comics Database. 

Sal Buscema's all-time Top Ten Avengers covers.

All lovers of the Buscema brothers'll be no doubt interested to know there's a new Comic Book Resources interview with Sal Buscema right here. But the first time Sal came to my attention was when he first took over the reins of The Avengers, a strip that had already been made great by his big brother John.

Happily, Sal didn't let the family tradition down, and kicked off in grand style by completing the tale of Ultron's rebirth as Adamantium Antagonist.

Sal only seems to have done ten Avengers covers in the time-frame this blog covers - and that sounds like a cue for me to fling myself once more into the Fields of Controversy by doing my own personal Top Ten of Sal Buscema Avengers covers.

#10.

The titanic trouble-busters find themselves up against the maddening menace of Kang's Growing Man.

#9.

Scorpio crashes in.

#8.

As if it's not enough that those cosmic creeps Ronan and the Sentry have captured Captain Marvel, they've even enlisted the aid of Goliath.

Still, at least the Avengers have Rick Jones on their side.

#7.

Who says Henry Pym has no sense of fun? Why, as the cover of issue #90 shows, there's nothing he likes more to do with his spare time than to go out clubbing.

#6.

The Avengers meet the Squadron Sinister for a cover with strong echoes of big brother John's classic frontispiece to Avengers Annual #2.

#5.

Can it be?

Can the Vision be dead?

#4.

In World War Two, the Avengers take on the Golden Age heroes the world - and Roy Thomas - would come to know as The Invaders.

#3.

The Hulk?

Being shrunk down like Ant-Man?

This calls for the Avengers.

#2.

Our heroes at the mercy of a crackletastic Ultron!

The power!

The drama!

The menace!

#1.

Poor old Captain Marvel. He rarely had a happy time of it.

Still, he did at least have the honour of launching an entire epic.