As some of you may be aware of, during the past week or so, the community had been engaged in voting for 'the most iconic comic book cover of all-time' - hosted by myself (here's the link to the main thread: VOTING OPEN: CV's Most Iconic Comic Book Cover Of All-Time).
In the end, Action Comics #1 prevailed against Amazing Fantasy #15.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
I started a thread on June 24th proposing my idea, and inviting members of the community to join me in nominating 5 covers each (along with reasons) to battle it out for the most iconic comic book cover of all-time
We ended up with 21 nominators and 91 nominations ranging across 75 years of comic book history. The covers are presented in this beautiful collage of awesomeness:
The 21 nominators were then assigned 5 votes each, and the top 32 (which can be viewed in the OP of the main thread [link above]) were then chosen to compete in this unprecedented community vote
Using a seeding system (based on votes gathered) the draw was made
Voting was then extended to the community, whereby each member was able to vote for each pairing in each round (each round lasting 24 hours)
After 5 rounds of voting, and __ votes cast, a winner was chosen!
The Draw:
What a very interesting draw it was! Some of the highlights included:
Though there may have been upsets along the way, few could have been disappointed with this match-up, pitting the poster boys of both DC and Marvel against each other. As the draw wore on, it became clearer and clearer which covers would battle it out in the final. Action Comics came out on top of the vote with 20 votes in favour, against Spidey's 8.
From the start, I'd imagine that many would have thought that this cover would make it all the way to final - but, it was important to test this hypothesis.
As you can see from the draw above, this was by no means a straight-forward path.
Action Comics #1, currently the most expensive comic book in the world, was the cover that gave inspiration to many comic book heroes throughout the ages as the world first read the adventures of Kal-El.
Many artists have paid homage to this immortal cover, including the eponymous web-slinger Action Comics #1's opponent in the final: Spider-Man:
The middle cover being a special tribute cover when Action Comics reached their 900th issue!
Though the inclusion in the final of Action Comics #1 would have appeared to be straight-forward, the choice of its opponent was less obvious. Many can validly claim several worthy covers to battle it out against the last son of Krypton in this knock-out battle. However, looking back on the draw, no cover had preformed so strongly in two rounds, leaving little doubt as who the final should be contested by.
This cover, by the legendary Jack Kirby - the most represented artist on the initial list of 91 covers (ahead of Neal Adams and Bob Kane) was the birth of a new type of superhero that would captivate the world in the same way that the more traditional heroes at DC had done previously.
...and just like Action Comics #1, this cover has also had its fair share of admirers:
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
Firstly, I'd like to give a huge thank you to all those involved and made this happen! I had a load of fun looking at all the wonderful covers put forward and reading all the reasons, digging up the artists, researching the years of publication, and eagerly awaited to see how the community would vote with each passing round!
I'd also like to thank @The Poet for giving me the inspiration to host such a community-wide vote, for his guidance and advice during the early stages of this project's creation, and for being one of the 21 nominators!
Yep! I had those two in mind. Those are the two best covers in comic history, closely followed by the Cap Returns issue of the Avengers. The rest come from there.
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