Thursday, December 11, 2008

Merry F**kin' Christmas to You!



This may be the greatest unknown Christmas cover ever. Not only for its pedigree (the infinity man Neal Adams and the great Dick Giordano,) before you even get to the image itself: a 1970s blond secret agent/private dick trying to help a broken-legged Rita Farr lookalike while a crazed evil Santa in a hopped-up sleigh/dragster is about to turn them into potted meat.



Actually, this could qualify for All-Time Great Cover status the more I look at it. I even dig that the lighting effect on the two targets from the Dragsleigh's headlights creates a "mask" for the agent/dick, so he comes off a little like the Question, one of my favorite characters ever:


All in all, what you want in your covers is a scene that demands, utterly, for you to read its interiors. This does that for me, "Hot Wheels" tie-in or not. I was more of a Matchbox man myself.

1 comment:

Duane Spurlock said...

Wow, nice cover. Never saw that one before. I thought at first it was Irv Novick and Dick Giordano working together, but I see from some details -- the position of the girl's hand, the guy's pose with his arm outthrust -- that you're right, it's definitely Neal Adams at work here. Thanks for sharing.