What makes the best comic book covers? It is a great topic for debate. For us, as individuals, there is no wrong answer, of course; it is purely subjective. But, with a little thought it’s possible to explain what it is about a particular image that grabs you. The best images are the ones that make you stop and check out something you weren’t previously planning to purchase – and in some cases, you even end up picking up a title you’ve never even heard of before.

DC Comics’ Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #133 said all that needed to be said at the top of its action-packed, in-your-face cover: “Kirby is Here!”

Sure, it was an enthusiastically awesome thing for Jack Kirby to revolutionize the title as well as bring much-needed new ideas to the publisher which, at the time, was being overseen by Carmine Infantino. That was immediately apparent by this frontispiece’s renderings of Kirby as sequential storyteller supreme, as well as the reintroduction of his and Joe Simon’s Newsboy Legion and the coming of the kid adventurers’ wondrous Whiz Wagon.

Cover-dated October 1970, this book seemed to have it all. And by all, I mean the first appearance of modern media magnet Morgan Edge – and the terrible whisper of the master of Dark Apokolips, Darkseid himself. So yeah, it is a sight to be seen and a Bronze key worth having. Get your cub reporter on and discover this much-treasured title at finer comics shops if you can. It’s a must-have and, I never meant this more seriously, an absolute keeper!

–Scott Braden