Spinner Rack: Cool Comic Book Covers from February 1976

Happy February!

Let's start off our look at comic books that were on sale this month 50 years ago with this gem of a cover penciled by the ever-busy Ernie Chan (then going by the pen name Chua):

Detective Comics #459:

Way to throw poor Alfred under the bus, Bruce! Seeing a superhero unmasked on a cover is always a shocker, begging us to wonder how did this happen, and how would they get out of it with their secret identity intact! You also gotta love that title logo with the giant Bat-head!

And that’s just one of the great covers Chan drew that month. Here are a few others:

Four Star Spectacular #2:

Action Comics #459 - (breakdowns by Carmine Infantino, finished pencils by Chan):

All-Star Comics #60:

Batman #275:

Batman Family #5 (a classic. I owned this one):

DC Super Stars #3 (Marriage or death are a young person’s only alternatives in the 30th Century, apparently):

Justice League of America #130 (comic covers were so hype- and type-happy in the 70s it seems like an editor would’ve bothered telling us what the heck is up with Hawkman’s outfit and flying fist, but I guess we just need to read the story):

Secret Society of Super-Villains #1 (always a good idea to practice crushing robots before crushing the real thing):

But it only seems like Ernie Chan drew every comic book cover on the stand in February 1976 — other artists also were hard at work, including a John Byrne, who turned out these two for Charlton:

Doomsday + 1 #6:

Space: 1999 #4:

Other workhorses of the month included Gil Kane illustrating the cover of:

Daredevil #133 (In which the Man Without Fear gets what looks like some much-needed help from real-life spoon bender Uri Geller!):

And Defenders #35:

And Rich Buckler, penciling the covers of:

Howard the Duck #3 (one wonders if Quack Fu requires the stogie):

Luke Cage, Power Man #31:

And Jungle Action #21 (intense!):

Also at Marvel, the returned Jack “King” Kirby turned in a couple of nice ones for:

The Invaders #6:

And Captain America #197:

Which reminds me that 1976 marked our nation’s Bicentennial! (Much, much more of this sort of thing to come), which inspired a couple of non-superhero covers:

Archie’s TV Laugh-Out #39 (uncredited art):

Richie Rich & Jackie Jokers #15 (uncredited art):

And, speaking of patriotism, how about let’s smash some Nazis!

Blitzkrieg #3 by Joe Kubert

G.I. Combat #190 by Luis Dominquez

And, rounding things up, some miscellaneous, great covers:

Adventure Comics #445 by Jim Aparo:"

Amazing Spider-Man #156 by John Romita:

Doctor Strange #14 by Gene Colan

Fantastic Four #170 by Ron Wilson

Ghostly Tales #121 by Steve Ditko

Pep #131 (uncredited)

Star Reach #4 by Howard Chaykin:

Superman #299 by Bob Oksner

Tomb of Dracula #44 by Gene Colan:

And, finally, here’s a comics-related release from February 1976 worth noting: The awesome Power Records release “Robin Meets Man-Bat,” with art by the great Neal Adams: