Best of 2023 :: Published/Unpublished Comic Book Covers

Aquaman 25 cover

Owner: Simon Ma
Artists: Patrick Gleason (Penciller) , Christian Alamy (Inker) , John Arcudi (Writer)

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Artwork Details

Title:	Aquaman 25 cover
Artist:	Patrick Gleason (Penciller)
Artist:	Christian Alamy (Inker)
Artist:	John Arcudi (Writer)
Media Type:	Pen and Ink
Art Type:	Cover
Views:	301
Likes on CAF:	4 5
Favorited on CAF:	1
Added to Site:	12/22/2023

Description

I have been on the lookout for a while for an illustration like the cover of Firestorm 3 in the CAF gallery of Nash of the Titans � something with a stop-you-in-your-tracks display of forced perspective where the main character looks like they are going to burst off the page and punch you on the snout. It was the drama of this cover that persuaded me to buy the comic in a quite sparsely-stocked comic shop; I had arrived quite late in the day but I did not want to leave empty-handed. I read the comic on the train home and was solidly entertained by the involving story and the strong artwork. The comic for which this is the cover has special significance for me because it was the last comic, the last item I ever bought from London�s Comic Showcase in their closing-down sale in 2006.

I well remember my first unsupervised-by-parents trip to The Big Smoke in 1980 which was on a subsidised-by-our-state-run-single-sex-school coach. Me and a friend planned it like a military operation as we were going to visit all the comic shops in the central London area. In Islington I had a slight thrill as I recognised working behind the counter of his own shop Alan Austin who was one of the pioneers of comic-book dealing in the UK but he also published, edited and wrote for one of the earliest UK fanzines � Comics Unlimited, which I used to read from cover to cover. Another friend who had months earlier brought back from the capital each of us a copy of Micronauts 1 told us about Forbidden Planet and because that was quite centrally-located, in Tin Pan Alley, we used that as a sort of base and must have gone there three or four times in the short space of one afternoon. Someone there must have mistaken our excitement and enthusiasm at seeing an honest-to-goodness comic shop for larceny because the last time we left there someone was waiting outside to check our bags. We were innocent, of course, because if we had misbehaved then our parents and school would have made sure we were court-martialled.

We might have missed the opening of Comics Showcase by a whisker as it launched in the same year as that visit. I don�t know the exact date of our trip but I can narrow it down to one month because the latest issue of X-Men on sale in Forbidden Planet featured the first appearance of Dazzler. Alternatively you can pinpoint the month by the �reading� matter some of the older boys picked up in London and passed around on the trip home: the current issue of Playboy which cover-featured Bo Derek. My friend and I passed on that as we didn�t want anything to do with a publication that objectified women. �Yeah, right.�

Since about 1984 onwards when I could visit London under my own steam no outing would be complete without me ricocheting between the three main comic shops in central London: GOSH Comics, Forbidden Planet and Comics Showcase, although I made sure not to visit any of them more than once in the same day. I never went downstairs in Comics Showcase so never saw the original art which long-time OA collectors speak of in hushed reverent tones but I did pick up some brand-new comics rarities from there which no-one else ever had which included a couple of the 1970s Schanes and Schanes Rick Geary paperbacks, a remarqued with Bongo by Matt Groening (�rhymes with complaining,� as MG used to explain) copy of School is Hell a couple of years before the Simpsons started being broadcast. I do have a special connection to the shop also via someone who worked there, Andrew Littlefield, even though we never met in person but that is a much-too-long (and boring) story to cover in the allotted 5000 characters CAF allows so I will leave that to another day.

When I paid for my copy of Aquaman 25 I must have passed on to Paul Hudson, the manager who was behind the till that day, my sadness about the imminent closure of his shop. He did look glum, as you would if the enterprise you had set up and run for over a quarter of a century � no mean feat in this day and age � was going out of business. Paul has a CAF gallery and his Dave Gibbons upload is very succinct and informative about his experiences selling comic art. If you have never seen it I would recommend it highly, although his gallery, as of this writing, has been dormant since 2010. Apparently Paul and Comics Showcase have a facebook page but I �don�t do facebook� so I cannot comment on that, but I have spoken to someone who has seen him at comic marts in recent years and I am told he seems a lot happier now, which is good to hear. Thank you Andrew and thank you Paul for all your help and service down the years.

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About the Owner

	Simon Ma ( 2 ) Premium Gallery Owner
Joined:	April 2013
Last Login:	September 2025
Country:	UNITED KINGDOM
On CAF:	Artworks Commented On Liked Art Site Activity on CAF

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