Aquaman #45, June 1969
Another in the long line of glorious Nick Cardy covers for DC’s King of the Seven Seas. The setting sun, the crying girl’s shadow directing the eye towards the fallen hero, the note that tells the tale… all pull the image together to form a near perfect composition. You can feel the breeze, hear the gentle lap of the sea against Aquaman’s leg. This is evocative stuff indeed, and it works brilliantly — don’t you just want to go and read the story? How could a 1969 newsstand browser have gone past this without putting down his/her 12 cents?
©2009 DC Comics
Yep, a classic. The colors are exceptional, too.
Wow. I never quite ever got away with Aquaman as a kid – maybe it’s because I couldn’t swim – but this cover is sensational. And you’re right – seeing this on a newstand would make you hand over the cash in an instant.
I love the girl in the background!
Cardy was one of those I never appreciated as a child but now I look back and he was just amazing. By the seventies he was overextended and phoning it in but at his peak…wow!
Admittedly some of the mid-70s covers aren’t great, but he was often scuppered by the cover designs — the ‘cover’ of some of those 100-pagers is about the size of a postage stamp.