When it’s said you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, it can generally mean one of two things: don’t dismiss it if it looks bland, and don’t be deceived if it looks exciting. It’s what’s in the pages that give the book meaning and merit, so a good cover should be seen as a bonus rather than having the most value.
That’s true of comics too, and maybe even especially, because how often have we seen a great cover, only to crack open the issue to find out it has nothing to do with the story? I mean, there was a time when publishers believed that the presence of a gorilla on a cover guaranteed sales, so what did they do?
What any of us would do, really: they put gorillas on covers.
Still, while a comic shouldn’t necessarily be judged on its cover any more than a book of prose, eye-catching cover images are an essential part of the medium. We can all vividly describe what’s taking place on the covers for Action Comics #1 or Detective Comics #27 or Amazing Fantasy #15 from memory, I’m sure, they’re so ingrained in popular culture. And as fans, we all have favorites of our own, whether it was the first issue we ever bought or the first time we recognized a favorite artist or a life event made a particular cover hold special meaning.
Not every cover is instantly recognizable, though, which is one of the things that makes digging through longboxes so fun. With over a thousand issues to its name, DC’s flagship series Detective Comics has had enough covers printed over the past nine decades that not even the most hardcore fans would be able to place them all, with images ranging from odd to iconic and everything in between.
Insight Editions have taken that “longbox hunter” mindset many fans have and published three volumes featuring every single Detective Comics ever printed, so you can dig through back issues with having to leave your home.
These are fun little books, and I do mean little: each of the three volumes measured around 3.5” high and 2.5” wide, so they can easily fit in your hand or pocket. That means that the pages are rather small, so some of the finer details are hard to see, especially on a lot of the older covers with lots of text. Generally speaking, though, they're all easy enough to make out, and look great considering the size and image quality. Where they can, Insight have gotten high-definition scans of these pieces, which is much more evident in the second and especially third volumes. The first volume is more inconsistent with the images, with some looking pretty pristine and others looking like a grainy, beat-up photocopy of a physical issue. That honestly adds to some of the charm, though, like when you come across a well-loved comic with creased edges and staple wear.
All three books contain around 300 covers apiece, with very little text involved. There are some notes sprinkled throughout, like a description of the Silver Age opening the second volume, Detective Comics #s 27 and38 discussing the respective introductions of Batman and Robin, and issue #854 beginning a focus on Batwoman as the main character.
These are nice pieces of supplemental material, but it's the covers themselves that are the main draw. Volume 1 begins with the familiar cover of Detective Comics #1, which featured the character Fui Onyui, Slam Bradley's archnemesis, and ends with issue #300, the first appearance of Polka-Dot Man (an issue I actually own). This volume was the most interesting one to flip through, as there are hundreds of covers here I'd never seen before, either in person or in print. It's fascinating to see the abrupt change of the title from a pulpy detective magazine to a Batman comic, and the gradual shift over time from relatively grounded stories to "Batman and Robin fight another giant/robot/giant robot" and what have you.
It gets to be pretty amazing in all the wackiness present in the stories from the 1950s, like on the cover for Detective Comics #214, my new favorite Batman cover ever:
Batman being fired along with an arrow from the bow of a giant Robin Hood is amazing enough, but the hood complaining that he wasn't able to counter this with the Batman Strategy Guide? Priceless.
The second volume begins with issue #301, and there are plenty of amazing gems here. So many covers have incredible blurbs and dialogue to entice the reader, with art from legends like Carmine Infantino, Irv Novick and Neal Adams. The latter half of the volume starts getting into my personal favorite era of Batman comics in general with amazing pieces from the likes of Alan Davis, Mike Mignola, and the inimitable Norm Breyfogle. It wraps up with Detective Comics #600, which is an all-time great image from Denys Cowan and Malcolm Jones III.
Curiously, the third volume opens with the same cover the second one closes with, so we get a repeat of 'Tec #600. It's awesome, though, so I'll allow it.
This starts off really, really strong with more Breyfogle greatness, some brilliance from Michael Golden, and the absolutely insane Dick Sprang covers from 'Tec #622-624. It really never lets up from there, either, as we enter the Nineties and get hit with as many great artists as we do great events. Matt Wagner, Kelley Jones, Graham Nolan, Tim Sale, Simone Bianchi, and Dusting Nguyen are just some of the amazing talent who took Detective Comics into the new millennium, with some timeless images all throughout. For readers of a certain age, seeing titles like "Knightfall" and "No Man's Land" and "Batman: Reborn" are bound to bring a ton of memories flooding back, as this was a time when all Batman titles were in a kind of heyday, thanks to tight editorial and creator input.
After some cool Jock pieces, things shift into the New-52 era, which... well, it definitely needs to count toward Detective Comics covers, since it's part of the title's history. Hopefully Insight can pull together another volume pretty quickly, though, maybe with all of the variants for 'Tec #1000 and #1027, because I don't think the history of these covers should end with this:
Nothing against Fabok and Cox at all, just as representations of Batman in general and Detective Comics as a title, there are so many great covers in these volumes that this one is a relatively random stopping point.
Either way, at around $12 apiece, these are great, unique gift ideas for Batman fans of all sorts. As artifacts of almost a century's worth of covers, they're great to pore through to look for old favorites and find new ones, and they're small enough that they won't take up too much space in even the largest collections.
Disclaimer: Insight Editions provided copies of each book for the purpose of review.
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