Friday, March 20, 2015

The Grooviest Covers of All Time: TV Guide Covers the Comicbook Heroes

Dig it, Groove-ophiles! During the Groovy Age, when any of our favorite super-heroes made it to the small screen--or even when the small screen made us some super-heroes--it was a big deal! An almost just as big deal was when any of those heroes made it to the cover of TV Guide magazine! So for something completely different, here's a look at how that legendary mag featured our super (and often sci-fi) comicbook heroes and heroines during the Groovy Age! Remember any of these?



14 comments:

  1. I can't make out the signature on the cover--but I wonder if Bill Sienkiewicz did the art for the "Man From Atlantis" cover?

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    1. The artist was Bob Peak, a major illustrator of the 50's-80's-

      http://www.tvguide.com/galleries/bob-peaks-tv-1068894/photo/f43203e0-7387-4e2c-9b8a-74f110e6f17f/

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    2. Bob Peak's son just had a kickstarter for his second book of Bob's illustrations. Bob Peak also created fantastic movie posters for The Spy Who Loved Me, several Star Trek movies, Excalibur, Apocalypse Now, and many, many, MANY more.

      bobpeak.com

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  2. Haven't seen any of these before, because they were a) before my time and b) I grew up in a non-TV Guide buying household.
    A few of really quite nice: the ones featuring Star Trek, $6 Million Man and Man from Atlantis could have easily adorned the covers of the SF paperbacks of the day.

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  3. Replies
    1. TV Guide really dropped the ball there, didn't they?

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    2. They did one...
      http://jul12.hugginsandscott.com/pl/47762_1966_superman_tv_guides.jpg
      ...it's just difficult to find on-line...

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  4. Does TV Guide still commission illustrations for covers these days, or is it all strictly photography?

    (And what was Mr/Ms Byrd using for reference for that Battlestar Galactica pic? Looks like the rear end of 2001's Discovery with some bits missing and added)

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  7. I painted a Birds of Prey cover that was never used as the show got canceled while I was painting it! lol "Can't put a show on the cover that isn't on the air anymore", as my AD said. At least they paid me.

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  8. TV Guide is not this TV Guide anymore. Now it's a slick magazine in the style of US and People. Really sucks. The illustrators trifecta in the 70's was TV Guide, TIME and Sports Illustrated, non of which use illustration anymore.

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  9. That Peak "Man From Atlantis" is fantastic! And I'd never seen the second Steve Austin cover, either. Long before the current era of superhero box office dominance, this was the closest we old-timers got to a "golden age" of heroes of film. Thanks for posting!

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  10. LOL at the 2001 spaceship on the Battlestar Galactica cover!

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Special thanks to Mike's Amazing World of Comics and Grand Comics Database for being such fantastic resources for covers, dates, creator info, etc. Thou art treasures true!


Note to "The Man": All images are presumed copyright by the respective copyright holders and are presented here as fair use under applicable laws, man! If you hold the copyright to a work I've posted and would like me to remove it, just drop me an e-mail and it's gone, baby, gone.


All other commentary and insanity copyright GroovyAge, Ltd.

As for the rest of ya, the purpose of this blog is to (re)introduce you to the great comics of the 1970s. If you like what you see, do what I do--go to a comics shop, bookstore, e-Bay or whatever and BUY YOUR OWN!