Sunday 13 March 2016

KLASSIC KIRBY KOMIC KOVERS - TALES OF SUSPENSE #44...

Image copyright MARVEL COMICS

The cover to TALES OF SUSPENSE #44 as originally drawn and lettered had CLEOPATRA with a look of concern on her face, while the jagged cover blurb read "See Iron Man come face-to-face with Cleopatra, Siren of the Nile!"  Her altered expression (to a grin) looks imbecilic, and I can't help but think that her original demeanor was more apt.  Okay, she's being rescued, but she's being rescued by a flying man in armour, so she'd be entitled to look a tad anxious.  After all, it couldn't have been an experience she was used to.

******

Click here to read about the ALAN CLASS reprint of the tale.

11 comments:

Phil said...

Trivia time. No cheating. How many issues does Iron Man wear the golden armor?

Kid said...

He wears the golden armour from TOS #40 to 48 (in which he first dons his new armour). In his first appearance in #39 his armour was grey. He's occasionally worn the golden armour in subsequent issues down through the years. (#65 & 90 being the first two times, if I recall rightly.)

Dave S said...

Trivia time part two: what's wrong with that cover?

DeadSpiderEye said...

She does look a bit goofy, did the original version ever make it into print?

Simon B said...

Maybe Cleo's laughing at that spelling mistake - Pharoah???

Kid said...

What's wrong with the cover, Phil? As Cer points out, the word 'pharaoh' is misspelt. It was corrected for subsequent reprints, but when Marvel decided to leave in the mistakes in later printings (in order to be 'archival'), they didn't have any uncorrected proofs to hand so had to undo the corrections and add the mistakes back in. However, they missed one, and a speech balloon on the splash page has the corrected 'pharaoh' intact while the logo has been restored to 'pharoah'. I believe I pointed this out when I did a post on the Alan Class reprint of this story. (Or somewhere.)

******

Yup, it did, DSE. The original version of the cover was used in the early editions of the Masterworks, before a new editor on the series decided to make them as much like the original issues as possible.

******

Nah, it's in English, Cer - she can't even read it.

Anonymous said...

There was also an early Dr. Strange story featuring Cleopatra - she must have been fed up with seeing superheroes from the 20th Century !

Dave S said...

To be fair, I probably wouldn't have noticed the misspelling if it hadn't been included in the Marvel No-Prize Book!

Kid said...

That was Strange Tales #124, CJ, just over a year after the Tales Of Suspense Ish. Dr. Strange probably wiped her memory of her encounter with him, but she likely wasn't aware of the concept of 20th century 'superheroes' anyway.

******

That may well have been when I first became of it for the first time, DD. I've still got my copy of that No Prize ish from the early '80s. Interesting little mag.

DeadSpiderEye said...

Actually, looking at this cover, Cleopatra being whisked off while giggling in anticipation, I think Phwoar would be more appropriate.

Kid said...

Ah, anticipation of what, DSE? On second thoughts, don't answer that - we might get arrested.



Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...