The Best Covers You've Never Seen--Neal Adams' Superboy Covers!

Back in the 1960s, Superboy covers were a lot of...well, same old same old.

Don't get me wrong--I love the wonky Silver Age covers.

But viewed in aggregate, there was a certain staid quality to them.

Again, not a knock on Curt Swan, who was the usual cover artist...

But there's very little action. Just a medium shot, presenting Superboy's dilemma du jour. Not a lot of excitement, not a lot of emotion...

But then, at the end of 1967, something happened:

Wow.

Creative angles. Close-ups on characters. Actual emotions. Neal Adams changed the game.

Mostly, the covers still featured some of the same insane premises. But Adams presented them in a more compelling, attention-getting way.

Compare, for example, these two covers, with the same set-up:

Neal Adams was like an earthquake. For the next 4 years, he did most of the Superboy covers (occasionally with Dick Giordano inking). And he Hitchcocked up the joint, bringing an energy and dynamism that the covers of "The Adventures Of Superman When He Was A Teen" had never known.

Adams never did any of the interiors, which sadly were rarely as good as the covers. Still, it must have been something of a shock to DC fans, seeing something like this on the newsstands.

Enjoy this sampling of Neal Adams' Superboy covers: