Our book today is a doozy from 2010: it’s the 75^th Anniversary Poster Book of DC Comics, a lavishly oversized thing put out by the good folks at Quirk Books in honor, as its title hints, of the 75^th anniversary of DC Comics and its venerable roster of comic book characters (the three most recognizably venerable – Wonder Woman, Superman, and Batman – are represented on the books cover by their famous chest emblems, just as they were recently represented on the big screen by their BDSM leather body-suits and constipated scowls). With snarky and often quite insightful commentary written by Robert Schnakenberg, the book takes a grand-sized tour of some of the icon cover illustrations that have sold DC issues from newsstands for almost a century. Fans who were eagerly buying those issues for a goodly chunk of that time will find this poster book an irresistible browner’s paradise (although a slightly perilous one: Quirk Books decided to give readers the option to detach and use any one of these oversized cover reproductions as an actual poster, so every page is perforated).

Virtually every iconic DC cover image is represented here, from Superman hefting a car over his head on the front of 1938’s Action Comics #1 to the sight of two different Flashes running to the rescue on the cover of The Flash in 1961. And although Schnakenberg is too polite to crow about it, one fact becomes glaringly obvious as the pages of this book turn: DC covers tended to get better as time passed. Catchy became gripping, and the cover as an artistic statement started to come into its own. Certainly there’s very little in the company’s first forty years to match the visceral directness of the cover Neal Adams drew for Green Lantern #85 in 1971, about which our guide has this to say:

In this issue, the Emerald Archer has his mellow harshed when he finds out his squeaky-clean sidekick Roy “Speedy” Harper is secretly a heroin addict … Notable for its sympathetic portrayal of junkies as victims of addiction, Green Lantern #85 represented a high-water mark for [writer Denny] O’Neil and Adams’ two-year run on the title, and for “relevant comics” in general. It earned a letter of commendation from New York City Mayor John Lindsay, which was printed in the next issue.

More straightforward fan favorites get their moments in the spotlight as well, like George Perez’s enticingly cartoony cover for The New Teen Titans #1 in 1980, which comes with a helpful synopsis:

Teen superteams were nothing new in comics. Marvel had its X-Men. During World War II, Captain America’s sidekick Bucky and the Human Torch’s BFF Toro had formed a second-banana-led super-squad called the Young Allies, filled out with four adolescent schlemiels named Knuckles, Jeff, Tubby, and Whitewash. Even DC had tried and failed to get a successful “kid super hero” team off the ground. The 1966 version of Teen Titans, featuring Robin, Kid Flash, Aqualad, and Wondergirl, [sic] ended after forty-three issues. Some blamed its demise on the writers’ overreliance on dated “jive” dialogue (“Did this crazy teen scene!” blared one early cover burst). Less self-consciously “hip” and markedly more successful was the 1980s revival of the Teen Titans. As re-imagined by writer Marv Wolfman and artist George Perez – a master of group dynamics on covers and interior art – the now seven-member team wasn’t a bunch of mere junior- varsity versions of established heroes anymore. They were fully-formed, well-rounded characters who lived with, fought with, and loved each other.

And of course there’s perhaps the single most memorable modern-era DC cover of them all, Frank Miller’s illustration for Batman: The Dark Knight #1 in 1986, which has been pastiched and parodied countless times but still retains its elemental power, according to Schnakenberg:

The era of “grim and gritty” comics began with the publication of Frank Miller’s landmark limited series Batman: The Dark Knight in1986 – a sea change for an industry in which super-hero adventures were typically bathed in garish primary colors. The simple, almost minimalist composition Miller chose for the cover of the first issue – perhaps the greatest application of the “less is more” principal [sic] in comics history – barely hinted at the cluttered complexity of the interior art and story.

Later greats such as Michael Golden, Brian Bolland, and Alex Ross are all represented in the book’s closing pages, and of course DC Comics has in the meantime enjoyed another anniversary, its 80^th. And who knows what new gems will adorn the closing pages of the volume I’m hoping will appear in 2035?