COVER STORY: Wings Comics #94

What makes the best comic book covers? It is a great topic for debate. For us, as individuals, there is no wrong answer, of course; it is purely subjective. But, with a little thought it’s possible to explain what it is about a particular image that grabs you. The best images are the ones that make you stop and check out something you weren’t previously planning to purchase – and in some cases, you even end up picking up a title you’ve never even heard of before.

All in color for a dime, Wings Comics #94 from Fiction House features a high-flying cover that proves the real value of high-powered planes and a pretty face. In fact, in the Dick Lupoff-written chapter, “The Propwash Patrol Flies Again” (found within the Don Thompson and Lupoff co-edited The Comic-Book Book), the author points out in the early 1970s that during The War Years three decades earlier, “you paid your dime and you didn’t have to choose – you got both the battles and the babes.”

Readers may easily see that this cover has a damsel in distress at the forefront and a dangerous man behind her – the drama of which may have taken sales to new heights. Of course, so should this must-have issue for all those collectors lucky enough to add it to their comic book libraries.

-Scott Braden