SuperHero BookCovers

THE BEGINNING

In 1979 the first Superman movie arrived in theaters the world over. I went to a local bookstore and there sat a Superman book. Not a novelization of the movie, but the ground breaking original novel "Last Son of Krypton" by Elliot S. Maggin. To this day one of the best novels I have ever read.

In 1981 the second Superman movie arrived and I eagerly hastened to the bookstore to find "Miracle Monday" another original novel by Elliot S. Maggin featuring C.W. Saturn, the agent of Hell on Earth.

Alas, in 1983 the third Superman movie was a great disappointment. A novelization of the third film, not an original story!

Throughout the rest of the 80’s and early 90’s I would on occasion visit bookstores both new and used to search for original novels of comic book origin. To my dismay I would find that even the Batman movies were novelizations. With the Internet still in its infancy, I would search but never found any. I blamed the Star Wars phenonemon.

Then in 1998 at one of the rapidly dwindling used bookstores I found a copy of Spider-Man - Venoms Revenge by Diane Duane. Wonder of wonders on the back pages was a timeline and list of marvel books. Hulk - Avengers - X-Men etc.

THE MIDDLE

For me the Internet was in full swing at 33.3 kbs. I would run a search for Wonder Woman or other comic heros and up would pop a list of two or three hundred comic books, graphic novels, and trade paperbacks. The rosy predictions that a person could find anything on the Internet were not necessarily or easily true.

The years came and went and then in early 2006 I came upon the DC Comics message board. I then saw the list I longed to see - specifically the list of superhero prose novels compiled by Blue Tyson at Superblog.com. I copied the list and immediately went to both Amazon and Barnes and Noble websites to find pictures of the book covers and publishers, with descriptions of the novel and how much I might buy them for. To my amazement I quickly discovered that many books had no picture or description. The more I searched the more convinced I became that the Internet needed a home for book covers of superhero novels.

THE END

With this lack of Superhero book covers I then took it upon myself to invest both the time and expense of buying these books online and through local bookstores both new and used. I then began scanning and processing the pictures and descriptions of each book.

On September 16, 2006 I acquired the domain name superherobookcovers.com and two weeks later uploaded what would be the first of hundreds of files (Wonder Woman and Superman).

Nine 1/2 months, hundreds of dollars, and countless sleepless hours later, I am now presenting what I hope will become a point of reference and interest for people who are excited about the world of Superhero book covers.

JULY 4, 2007

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