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

Considering that I’m a huge fan of Frank Miller’s work, I really only absolutely love a handful of his covers; to be fair, though, the ones I love… I really love.

This isn’t all that unusual. A significant part of Miller’s skill even before he started writing as well as drawing was always on display in his storytelling, the panel to panel progression of the story in a comic’s interior pages.

It is through that process, rather than with the impact of a single image such as a cover, that we got to know the power of his work on projects such as Daredevil or Ronin.

There are, of course, some really choice exceptions to this rule, and perhaps the best of them is Batman: The Dark Knight Returns #1.

Cover dated March 1986, BTDKR #1 instantly vaulted to iconic status, immediately and perennially imitated from then on. With Batman only in silhouette, but still unquestionably Batman, Miller’s design lefty plenty of room for colorist Lynn Varley to brilliantly ply her craft. The deep blue of the background and the lightning strike play almost as much of a role as Caped Crusader himself.

We’ve become so accustomed to this image now that it’s hard to imagine how revolutionary it was. And if you haven’t read the complete story in a while, do yourself a favor and do so soon. It’s as good as you remember.

– J.C. Vaughn