Eternity Comics; $1.95 

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, though, 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.  

Eternity Comics 

Eternity Comics, Imperial Comics, Amazing Comics, Wonder Color Comics, and Malibu Comics were ostensibly separate independent publishers established during the mid-1980s black and white comics boom. Scott Mitchell Rosenberg, owner of Sunrise Distribution, reportedly had financial interests in all of those companies.  

When Sunrise Distribution encountered financial difficulties in 1987, these relationships became more widely known. By 1988, Malibu had effectively absorbed the other publishing entities, although Eternity continued as an imprint of Malibu. 

Some of the more high profile Eternity titles included Ex-Mutants, Robotech II: The Sentinels, Captain Harlock, and Ninja High School (which began at Antarctic Press and later returned there post-Eternity). That roster also included Dinosaurs For Hire. 

In That Era 

You don't have to go all that far back in the history of the comic book business to get to the time when you didn't know what was going to be on the cover of a particular issue until you saw it on the spinner racks of your local pharmacy, newsstand, or supermarket. Back then, comic covers pretty much stuck to the mission described each week in our preamble. 

But when comics fans began seeing ahead of time what was coming next, those covers took on the extra responsibility of getting retailers (in theory driven by fan requests) to order the comics in the first place. 

About The Cover 

As we ask every time we run a Cover Story entry, "What makes the best comic book covers?" I think it's the thing that makes you pick a comic book off the shelf that you've never seen or even heard of previously. It can also be the thing that makes you order a comic book about which you don't know very much 

Bryon Carson's cover for Tom Mason's Dinosaurs For Hire #1 did this job and did it well. I don't mean this was some huge intellectual exercise. It was, after all, three beautifully drawn and nattily attired dinosaurs with guns. Actually, two dinosaurs with guns and one with a bazooka.  

So, there wasn't any decision really involved, was there?  It's not as if I could look at myself in the mirror if I missed the issue after seeing that cover.  

It Can't Be All About the Cover 

It's important to acknowledge that I've bought my fair share of clunkers that had great covers – for instance, I paid honest money for Neal Adam's Skateman #1 – but happily this was not one of those situations.  

A short while after I first saw the cover, I read a description of the story. After that, I asked my retailer to order an additional copy. This would be an activity I repeated weekly until the issue actually arrived.  

When Dinosaurs For Hire #1 finally did hit the stands, it lived up to the hype my mind had created. Thank goodness. 

Mason was clearly willing to make fun of just about anyone and everyone (the rest of the series clearly supports this assertion). Humor, action, and a lot of mystery about the origins of these particular dinosaurs. A funny read from the first page to the last, and like all good comics, it leaves the reader wanting more. 

For me, one of the true joys of this comic is that rereading it years later, I see immediately what I loved about it. The cover still pulls me in. 

Worth Mentioning 

Dinosaurs For Hire later returned with a second series in full color. The title characters last appeared on the cover of the Free Comic Book Day 2019 edition of The Overstreet Guide to Collecting Comics in a bizarre crossover with Billy Tucci's Shi, which only appeared on that issue's cover. 

– J.C. Vaughn