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.

Editor’s note: With Marvel’s recent announcement that the complete run of Master of Kung-Fu will finally be collected in Omnibus editions, we thought this would be a great time to pick out a cover to be featured in this column, after all there’s not only the Mike Zeck run, but also the great Paul Gulacy issues. When it came down to it, though, columnist J.C. Vaughn picked Master of Kung-Fu #83, which he had covered in this space in 2014. It’s still a great choice!

Mike Zeck’s cover for Master of Kung-Fu #83 might be my personal prototype for a cover that did its job by the definition above.

As a young fan, I had certainly been aware of Shang Chi. I had seen some of the great Paul Gulacy covers and I had even read a few issues, but I had never added the title to my stack of otherwise superhero-centric purchases.

Until MoKF #83. Man, what a cover it was and is!

With its movie poster-like montage scene, its powerful central figure, its fluid line work and great coloring, it was hard to imagine anything much cooler.

In hindsight it really brings together elements of Gulacy’s Master of Kung-Fu #67 cover and movie posters from both the martial arts films of the 1970s and the Fu Manchu films (and book covers) of earlier days, but at the time I didn’t know that. I didn’t even understand any of that. I just had to have that cover!

With this piece, Zeck forced himself into my consciousness as a great comic book artist (his interiors for this issue, inked by Gene Day, didn’t hurt his cause either), hooked me on the series, and backwards led me to Gulacy’s work.

It’s hard to imagine a cover doing its job in better fashion.

– J.C. Vaughn