After looking at hundreds of comic book covers, it becomes quickly apparent that not every cover is 100% original. Whether done intentionally or even underhandedly, there’s something about uncovering these “swipes” that adds a new element of fun to reading and collecting comics.
The DeMatteis/Giffen/Maguire era of Justice League stories is a lot of fun. Early on, the story was building up towards a confrontation between Guy Gardner (at the height of his jerk-ishness) and Batman (who wasn’t going to tolerate Guy’s behavior). It culminated in issue #5 … famously! Around that same time, another confrontation was building in the pages of the Doom Patrol … less famously. This one was between Negative Man and Negative Woman. Going off of that similarity, Erik Larsen decided to pay homage to Kevin Maguire‘s cover.
 Justice League #5 September 1987 Kevin Maguire |
 the Doom Patrol vol. II #13 October 1988 Erik Larsen |
On Ebay: Justice League | Doom Patrol
On AtomicAvenue: Justice League | Doom Patrol
This was also swiped for Hero Alliance #15 and Justice League Europe #11
Comment by Purple Hayes — October 8, 2015 @ 3:31 pm
If I’m not mistaken, Erik may have done the layout for the JLA cover, and since I was Inking the Book at the time, I was slated to Ink it. Then behind my back and without telling me, Helfer gave it to Terry to Ink. I was a little pissed, mostly because I was finding out that Andy was not to be trusted,but I couldn’t complain too much since Terry did such a great job… so, as a bit of a Joke, Erik asked me if I wanted to Ink the JLA cover that Terry had already Inked and I was confused… then he showed me this. Funtime!
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Comment by Al Gordon — June 6, 2016 @ 10:38 am