Worst Cover Ever: World's Creepiest

When it comes to Worst Cover Ever, I normally leave the Golden Age covers alone.  After all, it was still a new art form finding its way...so there were bound to be some technical and stylistic bloopers. However, every once in awhile, one of those old covers will try even my legendary forebearance...such as the ultra-creepy and epically awkward cover of World's Finest Comics #14 (1944). 

So much wrong, so little time:

1.  Two grown men, who should be deflecting bullets and nabbing criminals, are instead spending their precious time watching pre-teen boys (who may or may not be clothed) cavorting in a pond.

2.  Said boys are clearly disobeying the posted "No Swimming" policy.

3.  Robin the Boy Wonder, a.k.a. Igor, the Capering Hunchback. "See, masters...the boys...they swim!"

4.  What is going on with Superman and Batman?  Are they troubled by the brazen disregard for the No Swimming policy? Is one waiting for the other to "go first"? Are they about to (ugh) strip down to their super-skivvies? Do their capes double as towels?  Since when is the S on Superman's cape blue?

5.  What's worse: Superman's truncated torso or Batman's Barbie-thin waist? Answer: A barrel-wearing Captain Marvel, yet another humiliated victim of the Golden Age skinny dipping craze!

Comments

[Gustavo]

Usually a lurker, but "See, masters...the boys...they swim!" made me LOL enough to de-lurk.

Btw, I was drinking coffee at the time, where should I send you the bill for the dry cleaning?

[Michael Lee]

Love the bunny with the question mark over its head in the Whiz Comics cover.

Just where did Cap get that barrel from anyway?

[Mark. Engblom]

"Btw, I was drinking coffee at the time, where should I send you the bill for the dry cleaning?"

Sent it to:

Bruce Wayne
c/o Wayne Industries
Gotham City, New York

He'll take care of it.

[Mark. Engblom]

"Just where did Cap get that barrel from anyway?"

Maybe Spy Smasher tossed it to him.

[Shar]

"...Batman's Barbie-thin waist" - -priceless.

Even with all the shenanigans on the cover, I must confess what caught my eye was the 15 cent price...in 1944?? Then I saw the blurb "Summer Issue"...so I assume WF was not a monthly periodical, and this was perhaps a giant-size issue? Boy, I'd love to read the story featured here and see if it lives up to the cover!

[Mark Engblom]

"Boy, I'd love to read the story featured here and see if it lives up to the cover!"

Unfortunately, there IS no story to go with the cover. At this time, the covers were essentially "ceremonial" and did not reflect the stories inside. In fact, Superman and Batman starred in their own individual stories, and would not regularly team up until 1954 (when shrinking page counts "forced" them together).

[Shar]

Interesting...thanks for the information, Mark- -obviously I need to do some homework on the Golden Age as I didn't know any of this. Your blog consistently unearths topics like this that spark my curiosity and make me want to learn more about comics history.

[Mark Engblom]

"Your blog consistently unearths topics like this that spark my curiosity and make me want to learn more about comics history."

...which is one of the reasons I enjoy doing the Comic Coverage blog. It's great showing people stuff they've never heard of, and in the process I usually learn something, too....so "win-win".

[John Nowak]

I guess it's in the eye of the reader, but I kind of read that as the kids daring them to do something about it while Bats and Supes are thinking, "Well, they are trespassing ... but I did that too ... but do we really want to tell them it's okay to break that rule?" It's actually a sort of neat moment of confusion on their part.

[Pat Curley]

I'm sure you're just having fun here, Mark, but the key to understanding the World's Finest covers of that era is that Batman, Robin and Superman are always shown acting like, well, like kids. Scenes of them playing sports or trying out the amusements at a penny arcade are common.

In this case, there's no doubt in my mind the idea is that Batman and Supes are going to strip down and hop into the water. It is only with our modern mindset that we see something wrong with that; I'm sure that 99% of the population back then saw it as a funny little scene.