I’ve always loved this cover with Batman driving a Formula One car of the era. But it wasn’t until I found a scan of the original art that I realised I liked it even more. Behind the trade dress and flat orange background colouring, there was a great European mountain village and the wheel the Speed Racer-style villain had just sheared off the Wayne Special.

Mike Sekowsky was the force behind the New Wonder Woman of the time, a reimagining of Princess Diana as the other Diana: Diana Rigg of The Avengers. Sekowsky was a fantastic designer, and this image is a great example of his dynamic composition skills.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t the best for cover layout, with no breathing room to apply the trade dress at the top of the page. Even worse, The Brave & the Bold required three logos: B&B’s, Batman’s and the guest star’s. Given that, the production department did what they could, but they were forced to sacrifice pieces of the image.

Thankfully, much of what I do around here is give stuff a second look with the benefit of hindsight. Colour and cover packaging by me.

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As published.

Scan of the original art by Mike Sekowsky and Dick Giordano.

Cleaned-up art.

New colour.

Re-created trade dress added.

Alternate trade dress that allows more of the art to show through.

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