SUPERHERO ALBUM COVERS

To the average eye, comic books and musical productions are two very strange bedfellows. Whilst one of them is a visual medium, and stimulates the senses in a overt capacity, the other one is an acoustic medium, and stimulates the senses in a subliminal capacity. That said, what do you think would happen if you'd join these two together? What would you get? A clash of the titans? Or a rubberized soul?

The Breakfast Club Soundtrack (Teen Titans)

MUSICAL FACT: The name, 'The Breakfast Club', originally came from the title of America's longest running network entertainment show, broadcast from radio Chicago between the years 1933 to 1968.

Spice Up Your Life By The Spice Girls (The Marvel Girls)

MUSICAL FACT: When the Spice Girls first formed, it was under the guise of becoming a tribute act, stylized in a similar manner as the 80's pop princess, Betty Boo. And as some of you may already know, Betty Boo was named after Betty Boop, a very popular American cartoon first shown in the 1930s.

Demon Days by Gorillaz (Teen Titans)

MUSICAL FACT: The inspiration behind 'Demon Days' came about when Gorillaz front man, Damon Albarn,  took a train journey from Beijing to Mongolia with his partner and his six-year-old daughter. Years later, he said that the whole thing was like looking into a "weird, unspoken, and forgotten part of China. Basically it was dead trees and massive craters for as far as the eye can see".

The Ramones by The Ramones (The Robins)

MUSICAL FACT: Roberta Bayley was only paid $125 for taking the photo for the Ramones 1976 debut album. And since then, it's been one of the most reproduced cover images ever to grace a record sleeve.

Abbey Road By The Beatles (The Fantastic Four)

MUSICAL FACT:  During pre-production the album that would eventually be called 'Abbey Road' was given the working title, 'Everest', named after the brand of cigarettes that their sound engineer Geoff Emerick smoked. In fact, they liked this name so much, the Beatles even planned to take a private plane over to the foothills of Mount Everest to shoot the cover photograph. However, as things started to get ever so intense in the studio, they scrapped that idea when Paul suggested they just go out into the street and take a photo of themselves there.

Purple Rain by Prince (Batgirl)

MUSICAL FACT: After composing the music for 'Purple Rain', Prince then asked Stevie Nicks to write the lyrics for it. But alas, due to the enormity of the project, she couldn't bring herself to do it. And so, as per usual, Prince went his own way.

Rubber Soul by the Beatles (The Fantastic Four)

MUSICAL FACT: When photographer Bob Freeman first showed the Beatles the photographs he took for this album, by accident, he mistakenly knocked the projected photographic slide slightly out of its bay, thus making it warp at an obscure angle. 'Wow! Can you print it like that?' asked Paul. And the rest is now history.

Make It Big by Wham! (Wasp and Ant Man)

MUSICAL FACT: In a statement he made to the press years later, George Michael said both he and Andrew Ridgeley laughed themselves silly after posing for this cover. 'Make it big?', George coyly exclaimed, 'Boy, I should be so lucky', Ha!

Bad By Michael Jackson (Cyclops)

MUSICAL FACT: Despite all of it's success, breaking records with its world tour, as well as being the first album to produce five number one singles, did you know, that the title song, Bad, was originally supposed to be a duet between Michael and Prince? Yet, I'm afraid to say, that the Purple one backed out of the project because he didn’t want to sing the opening line, 'your butt is mine'. My God. What an ass!

Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band by the Beatles (The Jack Kirby Players)

MUSICAL FACT: When the Beatles first came up with the concept behind this album cover, John Lennon wanted to put Jesus, Gandhi, and Hitler on it. However, because he'd recently taken a lot of heat for saying that The Beatles were "Bigger than Jesus", they eventually decided not to add them to the list.

In closing I'd like to thank Cliff Chiang, Michael Jackson, The Beatles, and the rest of the artists on this list for being so amazing. Without people like them, the world of art, music, and culture in general, would be a very poor place indeed.