The New Teen Titans No. 1 Alternate Cover by George Pérez

In 1980 I was in my first years of regularly collecting and then as now DC’s books drew me more than Marvel’s (plus I was picking up books available on the emerging direct market). I saw the New Teen Titans first appearance in DC Comics Presents No. 26 not because of them, but because I normally bought DCCP, and cool, Jim Starlin did layouts for the Superman and Green Lantern team-up. GL was, along with Batman, my favourite DC character.

I liked the NTT preview but it didn’t wow me. I didn’t know who George Pérez was, but I was loving Marv Wolfman’s run on GL that had given the book new energy and I had read a number of the original Teen Titans issues from the 60s, so I added NTT to my pull list. I did that with a lot of DC’s new titles in the early 80s.

The New Teen Titans’ first year was epic and it quickly went to the top of the pile on new comic day. Pérez’s art was perfect for the book, and over the years I enjoyed even more books he wrote as well as illustrated.

In 2005, for the 35th Edition of the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide Pérez re-created the cover for The New Teen Titans No. 1, this time getting to ink it himself.

Here it is as an alternate cover for the comic that came to symbolise DC’s new energy, carrying them through the 1980s. New colour by me.

The original issue as published.

The redrawn version as published.

Original art scan from Heritage Auctions.

Art made production ready.

New colour version.

Re-created trade dress added.