When my wife and I attend C2E2 each year, we try and plan what booths, panels, and artists to visit. One of the artist highlights each year for us is Ant Lucia. His pin-up art has been made into Funko Pops, statues, toys and of course, comics! Let’s take a look at the DC Bombshells.

We love his art and never fail to pick up a signed print (or three) to frame and display. He is generous both with his time and in his willingness to sign whatever his fans bring him. My wife and I have a small collection of the Bombshell statues and, of course, the Bombshell comics. We bring in a few comics and the nameplate to our latest statue acquisition each year for him to sign. Ant (short for Anthony) says he remembers us each year and is usually accompanied behind the table by his brother Jimmy, who is also a pleasure to speak with.

What we talk about when we talk about Bombshells

The first thing to know is that there are two groups of bombshell comics associated with Ant Lucia. The first is the variants released during the New 52 run across a number of titles. Secondly is the Bombshells series itself which takes those cover pinups and creates stories around them.

DC Bombshell Variant Covers

In all, there were 21 variants in this series. Ant Lucia is the cover artist for 20 of them (the sole exception being the cover for Batman #32, which credits Jim Fletcher as the cover artist). There are some wonderful covers among the 20 credited to Lucia in this series. A few of our favorites include Flash #32 and Batwoman #32 as well as Aquaman #32 and Batman #43. Most of the Bombshell variants were for issues 32 and 43, though for some limited series the issue numbers were lower. See Deathstroke #9 for example.

One of the first slabs I ever purchased was the brilliant, noir cover for Batman #43, signed by Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo, and Ant Lucia. It’s a 9.6 yellow label and we love it.

DC Bombshells: The Series

Fresh off the success of the variant covers, DC went ahead with a series featuring the out-of-continuity characters. Ant Lucia was again the featured cover artist with Marguerite Bennett writing and Marguerite Sauvage handling the interior art. My copy of issue #1 is signed by all three creators. I obtained the signatures in person at C2E2 a few years back, a great experience.

While DC Bombshells #1 is my favorite cover, we also like issue #5, featuring Wonder Woman in a Rosie the Riveter pose and “We Can Do It!” written across the cover. That’s another great aspect of these covers-  the WW2 slogans featured on each cover.

The DC Bombshells series and variants are a lot of fun to collect. Fortunately, they are easy on the wallet too. Most can be had for cover price or thereabouts. If you find some of these, pick them up and maybe even stroll by Ant Lucia’s table at the next convention you attend, you’ll be glad you did. Good luck out there!

Wait, what? GoCollect has a concert poster price guide? Awesome!