The Weekly Shonen Jump Cover Gallery
One magazine, read by its covers.
Weekly Shonen Jump has published a new cover almost every week since 1968, and the covers are a record in themselves: the debuts, the peaks, the farewells, and the weeks the whole cast showed up at once. This gallery is the front door to that record. Every cover below is a verified image of the genuine issue, captioned for identification only. Where a landmark cover could not be verified to the Library standard this pass, the tile is an honest gold owl, and the gap is named on the tile.
The per series censuses already in this Library, for Sakamoto Days, Jujutsu Kaisen, and JoJo, sit behind the debut section below. This page is about the magazine itself: its first cover, its biggest cover, its rules, and its American cousin.
FIRST, BIGGEST, LAST
Three covers that frame the run
WSJ 1968 No.1
The first cover. Kujira Daigo on the left, a racing driver on the right, the pirate mark already in place, priced at 90 yen. Shown at 460px, a swap in upgrade is wanted.
WSJ 1995 No.3-4 · Cover gap
The biggest selling issue in manga magazine history, 6.53 million copies. No cover image verified to standard this pass, so the owl stands in. The record itself is documented on the question page behind this gallery.
WSJ 2016 No.42
The farewell cover Shueisha policy said should not exist: Ryotsu drawn by Akimoto and by his fellow Jump artists, for the final chapter after 40 years. Shown at 300px, swap in class.
THE DEBUT COVERS
Chapter 1, on the front
WSJ 1987 No.1-2
JoJo, chapter 1. The combined New Year issue that launched Araki. Full census on the JoJo shelf.
WSJ 1997 No.34
One Piece, chapter 1. Luffy fist first. The reprint authentication page for this issue is on the One Piece shelf.
WSJ 2018 No.14
Jujutsu Kaisen, chapter 1. Full census and first printing guide on the Jujutsu Kaisen shelf.
WSJ 2020 No.51
Sakamoto Days, chapter 1. Full census of all 23 feature covers on the Sakamoto Days shelf.
HOW THE COVER WORKS
The system behind the artThe pirate
He has been on the magazine since 1968, and he only got a name, Journey, in 2022. His sideways sister Jamie arrived in 2018. See the pirate question below.
Two numbers, one issue
Combined issues such as No.3-4 are single magazines carrying two issue numbers across a holiday week. See the two numbers question below.
The date is not the date
The cover date is a cataloguing date. In the Dragon Ball years the sale date ran about two weeks earlier, printed only in the previous issue.
Earning the front
The cover follows the lead colour chapter. Placement inside is set by the editors, informed by the weekly reader survey postcards, never by a pure vote count alone.
THE AMERICAN COUSIN
Viz, monthly, 2003 to 2012
US Shonen Jump · Jan 2003
The premiere issue: Super Saiyan Goku, drawn new for America, ringed by circles for One Piece, Yu-Gi-Oh, YuYu Hakusho and Sand Land. 288 pages, monthly. Shown at 279px, swap in class.
No Japanese twin
There is no Japanese issue this cover pairs with. Viz selected and reordered older chapters for American readers, so the honest comparison is system against system, not cover against cover. The American covers question below makes that comparison.