It is a bit of an odd offering this time around as I am including many examples of books that were indexes, collections, reprints, and even text previews. And I also repeat many of the titles like Marvel Fanfare. But this time around it is really about the cover art and the expanded canvas on which the talent worked.
This format really emerged when the local comic shop came more into vogue and the direct distribution market blossomed. The back cover space could be used for expanded art instead of advertisements. Sometimes I actually forget the back panel exists because of the bagging and boarding in my comic collection; but in many cases the additional action really adds to the piece. On some covers the back acts as a type of reveal when you flip it over.
I'm sure you know of many more titles with covers like this to explore. I stumbled across many examples and I may have to run a second edition in the coming months.
In a few instances I included an image of the original art for comparison. It is fun to see how the project evolves with color and logos. I've also added some notes below on my favorites.
So take a gander. Make your selections from the Quarter Bin and join in on the "expanded" conversation!
Martinex1: In the past I have talked about how John Byrne channels Steve Ditko. On all of the Doctor Strange Classics covers he pays homage to the legend. Notice the teardrop in Clea's eye (longtime readers will know I've referenced that before)!
Martinex1: I always wonder how an artist decides where to position certain characters and who gets the prime spotlight. On the Marvel Age Annual, Kerry Gammill and Tom Morgan do an amazing job with the characters, even though my preference is for the characters on the back page.
Martinex1: Marshall Rogers and P. Craig Russell cram so much detail into the Dr. Strange cover for Marvel Fanfare that it was fun to flip it over and find the action projected through the crystal ball and see Clea and the window of the Sanctum Sanctorum. Here it is in the inked black-and-white as well as in the final color version. I like how the title is obscured in the original, but I understand why it was changed as well. I am torn to extremes on if I like the wide range of colors or if I actually prefer the black-and-white to focus on the details.
Martinex1: Where does your eye go in the inked version vs. the colored version on Byrne's multi-charactered Fanfare work here? The dark inks of the Angel draw my gaze, but when colored I look to the red Scarlet Witch.
Martinex1: A much more recent cover below, but I really like Alan Davis' art, plus it is the Invaders!
Martinex1: In 1987, Walter Simonson's work on the below index was pretty cool. Check out the mirror image signature.
Martinex1: George Perez' Who's Who covers for DC deserve a post of their own (like I said we will have to share more later), but I found the below original work fascinating. There are slight changes to fit all of the text properly and to balance the image, like bending Aquaman's arm, or moving Adam Strange forward. I think they could have left all of the logos and text off and it would have even been stronger; just let Perez do his thing. I particularly like Ambush Bug bending the corner of the page.
Martinex1: This Wonder Woman 300th Anniversary issue is one of my favorites. By all accounts it was pencilled by Ed Hanigan and inked by Dick Giordano. Who knew?
So now I turn it over to you BITBA fan; what do you say about these widescreen masterpieces?
Cheers!
15 comments:
Boy, I thought that I tended to not like wraparound covers, and that I'd have trouble coming up with four that struck my fancy. And now-? I'm not sure I could whittle it down to eight after my first pass. . . !
I do think Marvel Fanfare did a consistently good job of integrating front & back cover images into a single, powerful picture, yup.
Ohhhhh I can't decide.
And I imagine that whole, long month-to-month continuous cover from the Updated Guide/Handbook thingy of the Marvel Universe is a whole 'nother conversation, yeah?
HB
The wrap arounds remind me of the 90's "tin" age and collapse. I don't care for the multiple variant covers of today either. But, the Perez, Avengers 1 wrap is wonderful! Nice compilation
HB - yes I should have noted that the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe will surely show up at some other time. And like you as I started this, I had a negative feeling toward the wraparound cover but as I started finding examples I was pleasantly surprised. I still don't like the 90s, hologram, horrible posing covers but there are also a lot I do like.
I already have a ton of these, but I'd like to have 'em all, too! Marvel Fanfare 3, 4, and 5 are ones that got away; Cockrum, P. Smith, and Rogers...gimme! And although I have the original comics, that Immortal Dr. Fate cover by Simonson would have been mine if my LCS would have carried it!
Myself, I love wraparound covers. During the 70s, those covers meant an ad-less comic (the 100 page Super-Specs), so they were special and not over-done.
As to how they decided whom to place on the front cover and the back--that's a very good question! A few have me speculating...the Marvel Age Annual looks like it's promoting "what's new" on the front cover--Spidey's black costume (and Iron Man's new armor, Storm's "punk" look, et.), Secret Wars, mini-series West Coast Avengers and Vision & the Scarlet Witch; Hercules; Power Pack, etc.
When I first started looking at Byrne's Marvel Fanfare #45 cover, I thought it was mags Byrne had drawn and/or written on the front and those he'd never touched on the back, but the FF is on the back cover, so that blew that theory. Hmmmm...
Awesome post, guys!
Too hard to decide. I like 'em all.
That Marvel Fanfare pinup issue looks fun. I'll pick that for the cover alone! And the Dr. Strange classics, by Byrne and Milgrom? You'd almost swear it was Ditko.
I too have a distaste for gimmick covers with foil, embossing, etc. I don't mind variant covers so much, some are very attractive. However, they seem to take the focus off the story and place all the importance of a comic on the cover. Seems a shame and a waste.
One wrap-around that didn't make the cut: Justice League 200. One of my all time favorite covers, period...
As HB said, the Marvel universe (and DC Who's Who) covers are great. I'm also partial to those Marvel Index comics, especially the Spider-Man ones. I also like Mike Kaluta's cover for the Conan Universe.
I seem to recall some World's Finest wraparound covers ... #300 comes to mind.
I love all of these. Possibly the X-Men Special Edition is the biggest nostalgic favourite.
Although, one simply must mention all those Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe covers, esp. the Byrne ones. Lots of fun characters to look at there.
-david p.
Having one foot in the late Silver Age and one foot in the early Bronze Age, I lean towards D.C.'s 100-page Spectaculars. Those were the first time I saw wrap arounds and I was finally coming to the understanding of what, when the Golden Age was. I would add Steranko's two "History of Comics" Volumes which were hitting the bookstores at roughly the same time, with their wrap-around covers (full of more golden age characters I had never seen before)! They blew my young mind like slugging down a whole milkshake on a 95 degree day!
Great to see Perez's original Who's Who with Aquaman. Sienkiewicz had some nice Moon Knight covers, and Brent Anderson on Ka-Zar.
Oh those 100-page Spectaculars are spectacular.
Also partial to the Dr Strange Classics comic. But that Superman 100-pager is worth all the money in my hand.
How about Avengers/JLA #3? The Comic Geek Speak podcast once spent over four hours discussing that cover.
I'm going with the Daredevil index by Miller and Rubinstein. Because it's good and also because I used it as the background image on my Bronze Age Reprints blog a couple years ago. I had a bit of trouble trying to photoshop the logo out of the image, but I think it came out okay. You can view the edited version here:
http://tinyurl.com/zao3mwa
Most of these were after my comic reading years, but those great three 100 Page Super Spectaculars from the early 70's.....I can't describe how COOL it was for me to find those as a fledgling comics fan all of eight years old or so. I was really just into Superman and Batman at the time, from their Saturday morning cartoons, and had just started reading Justice League of America (the one steady read that I had for the twelve or thirteen years that I read comics). These covers with all of these new (to me) and interesting-looking characters just opened up the world at the time. Those books and the others that DC published over a two-three year period were such a great way to introduce new readers.
Superman Family 192 was one of my earliest comics and I still love it today. Kara and Lois look awesome, plus we get Kandor. Also bought Marvel Fanfare 3 and 4 and X-Men Classics 1 off the newsstand.
None of them are the best art, but hold strong sentimental value for me. Want to own Marvel Fanfare 51 with the Surfer and Mantis. Stunning cover there.
I know I'm late, but I wanted to plug a couple of my favorites that are not on this great list. World's Finest # 253 is a great representative from when that title was a Dollar Comic with no ads. The wraparound covers featured not only Superman and Batman, but also Captain Marvel, Green Arrow, and Black Canary! Mostly by Jim Aparo. My particular favorite is Superboy and the Legion # 238. This was a wraparound cover by Jim Starlin. I remember the first time I saw it, probably at Ketteridge's Variety store. First, that Starlin art is so striking and different than anything else. Second, I may have been reading the Legion for less than two years, but I knew that many of them were in their old costumes! Since they needed to publish a fill-in, Al Milgrom and Paul Levitz gave us readers a nice package for it. Not only that gorgeous cover, but no ads, and a classic Jim Shooter/Curt Swan story!
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