MARVEL'S "BOXED IMAGE" COVERS

During the early days of the Bronze Age comic era, some of the finest examples of cover artwork ever created were produced at Marvel. This art was framed on three sides by a solid color with a bleed off the right edge - which may have been a marketing strategy to entice the newstand viewer to open the comic. The area below the image box was used for the story titles and captions. Eye catching 3-D effects were obtained by having part of the imagery or word balloons extend beyond the box boundary - often into the title mast area above the image box. The narrow band of color to the left of the image box accentuated the spine area giving the comic a more "book like" appearance.

This cover concept began with the 25 cent giant-size issue that was produced for most of Marvel's November, 1971 titles. This issue bridged the price increase of 15 cents to 20 cents. The "boxed image" covers were utilized until the release of the December, 1972 issues.

Only the EC Comics staff of the early 1950's equaled the dynamic talent that existed at Marvel during the early 1970's. Neal Adams, Frank Brunner, John Buscema, Bill Everett, Mike Ploog, John Romita, Barry Smith, Jim Starlin, Jim Steranko and, of course, Gil Kane, were producing some of the best work of their careers which were nicely showcased by this framing device. Gil Kane, himself, felt that his best work was done for Marvel during this time period. It was certainly his most prolific period as over 40% of the covers done for these issues were drawn by him.

The comic book community is finally starting to appreciate these long overlooked gems. Heritage Comics December 2002 Signature Auction Catalog acknowledged these covers in some of its comic descriptions. As a matter of fact, one of these "boxed image" comics, Amazing Spider-Man #111 (valued at $45 in NM condition in the 2002 Overstreet Price Guide) in NM/MT 9.8 condition sold for an unprecedented $1,725 with several other examples of these fine comics selling for many multiples of current guide prices. These comics are certain to one day have a dedicated fan following that rivals that of the Timely, EC, or "Good Girl" art comic collectors.

Here are a few examples of those wonderful covers: