I've often asked myself that question a few times, well more than just a few times. What is it that I love about Comics?? Is it the art?
Yeah, that's definitely One of the reason why I love comics and still do, to this very day. The artwork by these talented artists whether they are pencilers or inkers or color artists, they produce work every month and I am in awe of their work. Often times I would just look at their work and wonder how do they do that?? Yeah so art is definitely One of the Reasons.
Is it the story? Is it the imagination of the writer who creates a story month after month pulling the reader closer and closer to the world of Super Heroes as we read about their adventures each month?
Definitely, the story along with the art is essential to any comic book and comic book fan. A great team, a creative team of story tellers can be your...guide to their Universe where all this happens. Where the Heroes take on their arch nemesis and we are given the chance to read about their adventures. When I look back at this hobby of mine, I feel really lucky that I was introduced to this world of comics.
Look at these pages, two classic pages from two different generations of artists. The first one details the birth of Captain America. Drawn by John Byrne, the second is by Jack The King Kirby. Two absolutely beautiful pages drawn by two great artists. It still amazes me how these two great artists were able to tell a story so well through their artwork. I remember when I first started reading comics, I just like the pictures. I didn't know at the time that there was a team of people behind this comic book. I guess that's why I love Comics so much, they help you to discover the Super Heroes, their story, their world and also slowly you also discover the talents behind these wonderful books called Comic Books.
The art and the story, yeah two good reasons why I love comics. Are there any other reasons? Well, here's a strange one. One thing I remember when I first started buying comics from a mail order joint in New Jersey is the smell of a new comic. What I mean is, a newly purchased comic. When I would get my comics, I'd open up the boxes and the comics I ordered would be packaged in plastic bags. This company would pack them together in these big bags. I would order say...well a lot and they'd pack them all together. When I opened the plastic bags and take out a comic, any comic, any issue from any year, one of the things I would immediately notice as I flipped the pages anxious to see the artwork, read the story was the smell of a new comic book. They had this distinctive smell. One which I can still faintly recall. And for me that's one of the reasons why I still collect comics to this day, the smell of a newly purchased comic book, there's nothing quite like it.
Okay, what else, well that is pretty much it, the story, the art, the color all in one nice neat package, a number of pages held together by two staples for my enjoyment. The new comic smell, yep, that's about i....t...no wait, there is one other reason why I love comics so much. Why to this day whenever I buy a comic, new or old, there's this sense of wonder for me. The reason why I love Comics is....the Marvel Corner Box.
What? The what? The Marvel Corner Box. You know the box on the top left hand corner of a Marvel Comic that shows the character of that title. You remember them, right? There were always my absolute favorite, when I buy my comics, one of the first things you see is the Marvel Comics Corner Box. I think DC Comics tried to do the same thing once, have say Superman under the DC Bullet Logo but that didn't last long. Marvel 's Corner Box lasted a long while but I haven't seen those Corner Boxes for a while now. I love those Corner Boxes, before you flipped the page, you look at the cover, checking out the cover and don't forget the corner box.
These Corner Boxes have been around for a long time. I tried to find out who started them and when and so on but no luck. I did however find this.
It looks like Marvel had these Corner Boxes as far back as Amazing Spider Man # 2. Wow. The Corner Box would usually feature the title character and the name of the publisher, the company, the price and so on.
There you go, a closer look at the Corner Box for Amazing Spider Man. Curiously though not all the early Marvel titles had the corner box. The Fantastic Four for instance didn't have theirs.
But I have to say that the cover to this issue Fantastic Four # 1 is a beauty, with or without a Corner Box. Strangely enough while Spider Man got his corner box by issue # 2, The Fantastic Four didn't have a corner box until Issue # 14.
That's the Corner Box for Fantastic Four. Drawn by Jack The King Kirby. Over the years there would be different variations featured in the Corner Box, like these:
These are just some of the classic Corner Boxes for Fantastic Four. Over the years these Corner Boxes would change with the change of the creative teams. One of the artists whose art I really loved On Fantastic Four is John Byrne. He took over the reins as writer and artist for Fantastic Four with issue # 232.
The Corner Box art was done by George Perez if I'm not mistaken. A few issues later Byrne would re do the art for the Corner Box, here's just a few of them.
When The Fantastic Four got new costumes after their journey in The Negative Zone, Byrne would also redo the artwork for the FF's Corner Box featuring their new duds. Years later during the Secret Wars Limited Series, Ben Grimm would decide to stay back on Battleworld, prompting this change.
Well after a while it was revealed that this famous character would take over from Ben Grimm, until he returns of course.
Yep, it would be the She Hulk. I'm trying to collect as many of these Corner Box pictures as I can. I really like them on a Marvel Comics Cover, they always made any Marvel Comic distinct, these Corner Boxes made a Marvel Comic stand out.
Take this artwork by John Romita Jr and Bob Layton, this was the original art for Iron Man's Corner Box. One that would be used for quite a few years and quite a few issues.
Issues of Iron Man like these.
Needless to say the Corner Box art adds a little something to these great covers. Nothing stays the same forever, creative teams come and go and sometimes certain artists return to the title they made famous, like John Romita Jr.
That's the Corner Box art they used in 1991 by John Romita Jr. Beautiful don't you think? I hope you enjoyed this edition of the broadcast. If you'd like to see more of these Corner Boxes, let me know, you can leave me a message or comment or email me, my email address is comicbookbroadcaster@gmail.com I'd love to hear what you think about these Corner Boxes and also what you love about comics. I'll share more of these Corner Boxes in a future edition of the broadcast.
Thanks again for spending some time with the Co(s)mic Comic Book Broadcast. See you again next time and as usual, always take care.
See ya!!!
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