Unca Cheeks the Toy Wonder's Silver Age Comics Web Site!
. . . and then KEEPING
it!
How (and Why) the Silver Age Comics Covers
"Worked" (Part 2)
More classic "shaping" of the reader's attentions (to be accompanied by -- if all goes according to plan -- a simultaneous lightening of his or her wallet, to the tune of twelve cents American).
Again: the largest, most central image on the cover is dark (a solemn grey, in this instance), and points directly downward, towards the scene's other pivotal figure (i.e, the Grieving Sidekick).
There's an actual art (no pun intended) towards doing
these things... one which has been lost, by and large, by today's would-be practitioners
of same. If, indeed, they ever knew it in the first place.
During the 60's, no one -- I repeat: no one -- drew better covers for DC than the one... the only... Gil Kane. As this omigawd-it's-GORGEOUS offering, above, makes manifestly obvious.
That whole Rainswept-Cliff-At-Night-With-a-Dead-Hero-In-Your-Arms bit has worked pretty darned well, over the years. Here it is again -- this time, as interpreted by DC's other Cover Guy primo deluxe: Joe Kubert.
(You know what Hawkman's thinking right there, by the way? I'll tell you what he's thinking. He's thinking: "... a dead bird. I'm standing here, in the rain... and I'm holding a dead bird in my hand. Geez... the William Morris Agency is just killing me..." So... now you know.)
Scenes form Vertigo, Part Two: "Jimmy Stewart's back... and this time, it's PERSONAL -- !!"
Again: no secrets here, gang. Brightly-colored
(and imperiled) hero figure in foreground, "framed" by the Amazing Colossal
Legs of darker-hued baddie in the background. A classic bit of business,
by the hand of the long-absent (and much-missed) Wally Wood.
More Heroes Hitting Other Heroes.
In the face. A whole lot.
Just wanted to see if you were paying attention, is all. :-)
The "Oh-Boy-Is-He-About-To-Get-It" approach is yet another time-honored
goodie. Here, it's criminally underrated (in my book, anyway) longtime
Marvel utility infielder Sal Buscema who's providing the lesson in Basic Comics
Cover Grammar.
Note, too, the seeming excess (by today's standards, at any rate) of expository word balloons and suchlike. The working premise, back in the day, was that such things added to a given cover's "drama quotient"... thus, enticing the (perhaps) otherwise unconvinced casual purchaser.
Interesting side note: comics sold much, much better in the 70's than they do now.
THE CLASSIC SILVER AGE COMICS COVERS: How They "Worked"
(and Why)
PAGE ONE
PAGE THREE
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