There are many aspects that are important to a comic. These aspects include the script, the title of the comic, the interior art and the art on the cover of the comic. Each of these aspects is important but the cover of the comic is the most essential. If the comic is written poorly nobody will continue to buy the comic, but the cover is the draw that creates an interest for people to buy it. Just recently Marvel Comics published a book that focus solely on comic cover art. This book, Marvel Comics: 75 Years of Cover Art covers 75 years of Marvel comic covers and is a book dedicated to the covers and the thoughts that went into them. This book is a must have for all Marvel fans.
The book is an exceptional book for its organization of the covers. The covers are in 4 different groups: the Golden Age, the Silver Age, the Bronze Age and the Modern Age. There are some exceptions as certain artists or themes will be presented out of order but for the most part the covers are organized by year. The yearly organization allows for readers to see how the art of covers has evolved over time. Furthermore, the reader can see how the different eras have affected the comic art. An example of this is when comics were subjected to the comic code. The covers were not as provocative and when the code was repealed the covers became racy again. This is only one example of what the book offers as it is rich in history and covers 3 quarters of a century of art for one of the biggest comic companies in the current industry.
The book offers more then organization of comic covers. Under each cover a short paragraph is written. This paragraph contains the artist who worked on the cover. Some of these paragraphs go as far to describe some of the artists and describe elements of their lives. Beside the life of the artist the paragraph features brief thoughts that the artist had when drawing the comic. This is crucial as it gives insight to how an artist thinks when creating a comic. Gaining the artist’s inner thoughts becomes invaluable as you can see the artist’s point of view on designing covers. Furthermore, the short paragraph describes the atmosphere of the Marvel Universe around the time these comics were being published. This is important, as comic covers are not only previews toward the current issue but are previews toward story arcs. The book gives the background of the stories that are going on which further cements the importance of comic covers as they act as short previews/ summaries of the comic. The book does an excellent job of emphasizing the importance of comic covers from a historical point and an artistic point of view.
This is one of the most important books for all comic book fans. This book provides a specialized focus on the artwork of the covers of Marvel Comics. The attention in the book is not focused on the comic stories or the heroes but rather the art itself and how it has evolved from the Golden Age to the Modern Age. Marvel Comics: 75 Years of Cover Art has a different method of expressing comic book history as it show cases the covers rather then a year by year list of what comics came out that year. As I stated before, if you are a fan of all comics this is one book that will not be a disappointment but will leave you with a greater appreciation of comic covers.
You can pick up Marvel Comics : 75 Years of Cover Art here.
