The cover to
Tales To Astonish #34 (1962), by
Jack Kirby and
Dick Ayers:
They basically used the
same drawing as the splah page, with minor alteration to fit the indicia and such. (Sorry, I don't have that comic, so I can't show you...I'm taking
GCD's word for that).
When they reprinted the story in
Monsters On The Prowl #29 (1974), they again
re-used the drawing for the splash page, with a bit of re-coloring:
So what did they use for the cover?
Waste not, want not! They re-used that drawing one more time, but this time, they had
John Romita make some alterations:
Aside from the re-coloring, note that Romita replaced the guy in the window with a frightened woman; added a second gawking head; added lightning in the background; and added some more detail (especially in the cracking of the window frame and brick work).
I have no real point to make here. I just found the multiple uses of one panel of artwork interesting.
Now
why is the monster at the window? We'll find out next post, so come back in half an hour...
The original cover uses a screen tint of black over most of the background.
ReplyDeleteThat black screen was on both the photostats and film negatives of the cover.
If the art was being modified/updated, all the areas with the black tint had to be redrawn.
If you look at a number of reprints of 1950s-60s covers, you'll see similar retouching done.
The reprint of Fantastic Four #64 (Marvel's Greatest Comics #47 has the Sentry's figure (which was entirely black-tinted) completely reinked!
While comparing covers I realized there is an "Escherism" in the window in all three versions. That is, the window has a frame on the top, bottom, and near sides, but on the far side the frame becomes the side of the opening into which the window is set.
ReplyDeleteI think originally the frame was intended to continue all around the opening but the windowsill hides its lower left corner and creates the illusion. The cracks added to the third version contribute to the impression that we're looking at a surface facing toward us rather than receding in perspective.
What the heck is mr. Monster even standing on?
ReplyDeleteDan--It's subtle, but if your closely at his feet, your can see some piton-like claws along the side; and on the MOTP cover, you can see damaged bricks there, similar to where his hand claws have dug into the building.
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