Infinite Marvel Picture Frame books 23 23

[Guardian Comics]

I think Nik would be proud of what I brought home from WWChicago this weekend

 

 

 

 

Jim

[Silver Surfer]

Nice stuff Jim, I love the DD copy. Here's my latest pick ups:

 

and because one is never enough:

Western Penn copy:

 

[bill999]

Marvel 1971 52 pagers of the early bronze age ushered in the beggining of the first Marvel Picture frame books a chat board member pointed out to me and he is right on. 52 pager Marvel square bounders with picture frame covers are killer books. I hope an Avengers 93 in CGC 9.8 someday shows up out there that would be a beyond nice! picture frame Marvel key book to own and be worth huge $$$ as well (smile).

[Silver Surfer]

I didn't realize until now but I think I'm hooked on these. Going to start to collect them as there are so many cool covers.

[BrianR]

It's nice to see this thread again. Fond Memories.

 

Here are a couple more BPFs

 

[Guardian Comics]

It's nice to see this thread again. Fond Memories.

 

Here are a couple more BPFs

 

 

The Westerns are super sweet as they seem so new to me everytime I see them.

 

Great books Brian :thumbsup:

 

Jim

[MasterChief]

Great thread with equally incredible books. I dig these beautiful books.

 

IMO, the picture frames, or sometimes referred to as box covers, are some of the best examples of dynamic cover artwork that “pops” off the 4-color cover (a 3-D type effect). It was a marketing concept employed by Marvel to hook prospective buyers and drive the bottom line.

 

Artistically simple yet amazingly effective. The marketing strategy worked and enabled Marvel to surpass DC in overall sales.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[MasterChief]

 

 

 

[Ghost Town]

Great books, MasterChief. I've never seen a nice copy of this one before.

[Ghost Town]

Some new arrivals. Sometimes it seems like Don Rosa was the only guy who kept these 1970s Westerns in nice shape.

 

 

 

 

[MasterChief]

Jeepers, GT... them thar books are amazing!

And that Kane cover for MMW#18 is way cool.

 

It’s been said that Kane drew over 40% of the picture frames during the period that the cover concept was in production (Nov '71 – Dec '72).

 

There is no doubt that Gil Kane was a driver in the picture frame design. The artwork speaks specifically to the Kane style. In fact, here's an interesting side note.

 

During a 1999 Comic Book Artist interview with John Romita, John was asked specifically about the Marvel cover designs in the early '70s:

 

CBA: The cover designs of Marvel Comics in the early '70s conformed to a rigid format. There suddenly was just a square for an illustration with the title of the story underneath, with a lot of verbiage around. Do you remember this really locked-in design when Gil [Kane] did most of the covers?

 

John: We did it for about a year, with a margin in it. They were looking to stand out from the rest of the crowd. I think Roy [Thomas] was involved. I think Gil might've designed it. I don't remember how much input I had on it; all I remember–that may have been when I was doing special projects.

 

CBA: Were you involved with the overall look of the books?

John: No, the only thing I was ever involved in was if they had a guy who they didn't think told the story clearly, or well enough, they'd ask me to talk to him. I never was in favor of the look of the books, or the techniques particularly...

 

...I know the covers that Roy, Gil and I did together–Roy would use Gil as his volume man; in other words, we'd get together once a week or two weeks, and plot out a bunch of covers. We would go over The Avengers, Captain America, and all the other titles that needed some hype, creative design, and big profile characters. So, Gil would do a very quick ball-point pen sketch on a pad, and Roy would tell him to do this, make the figure bigger, make the figure smaller, turn it that way, and he'd ask me, and I'd say, "Yeah, why don't you reverse it?" and that kind of stuff.

 

Then Gil would go home and do the pencils in two days for five or six covers, send them in, and then I would be given the problem of making them accurate, because the costumes were invariably irregular and needed correcting (some characters had a cloak on who shouldn't, and vise-versa). Gil's pet trick was all of his background characters had circles with dots for eyes, and I would have to put some flesh into them, some hair and coats and put bags of groceries in some woman's hands. Gil was in such a hurry to turn these covers out that I used to grumble; but it was in the interest of speed, and I certainly didn't disagree with Roy, because I thought we couldn't get that much work out of anybody else, and we might as well do it with Gil. He had such a flair for covers–and, as you might know, many a great artist doesn't translate into a great cover artist. For instance, I think John Buscema, as much as I admire him–and I would kill to be able to draw like him–was not a good cover man; he didn't think in terms of covers. Some guys had a flair for covers, and Gil was one of those. Roy harnessed that power, and I helped by filling in a lot of details, and making a lot of adjustments. Gil had a tendency to make everybody six-foot-nine...

 

Great interview. Lots of insight into the glory days. As a matter of study, here's an interesting illustration that depicts the original Kane art and the final production copy for MMW#18...

 

 

 

 

[Ghost Town]

Thanks for posting that interview. It's very cool to get an insider's perspective on this stuff. When I think about great Marvel covers from the '70s, more often than not, they were pencilled by Gil Kane. Even if we were usually looking up someone's nose.

[joeypost]

[joeypost]

[joeypost]

[joeypost]

[joeypost]

[Ghost Town]

All great books, joeypost. But I'm a big fan of this one.

[namisgr]

 

This one's sweet, too.

[MasterChief]

Beautiful books, JP~!