Infinite Marvel Picture Frame books 23 23

[Silver Surfer]

Jim it is an awesome cover. Here's a couple more Western Penn's, looks like I'm not only on a Picture Frame fix but I seem to be gobbling up pedigree Sub-Mariner copies lately. I think I'm going to try and complete the run in high grade and raw (will crack out all the slabbs).

 

[MasterChief]

Wow... some great stuff posted since my last visit.

Simply incredible books -- especially the 25¢ 52-page Square Bounds uploaded by GT.

Totally Amazing~!

 

And I just love the Sub-Mariner picture-frames.

Dramatic and powerfully dynamic.

I can stare at those covers for hours.

 

The artwork was the baited hook. Who cared about the interior content...?

I would buy these books just for the cover's sake.

 

And to stay on point, here's a couple more...

to include one that was robbed of a higher grade.

 

 

 

 

 

[MasterChief]

Here's a book that, like the Vampire Tales #1, owes a lot of its design to the PF books. It came out a few months after Marvel ended the Picture Frame covers. But I think it's at least a distant relative to the genre.

 

 

That's similar to the various "updated reprints" of the Romance books that came out around the same time. The covers were slightly different with new colors, but kept the PF format.

 

 

Interesting stuff.

 

I was poking around my office today and came across a cover proof of Our Love Story #29.

 

OLS#29 is a reprint of OLS#17, which was published right smack-dab middle of the picture-frame timeline (June-72).

 

Our Love Story #17

Cover Artist: Sal Buscema

 

 

 

 

 

[Ghost Town]

It's cool to see a side by side comparison like that. Especially since you rarely ever see these books for sale in decent condition, slabbed or otherwise.

 

At the latest NY show, I looked through most dealer's boxes for tough PF books: Romance, reprints, Westerns, and horror. I could find copies (lower condition, unfortunately) of most books. But to find any copy of a PF Romance book was a very tall order.

[MasterChief]

Yeah, it is neat to see how a reprint cover differs from the original.

Sal Buscema's interpretation of FF#51 for the cover of MGC#38 is simply awesome.

 

 

 

 

[Ghost Town]

Some new arrivals:

 

 

 

 

 

[MasterChief]

Great pickup, GT!

 

I recognize the grease pencil mark.

 

 

 

[Ghost Town]

I recognize the grease pencil mark.

Do you know anything about the collection with those marks? I've seen a number of tough PF books with that same "M" on it. But I don't know anything about it.

[MasterChief]

Unfortunately I don't know the backstory of the "M" collection.

These books are nice PF specimens. Well preserved they are -- same look, feel and smell.

 

Here's a couple more...

 

 

 

 

-6.jpg' alt='rolleyes.gif' alt='9_9'>-6.jpg'>

 

[MasterChief]

Finally finished my picture-frame study.

It was quite the undertaking, but a lot of fun.

 

I was able to get copies of every cover, map the books to a production timeline,

and then identify each cover artists (with the exception of two).

 

By the way, here's an interesting side.

 

Gil Kane is credited with 120 covers, which equates to about 30% of the production run.

He is followed by John Buscema, a distant second, with 44 covers.

 

Gotta love the Picture-Frames~!

 

(Feedback welcomed. )

 

 

 

[VintageComics]

You sir, are a giant among nerds!

 

(thumbs u

 

Thanks for the hard work!

 

[Ghost Town]

Wow. Nice work, MC.

 

It's interesting to see how few titles Marvel published monthly back then.

 

Which two books have the unidentified cover artists?

 

I didn't know that My Love #14 was round bound, not square bound. I've only seen scans of that book. Do you have a copy?

[joeypost]

I'm starting to get the urge to put together a run for myself

[JiveTurkeyMoFo]

About 8.5/9.0ish

 

My old copy, right?

[namisgr]

Great table of data, but who's "Berry Smith"?

[MasterChief]

Wow. Nice work, MC.

 

It's interesting to see how few titles Marvel published monthly back then.

 

Which two books have the unidentified cover artists?

 

I didn't know that My Love #14 was round bound, not square bound. I've only seen scans of that book. Do you have a copy?

 

Nope... I don't have a copy of ML#14. Wish I did!

 

I dug that tidbit of information out of a great one-page piece published in CBM#81 titled "Marvel's 52-Page 25 centers!"

 

It seems that during the production run of the 25 centers (Dec-70 to Mar-72) Marvel published a total of 57 books in the square-bound format, with the exception of 4. Those four books were produced as round-bounds and included: Captain America Special #2 (Jan-72), Mighty Marvel Western #15 (Dec-71), Monsters on the Prowl #13 (Oct-71), and My Love #14 (Nov-71).

 

As far as the unidentified artists go, I'm down to just one.

Any help in identifying who penciled RK#13 would be much appreciated (no guessing allowed, Folks!).

 

 

 

[MasterChief]

Great table of data, but who's "Berry Smith"?

Why the same Berry Smith who captured the imagination of many a Marvel Maniacs with such great Kirbyesque visuals as that pictured below, that's who!

(I never did understand the née hyphenation. Why anyone would want to be named after a castle is beyond me. Especially since his work was always royal in my book.)

 

 

 

[VintageComics]

I think he meant the spelling of "Barry".

 

[VintageComics]

 

Looks VERY Severinesque. At least the inks do.

 

 

[MasterChief]

I think he meant the spelling of "Barry".

 

... I've been working way too hard lately