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"Classic covers" that don't really do anything for you! I'll start...

Started by TheAvenger80,

144 posts in this topic

JohnT

JohnT

Posted
Posted

what's the big deal with this spidey cover? It's not a bad looking cover, but I don't understand why some people love this cover so much (shrug)

 

 

16ASM33.jpg

 

I agree that this cover doesn't do much for me, although it's certainly a great story.

[font:Arial Black] blasphemy [/font] :sumo:

 

I think what bugs me about it is there's too much water obscuring Spidey. It's hard to tell exactly what's going on. Is he hiding? Is he crawling out from underneath whatever that gray mass is? After you've read the story you know that he's trying to hold it up and losing the battle, but to me that isn't conveyed well enough on the cover.

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JohnT

JohnT

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I've always felt this cover to be rather plain looking. No strong impact anywhere and you really have to read the cover text actually get it.

 

92089.jpg

 

 

Yeah, take the tongues out of the equation and that's a very pedestrian cover. Not much artistic merit, but it is a pretty shocking idea.

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rjpb

rjpb

Posted
Posted
I've always felt this cover to be rather plain looking. No strong impact anywhere and you really have to read the cover text actually get it.

 

92089.jpg

 

 

Yeah, take the tongues out of the equation and that's a very pedestrian cover. Not much artistic merit, but it is a pretty shocking idea.

 

This is one of my favorite pre-code crime covers, but I readily admit that it's the over the top content that makes it so. On artistic merits there is nothing "classic" about it, and pov is right, without the text it's hard to tell they are even tongues. Compared to the grotesque covers of the Eerie publication mags from the late 60s - early 70s, it even looks a little tame, but for a pre-code book, it is seriously demented. Lou Morales was a hack, no argument there, and the composition seems to emphasize the stupid candle bottle in the foreground over the tongue man. When I first started collecting pre-code crime, I felt this cover was overrated, but it's grown on me over the years, despite the primitive execution. If it could be considered a classic, it is on content alone.

 

It's been a few years since I've read the story, but as I recall, the interior panels give you a better look at the fistfull of tongues.

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