Key unretouched Silver Age covers like FF #1 or JIM #83.

[Ferran Delgado]

Ever wondered how the original art of key Marvel Silver Age covers would look now?

With lots of corrective white paint and retouching and stats!

 

Just take a look at the cover of Journey into Mystery #83. The left image is taken from the book Origins of Marvel Comics, and the another is the printed cover.

http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/1893/jim083unretorigins184b1.jpg

 

This is a comparison with the Fantastic Four #1 cover. The left image is the unretouched version that Marvel sent to a spanish publisher, and the another is the printed cover:

http://img821.imageshack.us/img821/2117/kirbyff001unret.jpg

 

Marvel shot the unretouched art and then used it in reprints and sent it to foreign publishers. From the comparisons you can deduct how the art would look right now. Many more comparisons in my blog:

http://ferrandelgado.blogspot.com.es/search/label/Portadas%20sin%20retocar

Translation button to the top right.

[chromium]

This is a comparison with the Fantastic Four #1 cover. The left image is the unretouched version that Marvel sent to a spanish publisher, and the another is the printed cover:

http://img821.imageshack.us/img821/2117/kirbyff001unret.jpg

.

 

This is interesting ...I always assumed that there were originally 4 pedestrians and a cop and that subsequent reprints dropped some of them. Now it seems that there were originally only 3 people and no cop....so the two others were added on later.

 

So for the first issue of FF1 they added two more people and tarted up the storefronts :

 

 

When they released the the Golden Record there now were 4 people and plain storefronts.

So this is a mix of the original artwork and the cover to FF #1

 

 

 

 

So it's only the Marvel Milestone reprint that uses the original artwork ? (3 people on the sidewalk and no signs and addresses)

 

 

[Bronty]

fascinating stuff!

[Schmakt]

I wonder who drew the cop...

 

I think I like the JiM cover much better with all the extra green men...

[Bronty]

Really? Personally I like the revisions, I find the extra green men particularily the one right behind thor are distracting and take away from what should be the focus of the cover: thor. its announcing thor to the world after all