Oddly Similar Comic Covers 11 11

[littledoom]

Almost every Master of Kung Fu cover has Shang Chi kicking someone in a very similar position on the cover

[BigLeagueCHEW]

On 10/25/2021 at 9:33 AM, littledoom said:

Almost every Master of Kung Fu cover has Shang Chi kicking someone in a very similar position on the cover

Wild guess, in the Nadz? 

[Get Marwood & I]

On 10/25/2021 at 2:50 PM, Gaard said:

Yeah, I know. I'm reaching.

Not at all, I really like that one - exactly what I had in mind for the thread - oddly similar 

[Malacoda]

On 6/21/2021 at 5:06 AM, Jasonmorris1000000 said:

 

If you're fighting a dinosaur (and why wouldn't you be?), it is pretty much obligatory to get into its mouth and hold its jaws open. 

Edited October 26, 2021 by Malacoda

[Malacoda]

On 10/25/2020 at 7:27 PM, rjpb said:

That particular cover is a bit of a head scratcher. If you look at some of the other Atlas covers for which their seems to be changes made when comparing U.K. and U.S. usage, it generally seems that that while tame compared to pre-code covers, some covers were toned down a bit due to being a bit too menacing. In this case it's a bare beastly arm covered with a sleeve, and the head redrawn so it looks less terrified, though the original hardly looks "scarier" than a number of other post code Atlas covers. It's unclear as to whether these changes were made due to CCA complaints or anticipating possible trouble. 

 

I recall an article or thread showing a number of examples but couldn't find it, but here is one other example.

 

https://tombrevoort.com/2020/07/03/your-comics-code-at-work-mystery-tales-38/

 

Just to back up your point, I think it being too menacing is exactly the issue. There are a number of UK Marvel covers where the UK 'reprint' cover is clearly superior to the US 'original' cover (bearing in mind that for Marvel, the new UK covers were drawn in New York by Tony Isabella's team, literally across the hall from the US Marvel team).  There are several of them where the UK cover is so clearly superior,  it delighted but baffled me for years that they would create such a superior cover for us.  Then it dawned on me that the UK cover was an unused original and the US cover was a hastily knocked up replacement. Of course, when they came to do the UK reprint, they used the superior original. Check out this terrible cover for Avengers 19, credited to Jack Kirby & Ayers, although the floating heads look like Don Heck to me.  Now have a look at the cover of the UK reprint, with its imminent beheading. Do you suspect that the UK cover was the original, was rejected by the CCA for being too menacing and the new terrible cover was quickly put together by diverse hands? 

Edited October 26, 2021 by Malacoda

[grendelbo]

I like making collages with the photo-catalogue I have of my collection.

I'll often group them by similarity. Here's some examples that may be oddly similar.

 

 

 

(Popped Claws.)

 

[Unca Ben]

On 10/6/2020 at 7:29 PM, catman76 said:

Not all comics but still oddly similar or really just copied...

"First Man discovered fire, then he began cave-painting and shortly thereafter came the light table."

 "Never draw anything you can copy, never copy anything you can trace, never trace anything you can cut out and paste up."  -Wally Wood, I'm told.

[Unca Ben]

On 10/26/2021 at 9:43 AM, Malacoda said:

 

Just to back up your point, I think it being too menacing is exactly the issue. There are a number of UK Marvel covers where the UK 'reprint' cover is clearly superior to the US 'original' cover (bearing in mind that for Marvel, the new UK covers were drawn in New York by Tony Isabella's team, literally across the hall from the US Marvel team).  There are several of them where the UK cover is so clearly superior,  it delighted but baffled me for years that they would create such a superior cover for us.  Then it dawned on me that the UK cover was an unused original and the US cover was a hastily knocked up replacement. Of course, when they came to do the UK reprint, they used the superior original. Check out this terrible cover for Avengers 19, credited to Jack Kirby & Ayers, although the floating heads look like Don Heck to me.  Now have a look at the cover of the UK reprint, with its imminent beheading. Do you suspect that the UK cover was the original, was rejected by the CCA for being too menacing and the new terrible cover was quickly put together by diverse hands? 

The first cover in your post was done about nine years after the original (bottom) cover, and the '74 dated cover was done by artist(s) who didn't work for Marvel in 1965.  Looks like Ron Wilson or Buckler, et al.  so it could not possibly be the original.
I love the Kirby cover.  Emphasis on the new character - remember, this was 1965 and the silver-age Marvel cast of characters was still very small so a new character could be a big deal.  And it does look like Heck made some corrections on the floating heads like Cap's and perhaps Wanda's (Heck was known at the time for his beautiful women, arguably not Kirby's strong suit) and Hawkeye's, a character Heck co-created and designed.  I do like the U.K. cover, too.

The Kirby cover is a textbook example of a silver age Marvel cover and the U.K. reprint is a textbook example of a bronze age cover.  Two distinct phases and looks.  I'm guessing (apologies if I'm wrong) that your sweet spot - when you started reading comics and appreciating the artform, was during the bronze age or later and not the silver age like mine would be.  That can play in to your preference for the one and mine for the other.  Either way, great stuff!

Edited October 27, 2021 by Unca Ben

[Malacoda]

On 10/27/2021 at 7:41 AM, Unca Ben said:

The first cover in your post was done about nine years after the original (bottom) cover, and the '74 dated cover was done by artist(s) who didn't work for Marvel in 1965.  Looks like Ron Wilson or Buckler, et al.  so it could not possibly be the original.
I love the Kirby cover.  Emphasis on the new character - remember, this was 1965 and the silver-age Marvel cast of characters was still very small so a new character could be a big deal.  And it does look like Heck made some corrections on the floating heads like Cap's and perhaps Wanda's (Heck was known at the time for his beautiful women, arguably not Kirby's strong suit) and Hawkeye's, a character Heck co-created and designed.  I do like the U.K. cover, too.

The Kirby cover is a textbook example of a silver age Marvel cover and the U.K. reprint is a textbook example of a bronze age cover.  Two distinct phases and looks.  I'm guessing (apologies if I'm wrong) that your sweet spot - when you started reading comics and appreciating the artform, was during the bronze age or later and not the silver age like mine would be.  That can play in to your preference for the one and mine for the other.  Either way, great stuff!

I do agree. I was thinking it was an old cover that was dusted off and re-tooled rather than it was used as-was (bearing in mind that those original covers all had to be re-framed and re-sized...and sometimes composited and various different pieces of art collaged..... for the UK reprints often utilising artwork that came from other places).  Not sure about the artist, but the inks look very Klaus Janson to me (he was freelancing for Marvel at the time and doing a lot of different bits & pieces), so I agree it only came out looking like that in 1974, but what was the start point? When you look at some of the covers that were re-drawn, they are usually a lot more basic than that Swordsman one, which seems to me to have had some effort expended on it. Compare, for example, to this one, which kind of looks like Pablo Marcos, maybe?  (he was working on the black and white magazines at this point, so kind of fits the frame).  You're probably right, as several of these covers were re-drawn, but  it does then beg the also-interesting question of why certain originals weren't used for the UK reprints when most were.  Off topic for this thread though. 

Edited October 27, 2021 by Malacoda

[F For Fake]

On 10/26/2021 at 11:57 AM, Malacoda said:

 

If you're fighting a dinosaur (and why wouldn't you be?), it is pretty much obligatory to get into its mouth and hold its jaws open. 

Not at home to grab my copy, but this is a good excuse to post some Bolland WW goodness. 

[Malacoda]

On 10/27/2021 at 7:41 AM, Unca Ben said:

I love the Kirby cover.  Emphasis on the new character - remember, this was 1965 and the silver-age Marvel cast of characters was still very small so a new character could be a big deal. 

Not sure I wholly agree about this point. Obviously, they are putting an exciting new supervillain front & centre on both covers, but I’m not sure readers were surprised to see a new character introduced. They got a new super baddie practically every issue and even the ones that were being re-used had only been seen once or twice.  In the Avengers alone, on top of early reappearances for Loki, the Sub Mariner, the Melter, the Black Knight, Radioactive Man, the Enchantress, the Executioner, the Mole Man & the Red Ghost, we got the Silver Age reappearance of Captain America, the conversion of Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch & Quicksilver to goodies, and the first appearances of Baron Zemo,  the Space Phantom, the Lava Men, Kang, Wonder Man, Immortus, Count Nefaria,  the Kallusions, the Commissar and the Minotaur.  23 characters in 18 issues.  Stan, Jack & Don were cranking them out in those days. 

[JollyComics]

On 10/27/2021 at 12:07 AM, grendelbo said:

 

 

 

Thanks for catching my eye!

This is 1984 cover and that Punisher Cover was 5 years later....

[Malacoda]

On 10/27/2021 at 7:41 AM, Unca Ben said:

I'm guessing (apologies if I'm wrong) that your sweet spot - when you started reading comics and appreciating the artform, was during the bronze age or later and not the silver age like mine would be.  That can play in to your preference for the one and mine for the other.  Either way, great stuff!

This is a fascinating and insightful point. I had to think about this for a while.  Here in the UK, we had a much more muddled situation. As you clearly know, in the 70’s we had weekly comics produced by ‘Marvel UK’ (in fact the artwork was all done at Marvel in New York and the UK office just packaged it, changed the editor’s notes, did the letters pages, advertising, added competitions, printed and distributed). We also got imports of up to date US originals, so we were discovering the silver and bronze ages at the same time. 

I loved a weekly called ‘the Super Heroes’ which reprinted the Silver Surfer and the X men and I definitely remember that my impression was that Kirby’s art looked significantly inferior to Big John’s.  However I didn’t know that the Xmen actually predated the Surfer by 5 years - I discovered both at the same time in the same comic, which is kind of how we got Marvel in the UK. 

I am pretty sure that I did not have a sweet spot or a moment when I ‘imprinted’ or based my expectations around Bronze rather than Silver art, but I fully see how that would happen.  

I absolutely adored the John Buscema run on Avengers from 1967 onwards and I remember when Marvel signed Frank Robbins in 1974, amidst much fanfare and raising of expectations, thinking he was rubbish compared to the silver age artists and hoping to God that Frank Robbins was not the future of Marvel art. 
I’m pretty sure that when I did get to the point of having a sweet spot, it was more the other way round.  It seemed to me that Marvel continuously improved from 61 into the 70’s, albeit with a distinct house style, and then in the 70’s a lot of the art seemed distinctly inferior to me.  Spider Man went Ditko, Romita, Kane which was all upwards and then Andru which was OK, but not better.  Daredevil went from a sublime run (Colan, Shores, Palmer) to Heck and Brown.  Sal Buscema’s run on Hulk is fine, but it’s not Trimpe/Severin.  There’s a lot of gold in 70’s Marvel artwork, but much of it is not in the marquee properties, it’s in MOKF, Warlock, Captain Marvel, Doc Strange, Tomb of Drac, Conan, Iron Fist etc). 
Interesting to think about though. Thank you. 

[JollyComics]

On 10/27/2021 at 10:55 AM, F For Fake said:

Not at home to grab my copy, but this is a good excuse to post some Bolland WW goodness. 

You forgot this...

[grendelbo]

On 10/27/2021 at 11:17 AM, JollyComics said:

You forgot this...

Here's a book from my childhood before I began collecting.

[grendelbo]

On 10/27/2021 at 11:08 AM, JollyComics said:

Thanks for catching my eye!

This is 1984 cover and that Punisher Cover was 5 years later....

I see the similarity in these too.

 

[Malacoda]

That ASM 271 immediately makes me think of Man Mountain Marko. 

[kav]

On 10/27/2021 at 8:55 AM, F For Fake said:

Not at home to grab my copy, but this is a good excuse to post some Bolland WW goodness. 

I'm not seeing a 'sandwich' here.

[ADAMANTIUM]

On 10/27/2021 at 8:11 PM, kav said:

On 10/27/2021 at 10:55 AM, F For Fake said:

Not at home to grab my copy, but this is a good excuse to post some Bolland WW goodness. 

I'm not seeing a 'sandwich' here.

The dinosaur gave at the office 

[F For Fake]

On 10/27/2021 at 9:11 PM, kav said:

I'm not seeing a 'sandwich' here.

Dunno, pretty sure there's a couple of buns.