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| Images copyright MARVEL COMICS |
"Hell's bells! Is there no end to this cover comparisons series?" you may be asking. Well, to be honest, no - not quite yet. Isn't it fascinating though, to see these covers 'side-by-side' (you know what I mean) and see where they match and where they deviate. I think that in some cases, even if you'd once owned the US issues, you'd probably have just assumed that the 'new' covers were simply rearranged layouts of the originals, not completely redrawn versions. Unless you were a die-hard KIRBY fan, you'd really need to see them both at the same time to spot the differences between them - and that's the purpose of these palpitating posts. So here you are - FANTASTIC FOUR #96 and The TITANS #39 - have fun looking.
9 comments:
The Mad Thinker is one of my favourite ever villain names.
When you think about it, OD, to call oneself a name with the word 'mad' as part of it is a bit strange, eh? Unless one really is mad of course.
Happy new year! My landline/internet connection has been down since December 29th but it's fixed now, hooray!
The most striking thing about this cover is the little sticker saying '1/-5p' from the days when we were changing from Imperial to decimal currency (which I'm not quite old enough to remember). Not even the most extreme Brexiteer wants to return to the old Imperial coinage.
Did he actually call himself "the Mad Thinker," or just "the Thinker"? And maybe the dialog by other characters, or the blurbs and captioms, added the "Mad" adjective.
"Mad" people don't usually perceive themselves as such.
But then, the villain calling himself "mad" would not be any weirder than a gang of villains calling themselves the Masters of Evil, or the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.
Happy New Year, CJ. I thought maybe you were ill in bed because you hadn't been around for a while. I don't think I could be labelled an extreme Brexiteer, but I'd be quite happy to see the return of the old coinage. Purely from a nostalgic point of view though.
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I'd have to check on that now that I think of it, TC, 'cos I'm not sure. I suspect you're right though. Having said that, Ivan Kragoff did refer to himself as The Red Ghost if I recall rightly, and you wouldn't expect a communist to do that either. I suppose anything goes in comics when it comes to villains' names.
Not a bad job by Larry on this one. On the original cover the buildings in the background were revised by Marie Severin. And I'm sure you know that Kirby did a re-make of his own for this cover Marvel's Greatest Comics # 77: https://www.comics.org/issue/32248/cover/4/
Took a look at that cover, Nick, but here's the thing. It looks like it's been 'flipped', and if you flip it back, it's very close to Jack's original - almost like a tracing. I think Jack would've completely redrawn it without sticking so closely to his original version, so is it possible that the inker of the MGC version traced it, and Jack's initials are on it merely as a 'courtesy', seeing as he drew the original on which the 2nd version is based? Speculation on my part of course, but other covers that Jack redrew for reprints didn't usually match the originals so closely. Or perhaps Jack himself traced the cover from the printed comic as they couldn't find a stat of the art in the Marvel offices or storeroom?
The redo is very close to the original, but there are enough subtle differences in a few figures and poses (sue, Johnny) that its not a complete tracing. Also, in the new version those are "Kirby buildings" in the background. I think your guess is right, Kid, Marvel probably didn't have a stat of the original and Kirby pretty much copied his original drawing.
Yeah, it's not a slavish tracing, Nick, more one of layout than detail - then it was flipped. So that makes 3 versions of the same cover - FF, MGC and The Titans.
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