great cover/interior divide

[benday-dot]

Tonight as I was going through my box containing the Hulk titles I have collected, I once again came to gaze upon one of my favourite comic book covers of all time. There it was as penciled by Jim Steranko (except strangely Hulk's face)

http://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/1865/400/1865_4_1.jpg

I love this classic cover to Hulk King Size Special 1, and am compelled to pull it out everytime I happen upon it. But then I inevitatably open the thing up, and the wind kind of goes out of my sail. Its not that the interiors by Marie Severin and Syd Shores are particularly awful, its just that they stand out in such stark contrast to that gem of a cover. Syd Shores over Severin gives the work a kind of old style Atlas look, interesting stuff, but not bold or dynamic enough for Hulk imo. The absence of most of the mainline Inhumans also works against it. Still the slugfest between Hulk and Blackbolt (long a favourite Marvel character of mine) is pretty fine stuff.

So... can anybody else think of similar great divides in a comic between a book's sunny perfect beginning and its sudden mediocre march toward its end?

One more example that comes to mind is Superman 242... a knockout Neal Adam's cover, and within a trio of not terrible, but still more ordinary Superman tales

http://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/116/400/116_4_242.jpg

[icctrombone]

You could probably include most of the Wonderwoman covers for the last few years. Adam Hughes covers and a revolving door of artists in the interiors.

[Cherokee Jack]

Tonight as I was going through my box containing the Hulk titles I have collected I once again came to gaze upon one of my favourite comic book covers of all time. There it was as penciled by Jim Steranko (except strangely Hulk's face)


Did you ever see a picture of the original cover?

[Red Oak Kid]

All of the great Batman and Detective covers by Infantino in the 60s with the Bob Kane studio interior art.

[Mike Kuypers]

1970s Detective Comics with covers by Neal Adams and interiors by Bob Brown or Frank Robbins.

[Lone Ranger]

Much of Nedor's superhero output in the early and mid 40s suffered from the cover/interio divide.

Many issues would feature an incredible Alex Schomburg title to tempt the reader, but would have very bland art inside.

This changed in the late 40s when the likes of Mort Meskin, Ruben Moreira and Jerry Robinson started contributing, but for the most part - Nedor's superhero title are all cover and no guts.

[T GUy]

Mike Kuypers: 1970s Detective Comics with covers by Neal Adams and interiors by Bob Brown or Frank Robbins.

No offense, Mike, but personally I find Brown merely competant. Though, yes, that's obviously a contrast with the cover artist in this instance.

[dan bailey]

Mike Kuypers:

No offense, Mike, but personally I find Brown merely competant. Though, yes, that's obviously a contrast with the cover artist in this instance.

presumably, that was mike's point as regards brown ... or maybe i missed something. one way or the other, i do agree with your assessment of his work.

[benday-dot]

Did you ever see a picture of the original cover?

No I didn't Cherokee... I wasn't aware there existed an original. Do you have an image link you to which you can refer me?

Speaking of images the two I'd inserted to kick things off seem to be suffering from some sort of instabilty. Sometimes they are there to see, sometimes they are not. I hope this is just due to some sort of ghost in the machine, and not because comics.org is mad because I borrowed a couple of their cover scans. Just in case I will link to scans of my own copies...

Incidentally, speaking of Steranko... while I don't own them yet (I won a lot of the first seven on e-bay recently) I was wondering if anybody has anything to add positively or negatively regarding the interiors of the Frank Springer illustrated Nick Fury, Agent of Shield books. I believe Steranko only draws 1,3 and 5. How does Springer pull it off? I just drool over those Steranko covers, especially number 1,4 and 7 with their 60's pop art genius, and number 6 with its tribute to the great Wally Wood.

[benday-dot]

[QUOTE=Lone Ranger]Much of Nedor's superhero output in the early and mid 40s suffered from the cover/interior divide.

I have not been fortunate enough to see those early books Lone Ranger, but I took a look at some of the Nedor covers, and can't imagine that you are anything but spot on. Perhaps those Mac Raboy Captain Marvel's in which Raboy serves up breathtaking covers, but steps aside for another lesser luminary to lay out the interiors must also inevitably suffer from the divide.