Who's The Best... Marvel's Corner Box?

Martinex1:  Marvel really had something special going on in the upper left hand corner of their comics.  From nearly the beginning, they carved out space on the cover to identify the characters within.   The heroes were easy to see on the shelved newsstands as the comics were layered for visual access.  The company quickly realized that they were onto something as they even advertised to "Watch for the  Greatest Symbols in Comics!"   It may have been Stan at his hyperbolic best, but I have to say that there were actually times that the corner box made me buy a comic.  Looking back at the history of that iconic marketing tool that lasted decades, I cannot believe how many variations existed.  In this post I share more than one-hundred examples, and I dare to say that I have only scratched the surface.  


During my comic purchasing peak, I inspected the cover and looked for the sometimes subtle changes in the corner box.  My favorites varied from the John Byrne floating head depictions to the rotating spotlighted team members in books like the Micronauts.   One of the most clever examples included a run on the Incredible Hulk in which the Hulk in the corner box transformed from a scientist into the rampaging character if the reader handled sequenced issues as a flipbook.  (The proof of that down below came from the thejadegiant.com website).


What were your favorites?  Which were the best?  And which were the worst?   Enjoy!

And In This Corner... 1972

Doug: If you're like us, part of the charm of Marvel Comics in the Bronze Age was the wonderful corner box that adorned all of their titles.

When I first started getting/buying my own comics (which would be closer to the end of 1973/beginning of 1974) I used to make my own comic books. As part of those books, I'd often glue in the corner boxes I'd snipped from my comics. It didn't take long until some friends of mine, who had older brothers, recommended that I desist in that habit. I had been educated!
A fun pasttime with any sort of stock art is to try to determine who the artist was. If you know, or have some solid guesses, why not post them in a comment below?
In our first row, you'll see cover art from Tomb of Dracula, Mighty Thor, Uncanny X-Men (during the reprint era), and Werewolf By Night. I've always liked the regality of this Thor image.

This row contains corner boxes from Claws of the Cat, Namor the Sub-Mariner, Amazing Spider-Man, Shanna the She-Devil, and Power of Warlock. You'll see the same Warlock picture below.

Who can forget (or more likely, can anyone remember??) Night Nurse? Also, you'll find Marvel Team-Up, Marvel Triple Action, and Marvel Spotlight featuring Ghost Rider! That Ghost Rider image is pretty cool, as he bursts right out of the magazine and into your lap!

Up next are two images from Marvel's Greatest Comics, Marvel Premiere featuring Adam Warlock, Marvel Premiere featuring Dr. Strange, and Luke Cage, Hero for Hire. The Torch and the Thing are obviously rendered by Jack Kirby.

Of course here we find some heavy hitters: The Incredible Hulk, the Invincible Iron Man, the Fantastic Four, Doc Savage, Man of Bronze, and the Defenders. I never liked that Iron Man pose (there's a similar Doc Doom pose -- it was on the cover of Marvel Team-Up #43). The Thing and the Hulk look like are about to square off!

In this row you see art from Daredevil (with the Black Widow, looking quite curvaceous!), Conan during the Barry Smith era, and Captain Marvel.

Here are Captain America and the Falcon (pre-wings!), the Avengers, Astonishing Tales featuring Ka-Zar and Zabu, and Amazing Adventures starring Black Bolt and the Inhumans. Four of these dudes are pretty stoic, and isn't it interesting that the Vision and Black Bolt strike virtually the same pose?

And last but certainly not least, we have the Beast (in his very early gray fur), also from Amazing Adventures!

I didn't get any artwork from the corner boxes of Marvel's westerns. If we do this again, perhaps fast-forwarding a few years, we'll check out some of those.