The Evolution of Comic Covers

Due to a project that I'm doing for Paul over on Back to the Bins, I've been seeing a lot of comic book covers recently. What has struck me is that we are pretty much back where it began. Let me explain that by using Batman, a character continuously published for 80 years, as an example.

This is a cover from the 1940's. What we have is a "poster" image that may or may not reflect what's inside the book. Other than that, we have the title, publisher logo, issue number, date, and price. Very simple and, except for the Joker's presence, we don't get any information about the story.

This cover comes from the 50's, and now we have the Comic's Code stamp prominently featured. In addition to the information we had in the 40's, we now have a speech bubble indicating that Ace is a new member of the team, so he'll probably feature in the story. We still don't know what that story is, though. (Yes, I chose this cover because Ace is on it.)

Here we are in the 1960's and now, in addition to even more speech bubbles, we have the titles of the two stories inside, one of which is represented on the cover. There's much more information to help the consumer decide whether this is an issue that they may want to pick up. Note how the Comic's Code stamps has shrunken from it's premiere.

Now we've made it to the 70's and the cover is less verbose, with only a few speech balloons and no story title. The image does seem to represent something that happens in the story, so maybe a title isn't necessary. The Comic's Code stamp is even smaller now. We also have the beginnings of a corner box, where the issue number, date, and price are all in one place.

In the 1980's we have the corner box also including the, now even smaller, Comic's Code stamp. No speech bubbles but we do have a story title and the promise of a reveal inside the issue. We also have the addition of the creator names, which is a nice touch.

In the 90's, the pendulum started swinging back. We have no story title or word balloons. Everything else is still present, even though the Comic's Code stamp is even smaller. The image seems to be more poster-like and probably not representing something that actually happens in the issue. We do get the obligatory crossover title, though, something there was a lot of starting in this era.

In the 2000's the Comic's Code stamp has practically shrunk out of existence, but the story title is back. This is definitely a poster image, though. The corner box has also been broken up, with the price moved to the UPC box.

This is a cover from a few years ago. What we have is a "poster" image that may or may not reflect what's inside the book. Other than that, we have the title, publisher logo, issue number, date, and price. Very simple and, except for the the fact that it's part of "Zero Year" in "The New 52" era, we don't get any information about the story. So we're right back where we began in the 40's. No corner box, no Comic's Code stamp, although we do have the creator names added.

It's an interesting cycle to look at, but I think the most balance was struck in the 70's and 80's. You get a good amount of information about what's in the issue, but it doesn't overwhelm the cover itself. Too much or too little on the cover doesn't do the issue any favors, in my opinion.

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