Back When Comics Had Suspenseful Cover Art

 

Action #393 (1970) "The Day Superboy Became Superman" - Curt Swan Cover.

In the Golden and Silver Ages of the Comic Industry in the USA, comic book covers often previewed what the story was about. It was a way to tease the customers and fans into buying the comic issue, as well as summarizing in just one image what is to come.

To some extent, this marketing strategy was still used up to the late 1980s, as I do remember some Uncanny X-Men issues (written by Chris Claremont and illustrated by both Marc Silvestri and Dan Green) that highlighted the climax event in each book with tantalizing or heart-stopping comic covers.

I miss those covers. I miss that kind of editorial decision to tease the audience. The cover art is directly related to what is going on inside the comic issue. When I began working for Image Comics in 1993, the marketing strategy was different. It became more about showing off the main characters in every comic issue in a pinup-style pose—oftentimes, gritting their teeth and clenching their fists at the audience in an effort to look menacing or hardcore action-oriented. This persists to this day when comic covers are still presented as a pinup rather than as a teaser for the main story.

This would be akin to a Hollywood movie trailer only showing the main cast in an action pose, but no preview of the various story acts and events in the film.

It would be nice to bring back some Golden and Silver Ages marketing strategies to comics once more. In particular, make the cover look like a trailer for the story rather than a pinup standing shot, or as we used to call it back at Image in the 1990s, a “jerk shot.”