Thursday, February 10, 2011

Ever since I put your picture In a frame

Hey, remember this comic book cover?:

What If #25


Sure you do! That's the cover of What If? v.2 #25, "What if the Marvel Super Heroes Had Last Atlantis Attacks?," which we looked at together a couple days ago. The more I looked at it, tho', the more it became familiar to me. No, it didn't remind me of that time seven giant snakes with Cyclop's optic blasts came bursting out of Lake Placid...it's really the surrounding frame which caught my interest, because it reminded me of this:

New Mutants #45


Remember those? That's the Marvel 25th Anniversary frame, which adorned every Marvel (and Star) Comic cover-dated November 1986, to celebrate a quarter-century of Reed Richards crashing rocket ships into the ground. All that month, this multi-character frame penciled and inked by John Romita Sr. surrounded a headshot portrait of the comic's star or one of the co-stars. Take yourself a gander or goose at some of them right now!

Marvel 25th Anniversary Frames


That wasn't the last time Marvel used that motif, of course! Recently through 2009 and 2010, a newly designed frame debuted:

FF #570


They were used on issues to commemorate both the 70th anniversary of the debut of Timely Comics and The Year of the Marvel Woman. Hey, who let Sentry on there? Well, you can blank him over with some White-Out. That's exactly what Mike Nesmith's mother had in mind when she invented it, you know!

Marvel 2010 frame


Which got me thinkin'...Marvel shoulda used the frame from the cover of What If? #25 on a whole new series of comics! Since they're all looking so shocked and stunned, they could frame a special crossover event in which everybody dies! And I think it would go something like this:

Death of Captain America


You could use it to re-tell recent big event deaths like Captain America, or flash back in time to revisit the classic deaths of yesteryear!:

Death of Phoenix


Eh, don't worry; she'll be back. And hey, my idea would be perfect for this summer's big Death of Spider-Man event! Because this time it's for sure!

Death of Spider-Man


Of course, when you're killing off Spider-Man, it's always helpful to start thinning out the ranks of his supporting cast as well.

Death of Gwen Stacy


Yes, in the Death of Spider-Man cross-over, no-one is safe!

Death of Aunt May


Just to make sure nobody's coming back, we've hired a consultant to help keep this crossover kicking the bucket with every issue!

Death of Mary Jane


Spoilsport.

Now, make your own! Remember, it doesn't count if you don't see the body!

Death of...Template



5 comments:

Glen said...

Bully, you are the master of the alt comment! I may have to read your blog from the very beginning because I just can't get enough (I just can't get enough, ...).

Scott Bryan said...

You do this everytime! Now, once again, you've reminded me of another crossover. Remember when the JLA and JSA teamed with the All Star Squadron and each cover was frammed like this too? Heck, I think they came up with the idea first. Could we see those? I'd love to see the alt text for those!

Steve said...

That cover of The New Mutants at the top of this post; is that supposed to be Uma Thurman?

Tegan O'Neil said...

Remember: it's not seven giant serpents, it's one giant serpent with seven heads.

Martin Gray said...

Great work, Bully! I loved it when DC and Marvel were regularly framing scens in the Bronze Age, often the art really benefited.


Regarding Scott's question, I've a fridge magnet commenorating some 19th century Paris art expo and it's so like the JLA/JSA crossovers it's uncanny.