The Christmas Holiday is my favourite time of year to go through my comic books. After all, what is "Boxing Day" if not a Day for Going Through Comics, Right? I get a real sense of joy and pride as I categorize the year's purchases and put them within their rightful spot in the overall collection. But this year, as I flipped through my multiple boxes of Spider-man books, I noticed something I never really took note of before: The corner art boxes on the top left-hand side.

I noticed that Issue 2 of The Amazing Spider-Man (first appearance of the Vulture) was actually the first appearance of this small piece of box art and was a definitive change to the Marvel Comics that had come before it.

Marvel Comic Books predating ASM #2  were only identifiable as being Marvel Comics by a small box on the right beneath the comics code stamp containing the letters "MC".


This new idea of having the hero drawn on the top left like this was first initiated by artist Steve Ditko. But why did he do this? What was his thought process? What was its purpose?

Well, it all came down to how the comic books were displayed and sold on the newsstands.

At the time, a lot of the comics sold at the newsstand were displayed in such a way that only the tops of the books were ever seen from the spinner racks, and sometimes even less than that! (Some only showed that top left corner, as books were overlapped.) This new piece of artwork meant that the books were immediately identifiable to the consumer. Allowing them to instantly see the character, issue number, and price.

Stan loved this new idea!

Stan loved this new idea and credited Steve for it on the letters page of Fantastic Four issue 18. Over the years, a lot of people had originally thought it was Jack Kirby who came up with the idea for this box art, as his Fantastic Four Issue 14 had actually hit the newsstands before Amazing Spider-Man issue 2.

After seeing this on the Spider-man collection I decided to do some research, and it turns out Marvel wasn't actually the first to do this.

DC used a similar idea with both Superman and Batman years prior.DC had used this idea specifically with their anthology series books, which would sometimes have other characters (outside of Superman and Batman) printed on the front cover:- Action Comics- Detective Comics

The Amazing Spider-man's box art changed from the individual head image to that of a whole body when John Romita Sr. took over at issue 48 and continued for the next 151 consecutive issues before changing pose.

As the years went on, later artists taking over on Spider-Man would also get in on this idea and give their own spin to the character art in that top left corner of each book. Spider-Man himself has only ever been replaced twice within the Amazing Spider-Man run. Once by the HobGoblin in issue 250 and again with Judas Traveller in Issue 394.

By the 1980s, Marvel had been doing this form of box art for the better part of two decades across all their titles, and there are some classics!

One standout is this Incredible Hulk Transformation across multiple issues.

It was the 1990s that saw the end of this branding style. Issue 403 of Amazing Spider-Man was the last to have this art style in place.

So why did this happen? Why did this corner art disappear?Well, it was all due to the rise of direct issues.

As newsstand comics died out, publishers chose to utilise the retail space. Newsstand books had to compete for space, while those direct issues within comic book shops had more options for display. They were no longer limited to just those top left corners.As the years have gone on, many fans now choose to purchase their books based on the creators and less so on the individual characters being used. And so, we began to see these creative teams listed along the top of the books for shoppers to see:

Now, it's worth noting that the corner box art for Amazing Spider-Man did make several attempts at a return throughout the 90's but it was nowhere near as consistent as the decades prior. Marvel often chose to display their worded logo instead of an image.

Should Marvel bring corner art back? Have you as a consumer ever given it much thought?

Personally, I really miss it and feel it is an important part of that comic book trade dress we are losing in the modern age.

Let us know your thoughts in the comments!

*Any perceived investment advice is that of the freelance blogger and does not represent advice on behalf of GoCollect.