Branding Failure: The Rise and Fall of Marvel's Corner Box Art 

When the corner box art was updated, it felt to me like an artist was taking ownership of the book, saying, "I'm not just a guest, this is mine now." I loved that.

The corner box art is just something that feels quintessentially Marvel to me. Great video!

I love how Mark Brooks wants to bring corner box art back so badly, and you know what? Why not, it's fun! I especially loved when the X-Men did it. (I sometimes forget we live in the exact same area of Kent lol)

I was in Mexico recently and it was interesting to find that newsstand comics were alive and well. Not to the same degree as the pictures in this video but just about every one had at least a few. The selection was interesting as well. There were heavy hitters like Deadpool, Miles Morales, and Star Wars but also A LOT of Conan.

I remember as a child that little box was brimming with magic - especially the team-ups/crossovers.

Byrnes head portraits are mini masterpieces that have stood the test of time.

“If you think Nirvana was a band your grandparents listened to.” I think my hip dislocated just hearing that. Awesome shirt, BTW!

To be honest, when I go to comic shops nowadays I find it hard to find comics that stand out, despite the cover art. This is especially since so many of the covers are often colored in the same dark shades. A corner box, with a character design, would go a long way to distinguish comic from one another.

As a kid I loved Marvel’s corner art, especially because when I was going through back issues of X-Men or Avengers at a shop I could use them as a sort of buyer’s guide to find issues that had my favorite characters.

The corner box art looks so cool, especially the Spiderman ones. I wish there was something like that in the Marvel movie posters as well. It just looks awesome.

The corner box art is part of what makes a Marvel comic cover so cool. They should totally bring it back. I usually don't buy to many new comics, but a few weeks ago I picked up a Daredevil and a She-Hulk, and I noticed there was no corner art. They need to bring it back.

When I identify the silver age Marvel's and DC comics I grew up with, I always look to see 1. What the corner box art looks like 2. To see if the price was 12 cents (I collected these post newsstand in the '70s) or 3. 15, 20, 25 cents (the actual books I bought from the racks). I love the original corner box art!

I used to love the corner boxes. When I was a wee kid back in the early 70s drawing my own superhero comics I rarely went beyond the front cover, I'd just draw the front cover of a story without bothering with the actual full story cos that was too difficult, and I had lots of superhero teams so I'd really enjoy drawing the corner boxes with their disembodied heads. I still remember my first superhero team which were called The Electories (for some reason) who included Melty (a girl with melting powers), Merry (a mermaid), Rocket-Boy (a character who preceeded Cannonball by over 10 years!), Angel-Girl (an angel with wings and magic wand), Zap-Boy (a chinese boy with zap powers) and Fireball (a boy who could throw fireballs from his hands). I don't think I ever completed a whole story, I just had much more fun doing the front cover art with my heroes fighting baddies without having to bother with an actual plot.

Honestly nowadays, a retro style cover would stand out more on the shelves, with the corner box art. Amazing fantasy #1 which came out recently comes to mind, although that didn't have the corner box

One thing to note is that John Byrne did not replace the Cockrum heads with his own until X-Men #123, which was his 15th issue, when he passed Dave Cockrum's total of 14 issues (not including the Giant-Size X-Men #1). If the count seems off then that is because he didn't draw #110. I seem to remember him saying this in an interview (I think in the Comics Journal).

I loved the corner box art. It always screamed “Marvel” to me. It was such a subtle switch in the 90’s that I didn’t really notice until just now. In the process of working on my own indie comic… totally has corner box art on the covers. Just something really cool about it

It's such an iconic component of a comic book cover, that you can see it homage'd in Kohei Hirokoshi's My Hero Academia's volume covers. I think that global influence is pretty dope.

When I was a kid, I LOVED going to the magazine rack, or even better, the comic book spinner racks and seeing the corner box and iconic stripe across the top of Marvel books! I totally get why they don't do it anymore, but the kid in me never gets tired of that iconic look.

In the 90s Vertigo did a great job making their books look incredibly unique and beautiful in a way no other books were. they have a dark kind of outline along the whole side and top

I loved Bill Sienkiewicz’ New Mutants run and his various corner box art. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.

I just put out one of my one-shot indie books last year and the whole cover was just a corner box design, featuring all the characters’s heads. Nothing says “comics” to me like a corner box

I remember seeing a couple of those Hulk ones, and even wondering why he was tearing off his lab coat. Not once did I consider it was a flip book! What a rush of nostalgia and joy! Thanks for the smile that I so badly needed in these dark times...

As a Zoomer who has read comics for awhile now, I would absolutely love to see the return of Marvel Brand Boxes!!! Everytime that I get an Omnibus or Epic Collection I always look forward in seeing the Marvel Brand logo on the pages and always wondering why Marvel doesn't still use them.

I bought all of those "flip-book" issues of "The Incredible Hulk" and never once noticed that the left-corner boxes were an animated transformation. Wow!😀

I'd love to see corner box art return! Todd McFarlane always crushed it during his Spiderman and hulk runs

Corner box art is very iconic. Any old issue from the bronze, copper, and early modern eras have that special feel not just because of the cover art itself, but also the simple corner box art with the characters and price/Publisher/hero name. John Byrne's corner art with the X-Men team is awesome to look at everytime. They should bring it back!

The corner box was also a huge icon to me. My dad’s collection of G.I.Joe comics had them and I would flip through them all trying to peek the differences.

Man, I never even noticed that they got rid of those back in the 90s... I guess I'd taken them for granted back then and didn't pay attention. What a shame. :(

Love these deep dives into the minutiae of the comic business we often take for granted! This is one of the things that differentiates this channel from the other comics channels! That and the host's wonderful personality and sense of humor!

I want Marvel to step up and be better than it’s ever been across the board it’s branding is too special to be slacking in any department especially in the comic/animation division

The 60s and 70s Marvel comics were my thing and yes, that cover box was part of the charm.

I always loved the little boxes, and they were especially helpful on a comic like The Avengers, where periodic changes in the roster were a regular feature. If you had a lot of issues, you could do a flip book of the changing cast over time.

This is SO GREAT. Nothing comes close to good old comics ' back issues

I always liked how Kohei Horikoshi includes corner box art in the My Hero Academia volume covers, even though there's no reason he would need to, just for the sake of homage

"Oh hi, you caught me scarring cattle with a red-hot stick. Speaking of branding, I wanted to talk about corner box art..."

Absolutely brilliant episode. I'd never thought about the corner box before - but the second you pointed it out, the whole layout of a front page made sense. Thank you so much.

I remember loving those, it was a neat design element that it gave a sense of identity and consistency but it was fun and give the marvel comics an proprietary aesthetic design, in a way to remind you no matter what was happening in the cover this was indeed the comic of your favourite character. Not only as a marketing standpoint but as a graphic design also give books their own identity by doing it graphically, maybe it was because that it works better in a kids mind : just seeing Spider-Man jumping felt much more interesting than just the dry logo with issue number and pricing . If it was a video game it looked like a "Character select screen". It also was like a sort o game to see if there was something new, or some hint if you could only see that, sometimes I got a comic but couldn't read it until I got home because it was bagged or whatever, that would calm my anxiety for the time being . On team books it was useful to keep track who were the main characters, specially in teams with large rosters or a rotating one, or even to identify them, specially as a kid I was bad at remembering each character name on the X-Men but there I could see who was featured in the book graphically. I even remember drawing it always for my fan comics as a kid. I loved the Marvel Comics logo of the 90s too. And for a short time in the late 90s they did something I feel was very clever and useful: the inside cover of the book of featured a small Cast description of the character featured on that story, and a short "Previously, on..." Page that I find was really helpful to new readers how may need a little help to jump in the current storylines ( and keep those explanations outside the actual comics, which always seem like a clunky , boring gimmick) -like having a big caption or even worse a character explaining it for the readers ("Oh if it isn't mr evil, my greatest enemy!").

I always loved the corner boxes. Especially on the team books like Avengers. Whenever the roster changed, you had a collection of faces in the corner box. Letting you know who was on the team. I also miss Marvel's Bullpen Bulletins feature & monthly letters page .... ahhh memories.

Wow, I loved the corner box art, especially when the did the "floating heads" trend. Since I read the team books (X-Men & Avengers), I love being able to see who was on the team that issue, especially when they had some rapidly rotating rosters.

When I was a kid I read and remembered these so much that when I drew comics as a kid I always added some corner box art in my comics.

I always liked it, and generally love little details like that, and you could argue its helpful for later comic reselling/organizing as well when you have to go through large stacked boxes and mainly flip the upper title parts. Overall I think it also brings attention to the logo, like "oh it has these characters, whats the name of this series?" that may stick better for later purchases. And most of all I really liked when artists did their own little takes on the box characters, something that works better now that recognition of the character isn't as mandatory, just something to pique your interest bit more.

I remember my outrage when McFarlane's elegant Amazing Spider-Man corner box was replaced by Larson's (my opinion at the time) messy bursting out the box travesty. Corner boxes mattered so much. I still think it's a great marketing tool in the West. We're conditioned in the West to glance up at the top left when we see something that looks like a book.

As an old and former comic book collector, I can say that when I go into a comic book store now it feels alienating. One does feel the need for comfort at quickly finding what you are looking for. Instead, I am forced to having to commit to extended browsing when I really don't have the time. On the other hand, that was then, this is now.

As a branding expert, I was glad to see you bring this subject up. I've always thought comic book publishers did a pretty poor job of understanding how brands are built and the role their identity elements played in reinforcing the value of their brand on a title-by-title basis. Without getting too technical, a brand's value is enhanced by clearly establishing and reinforcing the "values" the brand represents - and doing this requires clear and consistent messages delivered with iconography, production values, and quality (in this case storytelling via written words and art). The upper left-hand corner on the cover of a comic book is, as you noted, precious real estate and deserves more than just a logo. Where Marvel succeeded for so many years was by using that real estate to make a promise to its customers as to what they could expect when they read the book. Where they fell short was in letting that corner space become routine and look the same from issue to issue (which then meant less and less to a prospective customer). I was glad to see you featured some of the corner box art that featured a variety of hero illustrations from issue to issue. The progress of the Hulk from professor to rampager is a great example of how to use that corner space - conveying a little bit of what a reader might find inside, changing slightly from issue to issue, while including the essential price, issue and corporate identity information to complete a commercial transaction. Will corner art ever make a comeback? One could argue that a savvy publisher with a marketing background would find a number of opportunities to improve a typical issue of a comic book so that it would do more to build the long-term value of the title and the corporate brand .... but who knows? Great stuff as always, Chris. Thanks for continuing your content! All the best.

This was great, Chris!! I used to love the corner box art on Marvel comics when i was a collector, and it is sad that it has been phased out. I was unaware of the history corner box art had, or how it started or who created it, but now i know. Collecting comics with unique corner art was like collecting rare bubble gum cards, and i remember corner box art starting many a conversation between me and my friends. I used to love the 'Marvel team-UP' boxes which always had Spider-Man and whatever hero he was teaming up with in that issue. God, those were the days-unfortunately we will probably never, ever see those days again. It is a long lost art form that has become extinct. Hail to the glory days of comics when you were actually entertained instead of being preached at.

I miss them. These eye-catchers were a staple of all the years I read comics!

When you asked who created that little corner art, I immediately thought "Had to be Steve Ditko". Well damn, I was right... Considering I'm not really a consumer of comics (though a fan of the characters) I'm surprised I just instinctually knew that.

Good episode, Chris. I didn't know I'd find it so interesting, but I definitely did. I'm a 90's baby, so the corner boxes were fazed out by the time I got into comics, but I always loved seeing them on back issues. In fact, when I decided to get a geeky tattoo, I actually got a corner box from a Spider-man issue.

I remember that one with the Vision phasing through the Avengers’ title. Sweet ! 😎✌️

My most vivid memory is of the lead-up issues to the Bannerhulk going berserk in Incredible Hulk 299. The corner boxes had a slowly changing Bannerhulk back into the savage hulk.

One of the best aesthetic aspects of older comics! Loved this feature. When you talked of Byrne always having done the X-Men box art, that was actually Dave Cockrum's featured though. (9:12)

I've always loved Bill Sincavage's Warlock. I never realized it was impressionism.

I always loved when a creator changed up the corner box art to reflect things happening in the title or publisher universe (or make comments on/jokes about the industry, etc.).

So nostalgic. I loved the box artworks with that old "big M" Marvel logo

Really enjoyed this episode, Chris. I started reading comics in the early 70’s so the corner box art was always something that evokes great nostalgic memories for me. I actually found someone on Etsy who makes absolutely amazing enamel pins from some of the original Marvel art, but he even makes them using DC characters!

Chris! THIS is why I love your channel! Thank you for unpacking these cool bits of comic history. Big fan!!!

That box art might be why I turned out to be a Marvel nut, I always remember my older brothers X-Men comics and most times I was not allowed to touch them so I just enjoyed the cover art and always remember the little heads screaming at me and giving me stuff to work with my imagination trying to figure out who it could be. Also now that they don’t have to deal with the news stand I wonder what artists could do with the box art, creative teams could be branded by their box art. So much you could do with it.

Definitely John Byrne’s XMEN and Avengers box art was the best. John Romita’s Spiderman is also great.

ComicTropes that new intro is off the chain‼️ I remember when I was a kid I used to read my dad’s comics back in the late 70’s and always looked out for the corner box first because it would show what characters were gonna be in the story. Like you knew what you were getting into. I wasn’t too thrilled about the nineties conversions but, that’s just me.

I love these videos about the history of comics. Not the history within the story itself, but of the business. You are like a comics "beyond the trailer".

Man I never realized they phased these out. I guess you can tell around when I stopped buying comics consistently lol

I used to love those boxes, specially the more dynamic ones - can't say I noticed Hulk's transformation but sure did notice the team roster changes or small nod to the story we would find inside. And the ones by Todd McFarlane then? Man those were as amazing as the character and I loved it!! Missed these episodes. Welcome back Chris :)

Definitely something I always loved about older titles. It's just so iconic and eye-catching. And it doesn't make the corners look empty with a bunch of extra space.

I like seeing the corner art on old back issues it’s just cool to see the characters in cool bonus art

Amazing! This is something so ingrained in my reptile brain since childhood I've never really consciously thought about it, but the moment you said 'box art' so many images came flooding back. Why isn't everyone already subscribing to your channel, it makes no sense (I blame Hydra).

Loved the corner box art. I would love to have a series of prints of the old bronze age corners.

Of course, there was also DC's attempt at branding: the "go-go checks". Could probably get an episode out of that peculiar piece of comics history, too.

Dave Cockrum did the X-MEN heads before Byrne. In fact, you actually showed a Cockrum corner box, while attributing it to Byrne. Corner boxes were cool, but I preferred the Circle, first started in the 1970s, and then brought back in the 1990s/2000s.

I loved the corner boxes when I was growing up at the prime of the Byrne runs. I liked the rotation of characters. I'm for bringing them back!

As someone who has read Spider-Man from the start to up to the 90's, I think it's huge. I never really thought about how it was phased out. I agree it feels necessary. I'm sad it's gone.

I did not expect this to be such an interesting topic. I also never realized as a kid there was so much context to those little faces in the corner of my comics. That Hulk sequence was some next-level easter egging.

I miss the corner boxes. Especially in the team and team-up titles, where the characters could change during the comic book run.

The single most amazing fact about this was Stan Lee NOT taking credit for an idea. Must have been caught off guard

The general retro look of the corner box is just so aesthetically pleasing! Would LOVE to see them return!!

I’m an early 2000s kid and in so being, I didn’t ever get to see the corner box art on the comics that I bought and read. I would love to see corner box art! I think artists could get so creative with it and I think it’d be a cool homage to the roots of comics.

4:43 "believe it or not, he did not take credit for this." lol

If DC ever uses Action Comics and/or Detective comics as Anthology series again they should use the corner box art to showcase Superman and Batman respectively.

I miss them big time. Growing up, I'd read my older brother's comics and I would always choose ones based on that box. This was a fascinating history. Thanks for this.

I began heavily reading and collecting Marvel Comics in '76-77 at the age of 9. I had already shown a talent for illustration, and The Amazing Spider-Man always fascinated me with his iconic colors, his suit design, and his physique. It was this era that I cut my teeth as an illustrator and artist, and Marvel was my teacher. Ross Andru was the illustrator in those days and, I dare say, as good as or better than Ditko and Romita. What was striking was Andru's defined muscularity and action perspectives of my hero. Also very noteworthy was the use of shades of purple and blue in Spidey's suit in the cover art and throughout the book. These elements made Spider-Man even more three-dimensional than even Romita had done. But it was that corner box of Spider-Man standing majestically as if a sentinel watching over the comic book itself that captivated me from one issue to the next. It was something that I could always count on, and I expected it with every issue and was jolted when he was posed shortly after the climactic 200th issue (which coincided with the end of the 70s). Other aspects of the cover changed, such as webs in the title, a distinct box separating the small left-corner "Marvel Comics" in the top banner, the "Still Only" price explosions, the UPC box and even the slow disappearance of the Comics Code. But that left-corner icon of Spider-Man standing tall with the slight perspective skew that Ross Andru defined the era of Spider-man's amazing peak popularity in comics. To this day, it still intrigues me and I fondly miss.

Love this channel, it never disappoints. You are always well spoken, and have obviously done your research. There are only a few channels I watch every video for and this is one of them. As people who love the movies start to gravitate to the source material more and more I predict this channel blowing up. Keep up the awesome work.

Very entertaining video! It gave me pleasant nostalgia for my comic-reading youth. 🙂 (Has the theme music been updated? It sounds GREAT! I've always enjoyed it but it is a cool techno jam now!)

Back in 1979 this guy had a Comicbook store in his basement with thousands of old comics. It had that wonderful smell of golden and silver age. I went straight to the X-Men and bought # 14. The box art had Cyclops in the front with the rest looed like they were peeking around a corner. Comicbook heaven.

Worked for a Comic Book store and the older Marvel comics would always stand out with the character-focus box logo at the top when organizing them. I had wondered when Marvel has phased that out, so thank you for the video! Love your channel & videos.

I wish marvel could only release 8 monthly titles now.

hey Chris I think the European brand reprinting Marvel comics I used to get growing up Panini Comics did the corner box character longer. I can't remember if you've done a video Panini Comics. Might be an idea for a later vid!

My favorite corner box art is Amazing Spider-Man #250 wherein the Hobgoblin gives his review of the issue, "It's great! Steal it!" A different era. So much fun and creativity. I'd love to see it all come back, but sadly that is not how time works.

I can see Marvel putting out a series of books that features just the corner box art as the interior panels.

in the last three years I have gotten t-shirt’s and prints by artists commenorating the corner box art. I think there is huge nostalgia for it but I don’t think the publishers will bring it back.

I always wanted to know what that corner box art was all about, thank you for satisfying my curiosity, Chris😁👍

You really hit upon a touchstone from my childhood. I was so fascinated with the corner box art on my favorite Marvel comics and now I feel like I got the whole story on them. Thanks for this video, Chris. Well done!

I’m reading some older comics recently and having a great time and I noticed the corner box and it helped to keep track of who was gonna be in the specific avengers issue. At least for a while it did. It didn’t really dawn on me that they’re no longer around. That’s a shame

Marvel Exec: "The corner box art we have on our comics is pretty fun, right? Marvel intern: "Yes sir, it sure is!" Marvel Exec: "Well we definitely don't want to keep doing that then! Discontinue it now." That's how I imagine that conversation must've taken place. Cause I can think of no other good reason to stop doing the corner boxes.

Chris at 9:35: "Frank Miller's Daredevil run featured thematically related illustrations of Daredevil himself in different poses." Me: "...so Matt was also a nun and the Kingpin?"

the late 70's- early 80's were the time in comics I remember best. I remember a lot of the small jokes that made their way into the corner art, particularly around 'assistant editor month' or the special events (before those became an every other week thing). The Marvel corner art always felt 'fun' as opposed to the 'old and stodgy' of DC. I don't read comics as much as I once did, but remembering the corner art makes me smile and think of simpler days.

I was always most excited about the corner box art when it changed. That really scratched my collector's itch, sort of like having a collection within my comic book collection if that makes sense. I still get a little thrill when I see all the corner box art for a certain title collected in one place.

The '70s and the '80s were a magical time for comic book reading and collecting.

The Conan comics from marvel had great covers including the corner art

My earliest memories of comic books are those corner box art images. When I was very young, I would occasionally sleep at a family friend's house. He had a closet filled with comic books. Those corner boxes drew me to the books for some reason, and I started reading them. From that first moment onward, every time I stayed at their house, I would sneak down into the kitchen and open that closet to read those comics. I can still see the corner box with Silver Surfer, Hulk, Valkyrie, and Dr Strange so vividly in my mind. Thank you for jump-starting those nostalgic memories! :D

Superman titles adopted the corner boxart from "Exile" to "Death" (so... from 89 to 92?). It was cool how each title had the "same" Superman pose just drawn by each title's artist. First, it was Superman just standing there. Then, it was Superman in the flying pose of Superman #1. Finally, with the launch of Man of Steel #1 it was the pose from that cover. With the end of Death of Superman it was replaced by a simple S-shield logo.

All Marvel really needs these days is their logo. It having become rather iconic. But that corner art was something special. Especially when they got creative, such as with those hulk issues, which I remember from the time.