Corner box art will return just in time for the ‘Summer of Superman’

This summer’s Superman titles will feature an old staple with new art by Dan Mora.

Comic fans of a certain era will remember the days when a comic cover from Marvel or DC included not only a logo, but also a corner box that included the price, the Comics Code Authority symbol and artwork featuring the characters in the book. DC is bringing them back this summer as part of their “Summer of Superman” initiative, featuring stellar artwork from Dan Mora.

DC revealed five new Superman-themed corner boxes that will appear on Supergirl, Superman Unlimited, Krypto: The Last Dog of Krypton, Superman and Action Comics. The new corner box images “celebrate the classic look of beloved DC comic book covers, which traditionally featured at least one of the stars of the title in miniature on the upper left corner of the comic,” according to DC.

Here’s a look at the revised cover for Supergirl #1, which features artwork by Sophie Campbell:

And here’s the revised Superman Unlimited cover by Rafael Albuquerque and Marcelo Maiolo:

The new corner box art will appear first on Supergirl #1, which comes out May 14, followed by Superman Unlimited #1 on May 21, Superman #26 on May 28, Action Comics #1087 on June 11 and Krypto: The Last Dog of Krypton #1 on June 18.

Corner boxes were a product of the newsstand and spinner rack days, when the majority of a comic cover could be covered up by other titles in front of it. Only the top of the cover might be showing, so having a distinguishing logo and a small image of the characters involved was all that might catch a reader’s eye. The first corner box came, appropriately, on 1939’s Action Comics #16 — an anthology title at the time that featured the popular Superman. So while the cover might highlight another story, Superman had a way to appear on the cover regardless.

DC stopped using them in the 1940s, but the birth of the Marvel Universe as we know it in the 1960s brought them back. I mean, this was Stan Lee’s company, and he was all about branding and the characters, and Marvel became known for their corner boxes. Eventually DC started using them again as well. In the 1980s John Byrne’s artwork became a staple of the Marvel corner box; his Fantastic Four ones were fun:

They eventually faded away toward the end of the 1990s, perhaps because newsstand sales were pretty much a thing of the past. Maybe there was no need for them in comic shops with their vast racks of new comics that could showcase the entire cover. They do pop up on the occasional variant cover, and Mark Brooks even drew several variants for Marvel not too long ago based on corner box art.

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