CDiddles Media Mania? e-monia: Check out this cover

Here I'm going to crop sections of a cover and make ~~insightful~~ craptacular comments on it.

The cover to Fantastic Four #10 (dated January 1963). Click images to enlarge

Here it means something, at the time of publication this may have been Doom's third or fourth appearance, only. (Fact Checking reveals it was the second) so this is really a legitimate RETURN of comics most nefarious villain, when the character was still fresh in the minds of youngsters and super-nerds everywhere.

This was back before Marvel Comics had their iconic Silver Age corner logos, or even before the comics said "Marvel Comics". That Mc is all anyone had to work with. Before the Fantastic Four there was little reason to draw attention to the name. Stan Lee had to create the brand before people could recognize it. In those days before the Marvel Age, Stan was the only guy left in the once modest, at the time barren office. Once the Masthead started appearing with iconic images of a comic's starring characters, all bets were off. The House of Ideas had taken off.

What's going on with Ben's face, here. I'd be offended, but that would give credence to the idea that his face resembled anything that could ever be said to look like a face. Although it is Kirby (sorry, Jack).

Speaking of faces, I know we aren't generally able to see Doom's, but his mask there has a weird Mummy-like quality. Kind of like the monster in a Scooby-Doo cartoon. Again, it's Kirby.

Also speaking of which, classic, classic Kirby face here. I was mentioning before the otherworldly look of the cover, which depending on your point of view was The Kings greatest strength, or his most horrific weakness. When Kirby drew, he drew dynamic. There was no other way. In his brain, there must have been a switch marked "Dynamic", and you could flip it one of two ways. "On", or "Not Off."

Kirby had a knack for drawing people in ways that would be impossible to replicate in reality. That was his gift, an his gift to comics. I've heard people call his work, "too ugly," and I agree. It's just that I find that ugliness absolutely memorizing, compelling, and just the slightest bit beautiful.

For such a cool cover, this is kind of a throwaway tussle. For those who don't know or can't guess, Dr. Doom has gone Freaky Friday on Mr. Fantastic's ass. That's the comic (Ok, so there's a 20 page story to go with my rampant simplification, but I don't want to summarize). The image serves to hint at the content of the story (FF battles a suspiciously earnest Dr. Doom, little realizing he's actually Reed Richards, not that I'd believe it if Victor von Doom came up to me pretending to be my Roomate/Love Interest/Father figure, all while wearing a metal facemask and green cloak), while the foreground we've already looked at gives the real meat of the cover. Why does Reed look like such an evil/constipated ass? Little would you realize the body-swapping content of the story, though the hints are there.

Shit, did I spoil it?

Also, Stan and Jack are in this. No, it doesn't make sense, and thankfully it wouldn't happen in every issue afterwords (though still too often for my tastes). You never see their faces, nor (if I remember correctly) are they referred to specifically by name. But this is the start of what became a tiny facet of the Marvel Universe. That Marvel Comics exists as some kind of vague publisher of popular non-fictional (but heavily fabricated and sensationalized) comics about heroes that actually exist. Which is weird when you think about it.