Darker and Edgier: Gimmick 90s’ comic covers

<p>Al, Ben and Lee talk about their favorite gimmick comic book covers from the 90's. Listen and let us know which one is your favorite.</p> <p>----more----</p> <p>The Dark Age of Comic Books was the culmination of a gradual move towards an older audience for Comic Books, particularly those featuring superheroes that had started in The Bronze Age of Comic Books. Sometimes, to follow the Gold/Silver/Bronze progression, at other times it is jokingly called "the Chrome Age", owing to the frequency of publishers selling comics with holofoil covers as a marketing gimmick during the period, but "Dark Age" is the much more common and accepted term. Usually characterized as a Darker and Edgier period featuring an increased focus on sex, violence and dark, gritty portrayals of the characters involved, much of the content produced during this era is very controversial among comic book fans.</p> <p> </p> <p>It's not the world's most exciting cover, but 1991's Silver Surfer #50 gets the nod for being the first comic in industry history to feature the chromium embossed effect, and for how it utilizes the gimmick in a sensible manner. </p> <p>As the 90s chugged along, publishers were seemingly embossing every other comic without much rhyme or reason. But Silver Surfer #50 adds the embossing to the Mr. Radd himself. And that makes sense since the character's name is "Silver Surfer" – so some silver chromium embossing is neither excessive nor inappropriate. Yes, I understand that I'm essentially awarding points here for lack of excess, but considering we're talking about the 90s here, why not applaud Marvel's show of restraint. </p> <p>Tom Chirstopher  Cover Art  Tom Christopher Inks  Ron Lim Pencils - Cover Art  James (Jim) Starlin  Scripts  Tom Vincent Colors </p> <p>Als first pick: Marvels Silver Surfer #50 1991</p> <p></p> <p> </p> <p>One of the biggest selling comic books of all time, more than 8 million copies of X-Men #1 were snatched up in the 90s, primarily because of the gimmick – five variant cove