Comic book artist Jim Steranko was famous for his freaky layouts, like this one for Captain America:
Or this one for a romance comic:
But he also did cover illustrations for paperbacks, and in every single one of them his male protagonist looks like exactly the same guy. Because Steranko could only draw men who looked like himself. So let’s take a trip through time with Steranko covers:
Jim Steranko used to be a barbarian!
Jim Steranko fought lions.
Then Jim Steranko went to the Old West.
Where he lounged around sassily at bars.
WW I happened and Jim Steranko had to fight.
Then came WW II and even more fighting.
And finally, when Jim Steranko got really old, he went into space.
There’s a famous full-page spread of flames in a comic book in about 1970 where, if you tilt the book up, the flames spell out, “Hey! A Jim Steranko effect!”
By the way, I remember when that Captain America issue came out. Blew me away.
I can only imagine picking that up off the newstand and then feeling your eyeballs melt and run down your face. Poor kid! You were totally unprepared!