Something I Miss In Current Comics...

I've really come to miss numbered pages in modern-day comics. It used to be that numbering was actually included by the artists themselves, an approach I always found very pleasant and handy in that you can actually refer to specific parts of a story without having to count pages yourself.

Of course, the companies managed to make it confusing in the 80s and early 90s by numbering the pages while counting the ads, but at least there were still numbers to refer to. In the later 90s, which is when I began reading American comics on a weekly basis, there were also some cool ways of numbering individual pages; in the various Spider-Man titles, for instance, they'd use a little web behind the number, or a Spidey-mask-eye, or a Spidey-mask-as-a-whole, all very cute, but I guess in the end it was too expensive or something to have these added by the letterers, I presume (or too difficult?) and both Marvel and DC have dropped numbering completely, as far as I can tell.

I don't understand why an artist can't include the page number in a corner though (the way Sal Velluto did during his great run on Black Panther). Belgian strips still do it all the time--heck, they use them for every actual band of art, so that's 4 times the numbers American comics need. Whenever I read an old back issue and I see those numbers, I yearn for them to make their big comeback one day. If letterpages can slowly creep back into Marvel comics, I can only hope the same will happen to numbering! (though preferably in DC books first, because I read more of them currently--how times have changed in those 8 or 9 years...)

Yes, I get caught up in the little things, sue me :)