Popular shonen magazines Shonen Sunday and Shonen Magazine have just celebrated their 50th anniversaries; as a result, a 50 year time-line of their covers has been published, clearly displaying the evolution of their offering, and the development of the art style characteristic of the genre:
(Covers are named for their dates.)
Shonen Sunday:
Shonen Magazine:
Shonen definitely appears to be a rather conservative genre, although of course it is a winning formula…
Via Gigazine.
1981 was the best year without a doubt.
NR 1 : GTO
NR 2 : Hajime No Ippo
NR 3 : Golden Boy
The October 11, 1964 cover was funny:
gymnast fail
+
rocket fail
(Oh, was that supposed to the Olympic torch, and not a rocket exhaust cone, or a steel smelter?)
Heh, at least now Takahashi has a reaason to go on forever.
Wait, Hajime no Ippo is starting over?!