Thank you all, especially
RbnJrg.
I have some serious reading and re-reading to do. Learning is hard.
Part of the issue here is that the images I'm dealing with are a) not covers, b) not of a consistent height/width, and c) many in number. So I'd hoped there was something that could be generically (and effectively) applied with a simple "class" modification... maybe a <div> if it was being especially intransigient...
But no dice...