Kraven's Last Hunt – Greg Goldstein's Comic Art Gallery

Mike McKone — Spider-Man: The Hunt Becomes Grim

February 26, 2022 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Wizard Magazine #223, April 2010

Today we wrap up our month-long celebration of Spider-Man’s upcoming 60th anniversary.

Mike McKone brings his own take to Spidey rising from the grave — with Kraven’s daughter seeking revenge for what happened to dear departed dad. (It’s a bit more complicated than that, but you get the idea.) This Wizard story previews “The Gauntlet” and “Grim Hunt” which are also essentially sequels to Kraven’s Last Hunt.

Mike Zeck spoke about the original cover image in Back Issue #35, from 2009:

“If an issue has a scene with the title hero rising from his own grave, it’s like receiving the number-one gift on your Christmas list! Anyone spending even one second mulling over a cover idea for that issue would have been in the wrong business.”

*McKone’s cover is a clever callback to Zeck’s original and iconic “crawl from the grave” scene 20 years earlier.*

Sal Buscema — Spider-Man: Vermin’s Return

February 24, 2022 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Spectacular Spider-Man #178, July 1991

Continuing our month-long celebration of Spider-Man’s upcoming 60th anniversary.

Here’s a beautiful splash of Spider-Man in full swinging action by Sal Buscema.

It’s another sequel of sorts of Kraven’s Last Hunt, as it features Vermin, who last appeared — and featured prominently — in that storyline.

And spoiler alert, he’s not happy.

Sal Buscema. Spider-Man. Splashy.

Nuff said.

Mike Zeck — Spider-Man: Dead, Again?

February 22, 2022 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

The Amazing Spider-Man: Soul Of The Hunter, August 1992

*With and without the overlay that adds snow to the art.*

Ah, the lure of the sequel/prequel/spin-off.

Kraven’s Last Hunt (1987), considered one of the greatest Spidey sagas of all time, saw a follow-up story appear as “Soul of the Hunter” five years later, reuniting the original creative team: JM DeMatteis, Mike Zeck and Bob McLeod.

This page is one of my favorites from the story and one of my favorite Spidey pieces that I own, period, because, thanks to some hallucinogenic help, you have Spider-Man in both traditional and black costume on one page.

Of course, if someone wants to offer me a reasonable fraction of what the very first page featuring a Zeck Spider-man in black costume recently sold for, well under that condition, I would probably part with it:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/books/2022/01/14/spider-man-comic-book-page-sells-record-3-36-million/6524278001/