Happy Birthday to the great Steve Ditko, who would have turned 93 today.
Ditko drew — and possibly wrote (Stan Lee on credits, but that sometimes is overstated) — this neat little science fiction back-up story in the third issue of Iron Man.
These SF and horror stories would soon become rarities as publisher Martin Goodman and Editor Lee replaced them with a new line-up of superheroes, including a certain web-crawler that would bring Ditko more notoriety than anything else he would create.
The Amazing Spiderman #1 had just hit the newsstands. The rest as they say…
Marvel did a nice job reprinting all of Stan Lee’s and Steve Ditko’s horror and SF stories in this two-volume series.
Pin-up, Rocket’s Blast and Comic Collector (RBCC) #4, 2003
Kraven the Hunter, a classic Spider-Man nemesis, is getting his own film?
Er… ok.
I like the character, especially since I’ve been a fan of the legendary Richard Connell short story “The Most Dangerous Game” since, well, forever.
But… Kraven without Spider-Man is useless to me. Actually all of the Spider-man villains are pointless without the main protagonist.
What, exactly, was the point of the Venom film. A bad guy we root for? Especially one who looks like a monstrous version of… Spider-Man. Huh? What? Tom Hardy was fine as Eddie Brock as the title character, and the film looks great, but it is ultimately pointless. No Spider-Man, no Venom, as far as I’m concerned.
Of course, none of this apparently bothered mass audiences whatsoever. Venom grossed more than $800 million worldwide.
And so, back to Kraven. I would love to see him, even as cameo in Spider-Man 3, before we get to a feature length Kraven film.
In the meantime, the late Eduardo Barreto delivers a terrific splash of Spider-Man capturing Kraven with terrific tonal quality throughout. It appeared in Rockets Blast and Comic Collector #4, the final issue of the short-lived revival of the famous comics zine.
The one question I have is…. Why does Spider-Man look surprised? Did another wall-crawler grab Kraven first? Is this an early and prescient look at the Spider-verse?
But I digress.
Barreto, a Uruguayan artist who passed away at the too young age of 57, was better known for some excellent work at DC (New Teen Titans, Batman, Superman, et al), but his first actual US assignment was in fact Spider-Man, inking Marvel Team-Up #88, featuring Spidey and The Invisible Girl.
As for the actual Spider-Man 3 villains? Start with Scorpion, who is in the Easter egg at the end of Spidey 1, along with possibly the Vulture (ditto), and head down the rabbit hole from there…
And you never know… maybe Kraven after all.
Kraven First appeared in Amazing Spider-Man #15, and returns about a month later with a few “friends” in ASM Annual #1.
The shortest — and possibly most lopsided — hero vs. villain fight in history. Iron man takes care of Kraven in three panels to support narrative involving The Chameleon posing as Captain America. Convoluted, but hilarious.
Some of the earliest Marvel Comics I purchased at the candy store as a kid, and coincidentally about the time where John Romita comes into his own as Spider-Man’s artist. Compared to everything DC and the other companies were doing, this was heady stuff.
Kraven is the villain in one of the most beloved and critically Spider-Man stories of all time, “Kraven’s Last Hunt”. Also pictured: RBCC #4 where the Barreto pin-up appears, and the film poster for the first adaption of Most Dangerous Game, an obvious inspiration for the Kraven concept.
Paul Smith, Pin-up tribute to Steve Ditko, ASM Annual #2 (1965), 2001
Elegant, clean and striking: The definitive Paul Smith style captures Steve Ditko’s classic (and only) pairing of Spider-Man and Doctor Strange in Amazing Spider-man Annual #2 from September 1965.
Seeing the pairing of these now iconic Marvel cinematic characters creates some wistfulness here.
Last week, Disney postponed the feature film Black Widow once again. It’s now scheduled for May 2021, a full year behind schedule. 2020 will be the first year without a film in The MCU since 2009.
And, even when the films were less frequent in the early days, a Fox or Sony Marvel film typically filled in the gaps.
(No, I’m not going to act as if the recent New Mutants counts. More people have probably seen the officially unreleased Roger Corman Fantastic Four film than New Mutants.)
Now of course, Covid has thrown the entire upcoming film schedule into disarray. Eternals and Shang-Chi also moved, and swapped positions in the queue — for now.
After that, it’s a bit of a wild card.
The next three films should be Spider-Man 3, Doctor Strange 2, and Thor 4… but, we’ve seen differing revised release dates for those just in the last week.
Then, the schedule becomes even hazier, but let’s put off that discussion until next week.
Meanwhile, up next this coming week on the blog:
Spidey, Doc, and of course… Thor. See you soon.
The current digital version of the original splash from Amazing Spider-Man Annual #2 in 1965.
Many reprints, many colors, and a few layout and production changes, too. From left to right, the original annual coloring re-mastered for digital, the coloring and other changes from the “emergency” reprint in Doctor Strange #179, and the re-colored (again) reprint from Marvel Tales.
Here’s a bet: Ditko drew the cover for ASM Annual #2 well before he and Stan knew what the story would be. Otherwise… you’d probably see Doctor Strange actually on the cover. A few years later, and a deadline blown, Barry Smith was called on to provide a new cover for the story which was reprinted completely out of continuity in Doctor Strange #179.
Digital colors by Gerry Turnbull, and, in the MCU, Spidey and Doc work together to try to defeat Thanos in Avengers Infinity War. It doesn’t go well… at first.
By now, we should be in the next phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but unfortunately, we have a six-month delay. So, for the first time in a dozen years, no Marvel film to launch the summer movie-going season.
But, we won’t let that delay slow us down here — let’s take a look at some of characters from the next three scheduled films this week.
From the trailer(s) for the Black Widow film, now releasing this November, it appears that many elements from Natasha Romanoff’s 55-year comic book backstory will make into the film. (No surprise, as that has been the Marvel M.O. since day one).
Of course, an exception will be her relationship with Daredevil, which lasted a few years in the original comics. Not sure what the entertainment rights status is for Daredevil and the other Netflix Marvel characters (now since cancelled), but I’d fall right out of my seat if any of them showed up in the cinematic universe in the near future.
This very cool Daredevil page from the great Gene Colan comes from early in the relationship between DD and the Widow; in fact they don’t actually have a relationship at this point in the chronology, but they soon will, and ultimately team-up and move to San Francisco together.
In fact, the comic book changes its cover nameplate to Daredevil and The Black Widow for more than a year.
Let’s see: Matt Murdock suddenly ups and moves to Frisco. Daredevil — suddenly — is now fighting in the Bay Area. No one figures the connection out? Really?
Amazing Spider-Man #86 serves as a “#0” recap and revamp issue (before they had those) for Natasha’s short-lived solo series in Amazing Adventures.Words and pictures by Stan Lee and John Romita.
Black Widow’s first solo series, her first appearance in Daredevil, and a recent collection of her earliest appearances — with a recolored cover drawn by the legendary Bill Everett.
Continuing our celebration of the 80th anniversary of The Spirit, with additional creators’ takes on the beloved and influential character.
David Hine (Spider-Man Noir) authors a clever tale where pretty much every page is a splash — with the Spirit title included as part of the art. John Paul Leon hits the concept out of the park successfully homaging Will Eisner’s original brilliant splash pages with innovations of his own.
On this page, the final one of the story, Leon perhaps finds inspiration for the logo from 1946 — from the classic tale, “The Man Who Killed The Spirit” AKA “The Last Trolley.”
Fun fact: This issue — and this entire series — was edited by the ultra-talented Joey Cavalieri, a pal of mine for nearly 50 years. Joey and I first met as kids hunting down comics in the candy stores, newsstands and luncheonettes of the lovely seaside town of Long Beach, New York.
Variations on a theme: The original 1946 Spirit strip with the blowing letters — and two later (and slightly different) reprint versions.
Sal Buscema celebrated his 84th birthday earlier this week — how did that happen, you ask? I don’t know either. (January, by the way, is obviously a great month for the Marvel “bullpen.”) So, we continue our better-late-than-never tribute series.
Sal, one of Marvel’s most versatile and prolific artists,
cites the Hulk as his favorite character. Nevertheless… he penciled and
(mostly) inked 100 issues of Spectacular Spider-man. (That’s 100!)
Included in that record-setting run is this dynamic page from early in his return to the title in 1988. It’s the end of black spider-suit era — pretty much the final appearance of the costume before Peter ditches it for good (mostly) a month later in Amazing Spider-Man #300. (MJ is not too happy that her husband looks like Venom when he wears it, but I digress.) I love the way the three middle panels work cinematically to show Spidey getting the upper hand on the gunmen.
Sal wanted to be an inker. He has said in various interviews (emphatically, in some cases) he prefers it. And it’s clear that it took him some time to find his own voice penciling. (In fact, if you compare his early 70s work to his late 80s work, it’s obvious that, like many great artists, his voice evolved.)
But I think we are all happy that Stan and Marvel’s editorial team pushed him into pencils. He’s anamazing a spectacular storyteller.
Sal’s first professional work for Marvel is inking over Larry Lieber on Rawhide Kid, followed soon thereafter by pencilling on Avengers.(Both 1969.)
John Romita Sr. turned 90(!) the other day, and we would be
remiss if we didn’t celebrate the amazing artist — even belatedly.
This great action page is from the one-shot Kingpin and it represents the final comic book story collaboration between Romita and Stan Lee (with help from Tom Delfaco and inker Dan Green).
What’s great about this story — and this page, specifically — is that it features three important Romita icons in one place:
Daredevil, Romita’s first pencil gig at Marvel after eight years of DC romance comics.
Spider-Man, the character that Romita will always be most associated with, and the one he brought to new heights of popularity.
Kingpin, the all-too-familiar super-villain that John co-created, and who will likely vex DD, Spidey and others for the rest of time.
This page is obviously not from the classic Romita era — in fact, it comes 30 years later, but it’s still a great example of Romita’s superb draftsmanship and storytelling.
And all it’s missing is Mary Jane Watson.
You can’t have everything.
Early key Romita comics: His first Daredevil action page (over Kirby layouts) from DD #12; the first Romita Spider-Man, crossing over with Daredevil in DD #16; and Kingpin’s first splash appearance (Amazing Spider-Man #51) from his multi-part debut.
Romita on his Spidey assignment:
“I was hoping against it, believe it or not. People laugh when I say this, but I did not want to do Spider-Man. I wanted to stay on Daredevil. The only reason I did Spider-Man was because Stan asked me and I felt that I should help out, like a good soldier. I never really felt comfortable on Spider-Man for years. … I felt obliged to [mimic] Ditko because … I was convinced, in my own mind, that he was going to come back in two or three issues. … I couldn’t believe that a guy would walk away from a successful book that was the second-highest seller at Marvel. … After six months, when I realized it wasn’t temporary, I finally stopped trying to [mimic] Ditko. … “
Our celebration of Marvel’s 80thAnniversary concludes with the publisher’s most iconic character in one of his classic stories.
The lead story in the original Amazing Spider-Man # 1(1963) finally gets its own terrific cover more than 50 years later, thanks to this unique reprint series published in 2006.
News America created The Spider-Man Collectible Series as weekly promotional supplements to Sunday newspapers. Each issue was printed on newsprint and contains half an issue of a classic Lee and Ditko Spider-Man comic, published in original order. Only 24 issues were produced, suggesting the series did not succeed as well as envisioned.
Since each original Spidey comic was split in half, every other issue of the supplements required brand new covers, depicting classic stories. For the most part, the covers are as dynamic as this one — if I could find them, I would attempt to acquire as many as possible.
Ron Frenz is a great visual storyteller (definitely influenced by classic Marvel artists), and Sal Buscema’s inks are always spot-on. (For more than 50 years!) I consistently enjoy their team-ups.
As for this Spider-Man story itself? It’s a classic that sets up storylines and characterizations for years, as Spidey saves J Jonah Jameson’s astronaut son — only to be blamed for sabotaging the rocket in the first place.
It’s a story I heard dramatized over and over again as a kid, because I was somewhat obsessed with the Golden Record recording of that classic issue. (See below).
And of course, it makes sense that the “back-up” story featuring the Fantastic Four is the original cover of Amazing Spider-Man #1 and all other subsequent reprints. Although the original published cover blurb has made me wonder if the astronaut story was actually intended as the cover and pulled. Why call out the cover story as an “extra attraction” if that’s the story we can already see? Hmmm.
Although the Fantastic Four make a great marketing hook, the lead story in issue #1 is actually the rocket rescue, and includes a re-cap of Spidey’s origin for those who missed or didn’t remember Amazing Fantasy #15No good deed goes unpunished…and becomes the defining thread in Spidey stories.
Golden Records produced four “book and record” combos of classic stories in 1966 during the first Marvel Merchandising craze. Each of the four (Thor, Captain America, Fantastic Four and Spidey contained a straight reprint of the associated comic, minus only the cover price.
Above — Some of the newly created covers for classic Spider-Man stories.
Upper Deck, Marvel VS. System TCG: Web of Spiderman, Card #162 — Surrounded, 2004
Concluding a multi-part look at Spider-Man vs. Mysterio in honor of Spider-Man: Far From Home landing on digital streaming platforms this week.
Some of the most tantalizing art ever created for Marvel and DC characters is hiding in plain sight — on trading cards… and trading card games.
In fact, the Upper Deck Vs. TCG System, started in 2004, and lasting in its original incarnation through 2009, is home to hundreds, if not thousands, of original artworks by some of the industry’s leading talents.
Except for a handful of the key art pieces, which includes illustrations by Alex Ross and Drew Struzan, all the TCG images were printed at postage stamp size only. (Some, like this one, were cropped ruthlessly to fit the printed image area.)
Sigh.
Steve “The Dude” Rude illustrated number of cards in the various VS series, and this one, featuring Spider-man vs. multiple Mysterios, is a favorite.
Steve’s clean and dynamic superhero rendering typically feels like a fascinating cross between Jack Kirby and Joe Schuster — with storytelling influences from Alex Toth , and yet here, he channels some John Romita for good measure.
Most trading card is created at a relatively small size, but fortunately this Rude original is drawn on traditional comic board, with the live image area just slightly smaller than most standard modern art.
Just enough room for all those Mysterios.
Too many Mysterios — or too much Spider-Man. Either way, Spidey is in a jam. This great panel by John Romita from ASM # 67 is a classic.
Continuing a multi-part look at Spider-Man vs. Mysterio in honor of Spider-Man: Far From Home landing on digital streaming platforms this week.
Scott Koblish as a person?: Engaging. Upbeat. Energetic. Witty. Et al.
Koblish as an artist?: Engaging. Upbeat. Energetic. Witty. Et al.
Rarely does a creator’s artistic style so match his personality. Hell, there are great cartoonists, past and present, with lively and bright art aesthetics, who are darker personally than Van Gogh on a bad day. (No I will not be naming names. That’s what the rest of the Internet is for.)
Scott’s mostly zany artistic approach to Deadpool is perfectly on point for the character. (And that’s not taking anything away from Ed McGuinness, a fantastic artist whose work I absolutely love — or any other Deadpool illustrator for that matter.)
In this “flashback” issue of Spider-Man/Deadpool, Scott draws the entire issue in classic “Steve Ditko” style. It’s clearly done with affection and reverence, and the finished issue, complete with simulated old-school coloring, “bad” printing (out-of register) and aged paper, is old-school fun.
How “classic” is the art style here, you ask? Review the middle panel on this page. It is most definitely… Classic Ditko! (In fairness, the rest of the issue features more original Ditko interpretations as well. Koblish was clearly having a bit of extra fun here.)
