Gil Kane serves up a fun action page from the original short-lived series of the unusual superhero team, Hawk and Dove. (Created by Steve Skeates and Steve Ditko.)
(Come to think of it, all of the Hawk and Dove series have been short-lived.)
I’m not typically a fan of Sal Trapani’s inks on Gil’s pencils, but credit where credit is due: Sal creates an amazing illusion of shine on that tile floor on the original. I’m not sure I’ve seen anything quite like it.
Separately, on a slightly more critical note, apparently it’s no big deal that Hawk might have destroyed an original masterpiece based on the next few panels… WTH?
Welcome to Day three of the 12 DC Days of DeCember.
When DC finally collected the series in color for the first time, the production department used (effectively) a light touch on the recoloring — it’s a very accurate representation of the original.
Cynthia Martin flashes back to the first appearance of the Vulture form Amazing Spider-Man #2 with with this great opening splash page from 1988.
This August of course is a big milestone for everyone’s favor web slinger. He turns 60 this month with the anniversary of his first appearance in Amazing Fantasy #15.
We previously celebrated this anniversary with some great Spider-Man pages, and coming up are a few more to add into the mix to round out the month of August.
Marc Hempel showcases his witty sense of storytelling in an amusing short Spidey story from 1986. Hempel, best know for his work on Sandman, brings some welcome lightheartedness to the character without devolving into Not Brand Echh mode.
Stylistically, think Steve Ditko meets Los Hernandez Brothers.
I didn’t acquire a Ditko Spider-man original art page back when they were simply “very expensive,” and now that prices have soared into the stratosphere, it feels even more unlikely. Homages and tributes will have to do.
And that’s perfectly ok.
(Complete story presented below. As far as I can tell, It’s never been reprinted.)
Commission (Based On Steve Ditko, Amazing Spider-Man #33, November 1965), 2013
Amazing. Spectacular. Sensational.
It doesn’t matter what adjective you put in front of Spider-Man’s name, his actual popularity dwarfs them all.
And he celebrates his 60th anniversary later this year.
So why not celebrate the world’s most famous web-slinger with a whole month of Spider-Man art.
Why not indeed?
First up — Tony Daniel’s terrific tribute to Stan Lee and Steve Ditko’s most iconic issue of the original series, Amazing Spider-Man #33.
It’s not that Spider-Man wouldn’t be saved (Heck, even a little kid knows that.) But in that classic story, Ditko masterfully conveyed Spidey’s struggle and necessary force of will to find the strength to lift tons of machinery and save himself.
No Iron Man or Thor to the rescue. This is all about Spider-Man’s personal will to survive — so that he himself can rescue Aunt May.
It’s likely the most powerful three-page comic book sequence of the era.
Harris is not the first creator to pay tribute to the scene, but he does it masterfully, creating an image that exists somewhere seconds before page three of Ditko’s original sequence.
Additionally, Harris uses a muted color palate, perfect for the art. I don’t typically pursue color art, but this piece grabbed me the moment I saw it.
Amazing indeed.
Ray Lago’s tribute from a “Marvel Portraits Comic”
Legendary artist Steve Ditko delivers a great page in this mid-70s “EC-style” story of murder and comeuppance. (And puzzled fish. Don’t forget the puzzled fish.)
Ditko’s work during this period at Charlton tends to be a bit all over the map in terms of draftsmanship and level detail, but this story is a fine example of his more polished work from the era.
(For the record, even lesser Ditko stories are still better than 80-90 percent of the rest of industry’s output in that timeframe, especially at secondary companies.)
From a rights and commercial standpoint, it’s likely that this Ditko material will never officially be collected into trades. Some of it can be found on the Internet, and fortunately, the Charlton horror comics themselves are typically very inexpensive in lesser condition.
In addition to the original publication, “The Drowned Girl” was also reprinted in an “all-water” horror-themed comic a few years later.
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.
Death in superhero comic books had always been a gimmick. “Robin
Dies at Dawn” likely meant he would be back by dinnertime. (In fairness, it’s a
pretty good story.)
So back in the 60s, legitimately killing a character was in
fact, a groundbreaking novelty. And this T.H.U.N.D.E.R Agents story is one of
the first. Ditko, Wood and company had spent 6 issues developing the character
of Menthor (John Janus), and they shot him to death on this page in Issue #7.
This historic page captures that collaborative methodology
of Woody and the Tower artistic team on T.H.U.N.D.E.R Agents. Dan Adkins scripted
and provided layouts, Ditko penciled the story, and Wood inked it, with assists
by Adkins.
The original T.H.U.N.D.E.R Agents lasted only last 20
issues, and perhaps, had it survived, John would have been resurrected at some
point. But it certainly did not appear that way.
Unlike, say, modern times where killing a lead character is a
gimmick once again.
Superman. Dead. Then alive.
Batman. Dead? Nope, he’s back.
Captain America? Reborn. Bucky? Not dead, just hiding in
Russia for a few decades.
Etc.
A few months after the death of Menthor, teenaged writerJim Shooter kills off (spoiler alert) Ferro Lad in the Legion of Super-Heroes.
Menthor’s powers derived from a “cybernetic” helmet, so t was no surprise that another character would don the helmet and ultimately become a new Menthor when T.H.U.N.D.E.R Agents was resurrected by other publishers. John Janus? Still dead, I believe.
Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons early concept art for Watchmen
The Price Of Greatness
Each time I consider a purchase of an original Watchmen page, the price becomes too rich for my taste and I get cold feet. And then, each succeeding time, the price is much higher. Lesson learned? Not yet.
That said, at IDW, we published a beautiful Watchmen Artifact Edition, so I did get to browse quite a few pages and see some impressive scans.
Archie’s Efforts
The MLJ/ Archie superhero universe is fascinating: Since the 80s there have been multiple attempts to launch and sustain the characters, and none have quite worked. Fingers crossed for the most recent efforts, although I’m not certain any new titles featuring the latest iterations were published last year. It’s also interesting that Archie has licensed them to DC a few times.
DC’s Appetites
And speaking of DC, it’s fascinating to me that they would own so many superhero characters, add more, and then license even more. To wit: They purchased the Quality library, the Marvel family, The Charlton superheroes, and Wildstorm. At one point or another, they’ve licensed the Archie superheroes, The T.H.U.N.D.E.R Agents, The Spirit, The Conde Naste pulp characters and Fighting American. And a host of other ones I’m likely overlooking. Whew.
Moore’s Luck
Did Alan Moore’s familiarity with the Charlton and Archie characters come from childhood? Or later perhaps when he attends some fan gatherings/ early UK conventions? You could barely find some of those comics in New York, so it’s intriguing (and ultimately fortunate) that they made their way into the UK.
Morisi Gets His Rights
Why did Peter Cannon Thunderbolt revert back to creator Pat Morisi? Why was his deal so different than Steve Ditko’s? Or, did he manage to find a copyright loophole later on? Questions, so many questions…
Not Too Desolate:
If Bob Dylan receives a royalty for the Desolation Row lyrics included in the Watchmen comics, it’s probably the easiest and most surprising money ever. If his people took a flat fee, all I can say is… oops.
