Hey folks, Harry here... I don't dip my hands into typing about the comic world much. It's actually a bit bizarre how much I've left that up to Mark Miller and the brilliant team of @$$HOLE$ he has in his AICN COMICS BULLPEN - but that's just how great a job they do.
That said, I was literally raised in a Comic Book & Collectibles Shop in the Early Seventies, went on the convention circuit beginning at the age of 2 and going on through most of my life. I love comics. I am a bit of a classic comic snob in some ways. Not that I don't appreciate modern comics work - it's just that I absolutely love vintage comics. As much as I adore the work of modern comic geniuses... I've been known to spend as much as $7000 for artwork from CC Beck. In my living room I have original artwork from Bernie Wrightson, Bob Kane, CC Beck and Frank Frazetta.
One of the things I love about original comic art is that you can see the imperfections of creating art for publication. This was artwork created not to be framed on a wall, but to be photographed and reproduced after being colored - not on the original art - and then printed in a comic book. The materials used for comic art are not the finest quality. Much of the paper has a high acidity to it, which yellows and changes colors with age, but if the artist used Liquid Paper for corrections, that Liquid Paper is still NEON WHITE against the aging paper. You can see some of the pencil work left unerased upon the board. You'll read notes in the margins... empty spaces where ADS would go.
It is great - because you get to see how the comic came together. Then - in some cases - you flip the art over - and you'll see doodles and ideas from the artist. Sometimes they're just testing the tips they use for inking and trying to get a nice even flow of ink going. Sometimes they'd get goofy and do something elaborate that was never meant to be seen.
We don't see the back of any of the art in IDW's ARTIST EDITION series - but you do get the fronts. When they sent me that first Dave Stevens ROCKETEER Artist's Edition, my mind glazed over with happy. Dave Stevens' artwork is some of the cleanest, ready to frame, exquiste work ever to flow from a comic artist. His ROCKETEER work is exhilarating. Then I received the Walt Simonson THOR Artist's Edition - which was fascinating to look at, if only to compare and contrast the style. Again, this was another success for IDW. They announced an EC WALLY WOOD Artist's Edition, but I never saw that one - and haven't found it for sale anywhere yet, beyond pre-order, so I wonder if that's been held up.
But yesterday, I got the JOHN ROMITA'S AMAZING SPIDER-MAN Artist's Edition - and I'm a kid. Just a big hopping happy kid. Reading AMAZING SPIDER-MAN as a child is one of those formulative things for me. Reading about Peter Parker being picked on in school for being a bit of a geek... well, for a lot of us, that's why we associate so much with "Puny Parker". But when John Romita hit the comic in the enormous wake of Steve Ditko... The comic really came into its own. Ditko's Parker was an angular, less handsome geek, but with Romita - it was as if Parker started to fill in a bit. His cheeks filled out, his jaw became a little more squared off... His eyes became more expressive and he got better hair.
Romita also more fully rendered the HOT to Gwen Stacy, Betty Brant and Mary Jane Watson. He didn't oversize their tits, break off 6 ribs for an impossible waist size and give them crotch hugging skirtlines... No, he simply made them beautiful. The eyes he gave to Gwen and Mary Jane... perhaps it was the line work in his eyelashes, but he could give Gwen and Mary a smile that twitterpated poor Peter and us as the reader. Face it Tigers, we all wanted to hit the Jackpot!
Romita became THE Spider-Man artist as he took us through Captain Stacy & Gwen Stacy’s drama, through Norman & Harry Osborne’s trauma – he introduced us to Mary Jane Watson – who was awesomely teased for seemingly years of issues.
Yeah yeah, enough of that… what’s in this big ol $100 hardcover 144 page 12” by 17” book?
First – you’ll get to see Romita playing with Mysterio – which if you know your Romita – you know his Mysterio stories are just stunning. But Kingpin favors heavily (how else) in this book. You’ll see Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch for a bit. But here’s a list with shabby Celphone pics of each title page:
THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #67 “To Squash A Spider!”
THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #68 “Crisis on the Campus!”
THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #69 “Mission: Crash The Kingpin!”
THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #71 “The Speedster & The Spider!”
THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #75 “Death Without Warning!”
THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #84 “The Kingpin Strikes Back!”
Ol Stan Lee & Johnny Romita just kicking ass for 144 pages. It’s embellished (Stan’s word for Inking) by Jim “Madman” Mooney and the lettering is by the great Artie Simek. Mooney’s inks on Romita’s pencils and layouts are exquisite. This work is so dynamic, so flowing with action and purpose.
I just had a local comic artist over at the house about 10 minutes ago – and he was marveling at seeing exactly how zipatone was being used.. or how the inker would use white out to speckle lines to give this impossible detail that just was amazing. If you’re an artist or an aspiring artist – these Artist’s Editions are so perfectly photographed and reproduced that you’ll swear that you’ll see edges to glued in artwork in the midst of some of the panels.
This really is brilliant work. There are 4 pages that could not be found over the course of these 6 issues – that they couldn’t find the originals for. They’ve got great stats in their place, but compared to the originals… you really see the difference. In a way, I’m happy – because you get that frame of reference.
Track this puppy down – go down to your local comic shop and pre-order it. You don’t want to try picking this up on the second hand market. The Dave Stevens ROCKETEER Artist Edition, I’ve seen as high as $399 – nearly 4 times the original issue price. And again, I see why. The printing and presentation of these Artist’s Editions from IDW are literally some of the best collector works I’ve seen in years. Would love to see EVERY EC comic done this way! BTW: This book should be hitting comic shops on February 1st... and 14 days later the Wally Wood one should hit. I hope to give you a preview of that one too!
And as a treat - all of these are expandable and fun for you to pour over the details...
