Ross Andru's Amazing Spider-Man Club 9 9

[Spider-Variant]

11 hours ago, Get Marwood & I said:

Is Ross Andre any relation to Peter do you think? 

He flood!

[FoggyNelson]

On 2/9/2020 at 12:31 PM, Spider-Variant said:

I'm not up on the kid's new lingo either, lol.  

Fixed it👍

[Spider-Variant]

2 hours ago, FoggyNelson said:

Fixed it👍

I like "flood" better, lol.   I think we could make that a new word description.  "Oh that dude, he flood, real flood!"

 

[Spider-Variant]

I procrastinate.  And when I do, I find myself circling back to the Spidey of my youth.  Like the past few days.

I tackled Andru's depiction of The Cloisters from ASM 135.  Now days, this is a museum.  And it was back in 1974 when Ross drew it.

But it officially opened in 1938 (don't quote me, I just did enough research to make these images make sense.)

The first pic I got from GoogleMaps recently, but the second is from 1938.  The vantage looks very similar to Ross's, including the tree.  

Ross gives us 1 more frame of the exterior and 2 more of the interior.

The Trie Cloister is the only place similar to what Ross drew as Spidey swings into the place.  Notice the even rooftops of the two walls.  Also notice the two columns coming together in the corner.  The Trie Cloister is the only place like that.  But Ross did take a shortcut in drawing only one column along the perimeter of the garden, as in real life each of these are double columns.

In the next panel, Spidey and the Punisher walk beside the Chapter House, which was imported to the museum.  I point out some matching features.

The last panel though was impossible to match.  There is nowhere in the Cloisters museum that matches.  I looked at a lot of pictures trying to find a two story view like the one Ross depicted.  Not there.  Then I stumbled on a picture from 1925 of George Grey Barnard’s original Museum, which was where most of the art for the museum was purchased from.  I think the pictures from 1925 match pretty well with what Ross drew.  The red and blue dots are where Spidey and the Punisher would be in the real photo.  The question then becomes why was Ross drawing a 1925 museum instead of the 1974 Cloisters.  My guess is that Ross was using an art book and didn't visit the Cloisters.  He liked the images from 1925 and went with that one.  Just a guess.

And for the art lovers, I hope I didn't mess up too badly on the museum facts.

 

[Get Marwood & I]

24 minutes ago, Spider-Variant said:

I like "flood" better, lol.   I think we could make that a new word description.  "Oh that dude, he flood, real flood!"

 

He sure is flood, blood 

[Get Marwood & I]

53 minutes ago, Spider-Variant said:

I procrastinate.  And when I do, I find myself circling back to the Spidey of my youth. 

Would that be a comic related procrastination Reggie? Or a what shall I have for dinner type one?

[Spider-Variant]

17 minutes ago, Get Marwood & I said:

Would that be a comic related procrastination Reggie? Or a what shall I have for dinner type one?

More along the lines of what am I doing for the rest of my life procrastinating...

[Get Marwood & I]

6 minutes ago, Spider-Variant said:

More along the lines of what am I doing for the rest of my life procrastinating...

Ah yes, that kind. Choose well Reggie, choose well...

[FoggyNelson]

23 hours ago, Spider-Variant said:

I procrastinate.  And when I do, I find myself circling back to the Spidey of my youth.  Like the past few days.

I tackled Andru's depiction of The Cloisters from ASM 135.  Now days, this is a museum.  And it was back in 1974 when Ross drew it.

But it officially opened in 1938 (don't quote me, I just did enough research to make these images make sense.)

The first pic I got from GoogleMaps recently, but the second is from 1938.  The vantage looks very similar to Ross's, including the tree.  

Ross gives us 1 more frame of the exterior and 2 more of the interior.

The Trie Cloister is the only place similar to what Ross drew as Spidey swings into the place.  Notice the even rooftops of the two walls.  Also notice the two columns coming together in the corner.  The Trie Cloister is the only place like that.  But Ross did take a shortcut in drawing only one column along the perimeter of the garden, as in real life each of these are double columns.

In the next panel, Spidey and the Punisher walk beside the Chapter House, which was imported to the museum.  I point out some matching features.

The last panel though was impossible to match.  There is nowhere in the Cloisters museum that matches.  I looked at a lot of pictures trying to find a two story view like the one Ross depicted.  Not there.  Then I stumbled on a picture from 1925 of George Grey Barnard’s original Museum, which was where most of the art for the museum was purchased from.  I think the pictures from 1925 match pretty well with what Ross drew.  The red and blue dots are where Spidey and the Punisher would be in the real photo.  The question then becomes why was Ross drawing a 1925 museum instead of the 1974 Cloisters.  My guess is that Ross was using an art book and didn't visit the Cloisters.  He liked the images from 1925 and went with that one.  Just a guess.

And for the art lovers, I hope I didn't mess up too badly on the museum facts.

 

Excellent research👍👍👍🏆🏆🏆

[Spider-Variant]

15 minutes ago, FoggyNelson said:

Excellent research👍👍👍🏆🏆🏆

Thanks my friend.  I find these real life references in this issue a bit curious because of the deviations Ross made to them.  To be fair, this was one of the earlier real life references he employed, so maybe he hadn't honed his craft.  Very odd on that last panel using the original 1925 museum.  

Edited February 16, 2020 by Spider-Variant

[Spider-Variant]

On 6/10/2019 at 6:39 PM, MGsimba77 said:

The bottom section of the middle paragraph here is interesting. It refers to 138.

I wonder what Andru did with all those pictures? Did he just throw them out? I don't know if he used Polaroids? Maybe Conway kept them? 

I reached out to Stephen Vrattos, the author of the article above and shared our thread with him.  I asked him about the house from ASM 138 and if he had anymore clarification.  Alas, he did not have a lot of additional information.  He did say Ross was long gone from the offices when he got there.

He was appreciative of me sharing the thread.

 

Edited February 18, 2020 by Spider-Variant

[MGsimba77]

2 hours ago, Spider-Variant said:

On 6/10/2019 at 6:39 PM, MGsimba77 said:

The bottom section of the middle paragraph here is interesting. It refers to 138.

I wonder what Andru did with all those pictures? Did he just throw them out? I don't know if he used Polaroids? Maybe Conway kept them? 

I reached out to Stephen Vrattos, the author of the article above and shared our thread with him.  I asked him about the house from ASM 138 and if he had anymore clarification.  Alas, he did not have a lot of additional information.  He did say Ross was long gone from the offices when he got there.

He was appreciative of me sharing the thread.

From the article "The owner of the house threatened to sue Marvel because spider-man fans kept appearing at his home looking for Mindworm" 

Hey at least you were able to get in touch! I thought it was torn down?

[Spider-Variant]

1 hour ago, MGsimba77 said:

From the article "The owner of the house threatened to sue Marvel because spider-man fans kept appearing at his home looking for Mindworm" 

Hey at least you were able to get in touch! I thought it was torn down?

Unfortunately Stephen couldn't add much info as to the location.  I can't find it, so it could be torn down.  But its a big area to search in, so I just may have missed it.  Im still thinking it's next to a school.

[Spider-Variant]

On 1/30/2020 at 10:34 AM, Spider-Variant said:

I was inspired by that Spider Molten Man original art to look for some more Ross Andru real life references.  I've exhausted a lot of them over the past year.  I did find one that was very simple, but at the same time shows the detail Ross went to.  

From that same molten man issue, Ross does a simple subway car leaving the station.  I just love the small details he puts in.  The step on the lower side of the car, the extenders that come out to prevent people falling between cars.  It's not an exact match, but I found this photo of a car on the Rockaway line, as I imagine Ross taking that train line home after work each day.

 

Here is what Gerry Conway said about this story in the Ross Andru Artist Edition "Some of our story sessions were simply discussions of cool locations we wanted to use.  Wanting to set a battle on the elevated train to Queens led to the revival of Molten Man, which developed into a deeply personal story for Peter about a lost connection with an old friend.  Visual ideas fed emotional story ideas fed more visual ideas which in turn fed dramatic story arcs."

They built a story around the location, instead of picking a story direction and fitting it into a location.  Very interesting to me.

[Spider-Variant]

Here's a real life reference from Spider-Man 167.  This one jumped at me as I was looking for the quote above in the Ross Andru Artist Edition.

I couldn't find a good 1977 aerial pictures for a good comparison, but the buildings around the Madison Square Garden align really well.  The picture I found doesn't highlight the small details Ross put in that were exact matches to the real buildings.

 

[Spider-Variant]

On 2/18/2020 at 6:50 PM, Spider-Variant said:

Unfortunately Stephen couldn't add much info as to the location.  I can't find it, so it could be torn down.  But its a big area to search in, so I just may have missed it.  Im still thinking it's next to a school.

From ASM #149 letter page...

[ADAMANTIUM]

6 minutes ago, Spider-Variant said:

On 2/18/2020 at 5:50 PM, Spider-Variant said:

Unfortunately Stephen couldn't add much info as to the location.  I can't find it, so it could be torn down.  But its a big area to search in, so I just may have missed it.  Im still thinking it's next to a school.

From ASM #149 letter page...

I vaguely recall you looking for a real-time pic, and not finding a dilapidated dwelling? I'll assume that the pic that you DID get was it then? 

[Spider-Variant]

9 minutes ago, ADAMANTIUM said:

I vaguely recall you looking for a real-time pic, and not finding a dilapidated dwelling? I'll assume that the pic that you DID get was it then? 

No, I'm still looking.  Cannot find it.  About the last real life reference left to find.

[FoggyNelson]

Very interesting letter from the editor an apology 

[Spider-Variant]

42 minutes ago, FoggyNelson said:

Very interesting letter from the editor an apology 

Well, they were being threatened with a lawsuit, so I think this was the compromise.