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Ross Andru's Amazing Spider-Man Club
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2,691 posts in this topic

3 hours ago, Get Marwood & I said:

What's up next then Reggie? 

You can't leave it at that mate... :popcorn:

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Whoa, cool find.  It took me a minute to place that top panel from Marvel Super-Heroes 14,  Ross's first take on Spider-Man.  The villian looks he could be right out of  the Flash comics Ross drew.

There are probably a few more references to track down in Amazing, like the Mindworm's house and probably  a few in Marvel Team Up as well.  Other than that, I'll keep posting my original art tracking updates and any other cool Ross Andru stuff I might find.

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8 minutes ago, Spider-Variant said:

Whoa, cool find.  It took me a minute to place that top panel from Marvel Super-Heroes 14,  Ross's first take on Spider-Man.  The villian looks he could be right out of  the Flash comics Ross drew.

There are probably a few more references to track down in Amazing, like the Mindworm's house and probably  a few in Marvel Team Up as well.  Other than that, I'll keep posting my original art tracking updates and any other cool Ross Andru stuff I might find.

...and maybe the odd set of panels with similar poses... :wink:

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2 hours ago, FoggyNelson said:

Good catch on the Metropolitan Art Museum above👍‼️😷

Thanks Foggy.  This one wasn't hard to find as Spidey mentions it in the story, lol.  I do wonder if Ross went across the street, made it to the fourth floor of one of those buildings, and shot some pictures for his vantage point of the story.  Gerry Conway tells of Ross going to the rooftop of his apartment and taking pictures for use in the story artwork, so I can definitely picture it.  I do think the long flagpole Spider-man is sitting on is pure imagination by Ross.

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On 1/30/2021 at 11:45 AM, Spider-Variant said:

Thanks Foggy.  This one wasn't hard to find as Spidey mentions it in the story, lol.  I do wonder if Ross went across the street, made it to the fourth floor of one of those buildings, and shot some pictures for his vantage point of the story.  Gerry Conway tells of Ross going to the rooftop of his apartment and taking pictures for use in the story artwork, so I can definitely picture it.  I do think the long flagpole Spider-man is sitting on is pure imagination by Ross.

Talk about giving us our money's worth! ASM was truly blessed with the right artists for the majority of its first few decades. 

I'm curious if you know the story of Andru's double inking teams? First with Frank Giacoia and Dave Hunt (most of his issues up through #146), and then long time Andru inker Mike Esposito and Dave Hunt as the regular team through #165, and then Esposito as the sole inker for 4 issues, and then it gets scrambled a bit - Giacoia and Esposito teaming up, Jim Mooney issues, etc.

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On 2/1/2021 at 7:50 AM, Prince Namor said:

Talk about giving us our money's worth! ASM was truly blessed with the right artists for the majority of its first few decades. 

I'm curious if you know the story of Andru's double inking teams? First with Frank Giacoia and Dave Hunt (most of his issues up through #146), and then long time Andru inker Mike Esposito and Dave Hunt as the regular team through #165, and then Esposito as the sole inker for 4 issues, and then it gets scrambled a bit - Giacoia and Esposito teaming up, Jim Mooney issues, etc.

For most of Ross's ASM run, there were two inkers per issue on the book.  The primary inkers (Giacoia and Espositio) inked the main figures while Dave Hunt did the background inks.  What exactly constituted "backgrounds" is anyone's guess.  Dave did background inks starting at issue 127 and going to issue 170, not working on only about 3 issues in that span.

Here is an example of Dave's work on ASM 134.  The left (top) image is the finished inked page (Primary inks by Giacoia).  For the right image, Dave took Xeroxes after the page had been lettered and he had done the background inking.   You can see the detail and sharpness of the inks in the bridge's support structures.  In that 7th panel, Dave inks everything except that small Spider-Man figure.  I recommend @Lee B. 's  book about Dave Hunt if you want to dig deeper into Dave's work.  You can buy it straight from Lee, if interested.  Dave put some Easter Eggs throughout his run on Amazing that Lee's book also explains.  

I think the loss of Dave from the book made a difference in the final art product.  Look at the Greenpoint Incinerator from Issue 151 (Inked by John Romita) and from Issue 180 (Inks by Mike Esposito).  Sure John and Mike inked differently, but the detail of the building undoubtable was the doing of Dave Hunt, where he did backgrounds on Issue 151 and had moved to DC comics by Issue 180.  It's like night and day.  

After Issue 170, the concept of the background inker must have died and Ross was inked by Esposito mainly, but Mooney, Giacoia, Tony Dezuniga, and Bob MacLeod all did fill in.   Not sure why Esposito didn't consistently ink those last Andru issues.

Dave Hunt made a difference in my humble opinion.

Hope this answers your question @Prince Namor.  

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Edited by Spider-Variant
Clarification.
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1 hour ago, Spider-Variant said:

For most of Ross's ASM run, there were two inkers on the book.  The primary inkers (Giacoia and Espositio) inked the main figures while Dave Hunt did the background inks.  What constituted "backgrounds" is anyone's guess.  Dave did background inks starting at issue 127 and going to issue 170, not working on only about 3 issues in that span.

Here is an example of Dave's work on ASM 134.  The left (top) image is the finished inked page (Primary inks by Giacoia).  For the right image, Dave took Xeroxes after the page had been lettered and he had done the background inking.   You can see the detail and sharpness of the inks in the bridge's support structures.  In that 7th panel, Dave inks everything except that small Spider-Man figure.  I recommend @Lee B. 's  book about Dave Hunt if you want to dig deeper into Dave's work.  You can buy it straight from Lee, if interested.  Dave put some Easter Eggs throughout his run on Amazing that Lee's book also explains.  

 

Thanks for the kind shout-out @Spider-Variant!  I do indeed have copies of the Dave Hunt autobiography available for $25 postpaid in the United States.  If anyone needs one, please send me a message.  And if you need more information about the book, you can find a nice write-up of it here:  https://downthetubes.net/?p=101921  

For my money, the Andru/Giacoia/Hunt combo on ASM rivals the other great ASM art teams including Kane/Romita Sr.  Cheers, Lee

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12 minutes ago, FoggyNelson said:

I don’t catch any differences between issue 151 an 180, but my eyes not that good 😀

It's more about how sharp the inks are to me, like the boldness of the line.  There are additional features, like the windows and the lines on the stacks, but to me, the 151 plant just looks so much better than the 180 plant.

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7 minutes ago, Spider-Variant said:

It's more about how sharp the inks are to me, like the boldness of the line.  There are additional features, like the windows and the lines on the stacks, but to me, the 151 plant just looks so much better than the 180 plant.

I can't say that I ever noticed that before.  I prefer the 151 image too.  It's amazing how much difference a strong inker can make to the finished product.

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The Big Wheel was a Big Deal.  Not!  :facepalm:

CGC states this is Ross Andru pencils with Ernie Chan inks and I would be hard pressed to give you a different answer.  Coupled with the Bob McLeod inks on the interior, this whole issue was just out of place.

This is the first time I have found a scan of this cover though, so that is neat.  That's 35 out of 61 ASM covers accounted for from the Ross Andru era (ASM 125-185).

 

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Edited by Spider-Variant
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Ok, ok, very last one from Superman vs the Amazing Spider-Man, I promise, I promise....:wishluck:

As I have documented over the last couple of years, Ross went out of his way to capture New York City and included it in his art for the Amazing Spider-Man comic.  Sometimes he actually took a photo and copied that into the book.  

But Ross went to the next level as well, he put Spider-Man in NYC and traced the actual real life path that Spider-Man would have taken to fight a foe or get into action.  I posted a while back from Issue 165 where Peter and MJ walk to the Hayden Planetarium, and Ross using the actual buildings they would have passed as his backdrop.  There are other examples as well, maybe I will get to them.

Here, because no one demanded it, I give you my breakdown of the first meeting of Superman and Spiderman.  I'm calling it the Columbus Circle Brawl.  Is this 100% accurate?  Well given how buildings changed in 45 years and the fact that Ross probably took a few liberties, maybe, maybe not.  But overall, I think it's a fair representation.

Oh, Spider-Man in red, Superman in blue, Lex Luthor in Magenta, and Dr. Ock in green.

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Edited by Spider-Variant
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