Ross Andru's Amazing Spider-Man Club 9 9

[FoggyNelson]

I’ve seen the Manhattan bridge on tv An movies so many times that

it is ingrained in my memory, even though I never been there in person

[Spider-Variant]

18 minutes ago, FoggyNelson said:

I’ve seen the Manhattan bridge on tv An movies so many times that

it is ingrained in my memory, even though I never been there in person

I've been across the George Washington bridge several times, but not sure about the Manhattan bridge.  Ross put several bridges in his ASM run, but issue 138 is the only one I recall with the Manhattan bridge.  The Queensboro was by far his favorite to depict.

[FoggyNelson]

2 minutes ago, Spider-Variant said:

I've been across the George Washington bridge several times, but not sure about the Manhattan bridge.  Ross put several bridges in his ASM run, but issue 138 is the only one I recall with the Manhattan bridge.  The Queensboro was by far his favorite to depict.

I might be mixing up all the iconic bridges in New York , they all look great ‼️‼️😷 me being a rural country boy

[Spider-Variant]

Before starting these real-life Ross Andru comparisons, I didn't know the Brooklyn Bridge from the GW either.

I've gotten decent at recognizing them all now.  Thanks to Ross, lol.

[Martin4]

On 3/2/2021 at 4:26 PM, Spider-Variant said:

Ok, before I move on from the Mindworm's home from Amazing Spider-Man, here are all the real-life references Ross Andru used for Amazing Spider-Man 138. We follow Peter from the bombed out apartment he shared with Harry in Mid-Town Manhattan, along the FDR drive near the Manhattan Bridge, over the Marine Parkway Bridge, along Beach Channel Drive, via the Rockaway Beach Boulevard, to Flash Thompson's apartment.  Oh, and passing the Mindworm's home along the way.

This is another example of Ross not only putting real places in his story, but moving Spider-Man along the correct path while passing these real places.  I've posted all of these before, but thought this would be a nice wrap up to the issue.

Hey Spider- Awesome and congratulations on locating the house. I live in Rockaway and always feel like I have seen it before. Like deja vu. I did look for it to no avail.

Anyway , this town has been seeing so much development over the last 30 years since I moved here from Brooklyn.It does not surprise me that it’s an apartment building now. 
Many things come and go but comic art is forever!

[Spider-Variant]

42 minutes ago, Martin4 said:

Many things come and go but comic art is forever!

Well said Martin4.  I suspect Hurricane Sandy may have finished it off, but that is a guess.

[FoggyNelson]

18 hours ago, Spider-Variant said:

Well said Martin4.  I suspect Hurricane Sandy may have finished it off, but that is a guess.

Hurricane Sandy probably wiped out quite a few nice comic book collections too

probably a bunch of OO collections , sad to think about😖😢☹️

[Spider-Variant]

http://www.scottedelman.com/2021/02/23/marvel-method/#more-27417

Here is a great example of the Marvel Method over on Scott Edelman's Blog involving Stan Lee and Ross Andru.  I think I have always wrongly discounted the contribution of the artist to the plot itself, and examples like these by Scott highlight my fallacy.

I'll just touch on the last few panels (and that was actually what Scott was highlighting).  Definitely worth a read of the whole plot and story over on Scott's blog.

Check out these beautiful Andru pencils from Our Love Story #17 (June 1972) under the title “When Love is Lost!”  If you look at the one page plot by Stan Lee, Ross follows it, but man did the artist really have a lot of flexibility.  Notice the notes Ross put in the margins to guide his pacing (as is pretty standard practice).  

But Stan changes out the ending a little, to make the story more ironic.  Jack Abel does the ink, and man does he tone down those lips in the first panel.

Edited March 9, 2021 by Spider-Variant

[Martin4]

On 3/7/2021 at 10:23 AM, FoggyNelson said:

Hurricane Sandy probably wiped out quite a few nice comic book collections too

probably a bunch of OO collections , sad to think about😖😢☹️

Sadly it did- It wiped out my neighbors Baseball ,Basketball and Football Card Collection. All cards from the 50's,60's,70's and 80's. Cash value probably 60-80k. His emotional loss was almost unbearable.

I felt guilty that my comics and cards survived unscathed. 

[ADAMANTIUM]

4 minutes ago, Martin4 said:

Sadly it did- It wiped out my neighbors Baseball ,Basketball and Football Card Collection. All cards from the 50's,60's,70's and 80's. Cash value probably 60-80k. His emotional loss was almost unbearable.

I felt guilty that my comics and cards survived unscathed. 

That's tough. And understandable if you felt that way for a time, though not your fault, empathy happens. I've though of insurance if just for the peace of mind, but that too is another expensive luxury sometimes 

Tough tough tough, even when we want to help but seemingly can't 

 

[Martin4]

1 minute ago, ADAMANTIUM said:

That's tough. And understandable if you felt that way for a time, though not your fault, empathy happens. I've though of insurance if just for the peace of mind, but that too is another expensive luxury sometimes 

Tough tough tough, even when we want to help but seemingly can't 

 

Yes the effects of mother nature, fires and even theft always looms in the back of the minds of all collectors. You do realize the fragility of these things. I cant imagine how I would feel to lose my collection. That's coming from a guy who lost 50 percent of his house and possessions. 2 cars a motorcycle etc.. My comics may have put me over the edge

[Spider-Variant]

I haven't shared these charts in a while, although they don't change very fast.

The first is a chart of the Ross Andru's Amazing Spider-Man interior art that I have verified still exists (typically using a picture) by percentage for each issue.  Right now I have seen 321 pages of the 988 pages (32.5%) Ross drew from ASM 125 through 185.  Five issues in that timeframe were drawn by others (two by Sal Buscema while Ross worked on Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man, I now know).    These issues and the Giant Size Spider-Man issues Ross drew are included in my first chart as well.

The second is a chart from the same run on ASM but by comic book page, 1 through 32.  Some pages in the book never contained actual story content but ads and letter pages.  If the comic book page didn't typically contain a story page, I didn't include it in my chart.  Example, there are only two issues in which comic book page 4 was a story page, all the other issues had this page as an ad.    I was hoping maybe to see if I might determine which pages Ross got back and which pages the inker got back when Marvel returned the art to the team.  

[FoggyNelson]

On 3/9/2021 at 7:32 PM, Martin4 said:

Sadly it did- It wiped out my neighbors Baseball ,Basketball and Football Card Collection. All cards from the 50's,60's,70's and 80's. Cash value probably 60-80k. His emotional loss was almost unbearable.

I felt guilty that my comics and cards survived unscathed. 

This is sad to read , I feel horrible for your neighbor, i always wonder how many AF 15 get ruined in floods, tornadoes etc 

[Get Marwood & I]

On 2/27/2021 at 3:40 PM, Spider-Variant said:

After two years of searching, and probably over 12,000 photos searched.  I proudly present for the first time, the actual residence that nearly got Ross Andru and Marvel sued ( https://www.cbr.com/spider-man-mindworm-rockaway-house/ ).  I didn't think I would find it honestly and I was wondering if it was perhaps a hoax, lol.  But here is a 1940ish photo of the home Ross used to model the Mindworm's house in Amazing Spider-Man 138.

Is this really the house Spider-Variant, or are you just pulling our leg?  I sometimes opine on how likely my real life references are when I am not 100%, but this is the house, I'd put it at 100.00000%.  Mystery solved, case closed.  Of all the other photos I looked at, none came close to I found this one. 

Why this house?  Well, it was exactly one mile from where Ross lived when he drew the story in July/August 1974.  So maybe he walked to the beach one day and saw it in passing and said, I could base a Spider-Man story on this.  

Is it still there?  No, it appears that it has been torn down and replaced with an apartment building.  I have not included the actual address just because I try to be caution on that stuff.  

Well done Reggie. I knew you wouldn't give up 

[Spider-Variant]

5 minutes ago, Get Marwood & I said:

Well done Reggie. I knew you wouldn't give up 

Thanks Steve.  I put this search on hold a couple of times but circled back to it in the last month or so.  I knew I was very, very close.  Many of the photos I was reviewing had house styles that were similar to what Ross had drawn.  But none had all the features until I stumbled upon this one two weeks ago.

The coolest thing is the house was just a mile from where Ross lived when he drew it.  As I stated earlier, I could easily see the plot for ASM 138 being formulated by Ross on his way to the beach one day.  "Hey Gerry, I passed this cool house on my way to the beach this weekend, how about we put a creepy villain in it, set the story in Far Rockaway, and ..."

[Get Marwood & I]

1 hour ago, Spider-Variant said:

Thanks Steve.  I put this search on hold a couple of times but circled back to it in the last month or so.  I knew I was very, very close.  Many of the photos I was reviewing had house styles that were similar to what Ross had drawn.  But none had all the features until I stumbled upon this one two weeks ago.

The coolest thing is the house was just a mile from where Ross lived when he drew it.  As I stated earlier, I could easily see the plot for ASM 138 being formulated by Ross on his way to the beach one day.  "Hey Gerry, I passed this cool house on my way to the beach this weekend, how about we put a creepy villain in it, set the story in Far Rockaway, and ..."

I wonder if the Mindworm was based on one of his creepy neighbours. "Cool idea Ross. And let's put that bloke down the road from you with the massive head in it" 

[Spider-Variant]

23 minutes ago, Get Marwood & I said:

I wonder if the Mindworm was based on one of his creepy neighbours. "Cool idea Ross. And let's put that bloke down the road from you with the massive head in it" 

Some speculate that Gerry Conway may have borrowed some concepts from the science fiction short story "The Mindworm" written by American writer Cyril M. Kornbluth, first published in 1950. It combines the themes of mutant power, telepathy and ancient superstition.

I haven't read it but seems to have some similarities.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mindworm

The protagonist, the Mindworm of the title, is an orphan, the result of a liaison between a U.S. Navy lieutenant and a nurse aboard ship during viewing of early atomic tests. He is a mutant, as a result of the atomic fallout after the testing, and he can "hear" the thoughts of others around him.

Cast out into the world as a young adult, he is about to be attacked by hoboes when he discovers an ability to feed off strong emotions, killing one of his assailants in the process. He uses this to eliminate the rest of his attackers. He moves from town to town, eavesdropping on the thoughts of people around him, and using his abilities to induce the intense emotion he craves, and to gain material wealth.

 

Edited March 13, 2021 by Spider-Variant

[Spider-Variant]

As discussed previously in this thread, Dave Hunt, Spidey background inker extraordinaire, left little messages here and there throughout his run on Amazing Spider-Man.  We discussed the use of "XX" and his shout outs to his son Benjamin.

Here are two examples that I felt were hilarious.

What eagle-eyed bronze age ASM fan can name the issues these two appeared in?  Both occurred in the Ross Andru run.

 

Edited March 17, 2021 by Spider-Variant

[Get Marwood & I]

7 minutes ago, Spider-Variant said:

What eagle-eyed bronze age ASM fan can name the issues these two appeared in? 

                 

[Spider-Variant]

Let's see if anyone else knows.  

I think the first one is pretty easy but the second one a little harder.

Also, I think the first one was mentioned in a ASM letter's page too.