Ross Andru's Amazing Spider-Man Club 9 9

[FoggyNelson]

That is a sweet Molten Man splash page above👍👍😷😷😷

[Spider-Variant]

39 minutes ago, FoggyNelson said:

That is a sweet Molten Man splash page above👍👍😷😷😷

Yes, I had posted it before.  It ending up going for $6300 on Heritage.   Probably since we had posted it over here not too long ago, I was surprised to see that ebay auction also listing the reworked page for the UK reprint as Andru's work as well.

 

 

[Spider-Variant]

Here's a few more Ross Andru real life comparisons.  Nothing too amazing on these, but again I can appreciate the effort he made at all times to put Spider-Man in the real world.  On the Brooklyn Bridge, he for some reason added a section of bricks between the storage areas and the first vertical section.  Not as detailed either as compared to say Issue 147 and 148.

[FoggyNelson]

Pan Am building is awesome😷😷😷

[Spider-Variant]

2 hours ago, FoggyNelson said:

Pan Am building is awesome😷😷😷

Ross put both the Pan Am building and the Chysler building in Amazing Spider-Man several times, even if not the featured venue for the issue.

[Spider-Variant]

The back cover for the Superman VS the Amazing Spider-Man Treasury is up for auction on Heritage.  The original has Spider-Man looking back at Superman as they stand back to back.  I think this version would have been great had Superman been doing the same, but I get why they modified the art for the final published page.  Always interesting to me to see the editorial decision around these choices, especially when the original is around for comparison.

Ross really knocked it out of the park with his work on this book.  Didn't hurt that they brought in John Romita and Neal Adams to help as well. 

[Spider-Variant]

In my pursuit of the "XX" sightings by the late Dave Hunt in ASM, I was drawn back to the splash page of Amazing Spider-Man 156, specifically the stacks from what I imagined was a power plant.  In my real life I work in the power industry, so these depictions stand out to me.  This weekend I finally realized what Ross had drawn in his splash.

The splash contains the UN building (United Nations Secretariat Building) and the UN General Assembly building (long building with a dome on top).  Not sure why I had not noticed these before. 

The stacks belonged to the Con Ed power plant on 41st Street.  As with many of these old power plants, this one was torn down sometime in 2007.  From the vantage point Ross depicts, I wonder if he was in one of the close by buildings snapping a photo to use for his splash.  I tried to find a photo of a closer viewpoint that is drawn, but no such luck.  Nearly all photos of the UN buildings and the power plant are from the water.  Would be neat to find one from the side Ross drew.

This is not the first time Ross depicted this power plant.  Back in issue 152, Ross had Spidey visiting this power plant in one panel, before going up the river to the Ravenswood Generating Station to fight the Shocker.

Edited May 26, 2020 by Spider-Variant
Better photo

[Spider-Variant]

So, here's a Memorial Day bonus comparison.  As I was checking my ASM 152 reference above, I wanted to verify the 41st Power Station was only in one panel.  I was wrong, it appeared in two.  But as spider-man swings away from the power plant, he swings in front of the Queens-Midtown Tunnel Ventilation Building.  There is now a playground around the building, the Robert Moses Playground.  The building is very distinctive.  As I was trying to get a good match to the photo, I found the exact spot that Ross copied from.  He was up on the Tudor City East 41st Street Overlook (never heard of it myself).

Edited May 25, 2020 by Spider-Variant
clarification

[Spider-Variant]

On 1/15/2019 at 7:01 PM, MGsimba77 said:

Just wanted to share this panel from ASM 146 as I was reading it again online. Look at the cityscape in the background there... it's crazy glorious!!! I think he may not be the best Spidey artist ever (Romita) but he had the most raw talent! If that makes any sense 

Every time I think I have exhausted the real life references Ross Andru used in Amazing Spider-Man, I find another. 

Edited May 30, 2020 by Spider-Variant

[FoggyNelson]

On 5/25/2020 at 11:31 AM, Spider-Variant said:

The back cover for the Superman VS the Amazing Spider-Man Treasury is up for auction on Heritage.  The original has Spider-Man looking back at Superman as they stand back to back.  I think this version would have been great had Superman been doing the same, but I get why they modified the art for the final published page.  Always interesting to me to see the editorial decision around these choices, especially when the original is around for comparison.

Ross really knocked it out of the park with his work on this book.  Didn't hurt that they brought in John Romita and Neal Adams to help as well. 

KNocked it out of the park is true😷

[Spider-Variant]

I saw this picture from 1977 and thought it fit pretty well into the panel from ASM 142.

 

[Spider-Variant]

I knew when I saw the park bench in this panel from ASM 148 that Ross used an actual location as reference.  When I looked at these panels in the past, I had wondered if Ross was just making stuff up to add character to the page.  But over the past two years as I have put these comparisons together, I have found out most of them were lifted from real life.

I couldn't find the exact spot Ross was sitting at for this reference, but I am close.  That railing hasn't changed since Ross drew it 45 years ago.  Ross does take some liberties with the bridge supports, but not enough that one couldn't easily recognize it as the Queensboro bridge, which Ross put in a few issues of ASM.

[ADAMANTIUM]

lotta love!!  

[Spider-Variant]

Speaking of the Queensboro Bridge (although Ross probably would have called it the 59th Street Bridge), here's a neat 3-panel sequence at the end of Amazing Spider-Man 182 where Spidey ends his battle with the Rocket Racer.  Ross takes a little artistic license on the Con Ed stack located near the bridge where Rocket Racer hides to elude Spidery, but the views match very well.  I do wonder if Ross had some aerial photos of the bridge shots he used or did he just use his imagination?

 

On second thought, I don't think Ross took creative license on that stack, I think he used a very old reference.

Here is what I think was the original stack, from 1908, and it matches what Ross drew more closely.  I looked at a video taken in 1942 that has the straight stack, like the current one, so when Ross drew this in early 1978, it had the straight stack.

This approach is similar to what I think he did in ASM 135 with that panel of the Cloisters, where he used a reference from 1925.  I find this stuff fascinating, so sure hope I'm not boring posters with this stuff. 

Man, wish we could have known the man.

Edited June 13, 2020 by Spider-Variant
Additional Information

[ADAMANTIUM]

Not boring us at all! @Spider-Variant  Rock On!

[Spider-Variant]

1 minute ago, ADAMANTIUM said:

Not boring us at all! @Spider-Variant  Rock On!

Thanks for the kind words my friend.

[Get Marwood & I]

2 hours ago, Spider-Variant said:

I find this stuff fascinating, so sure hope I'm not boring posters with this stuff

You're posting clever, fresh and charming comic related retrospectives on a board that is largely stale, dull and obsessed with the non-comic related. Your posts evidence a love of the medium and a fondness for an artist who meant something to you. And me too. I wouldn't have started the thread in the first place if his work didn't mean something to me. You have a small but happy following here Reggie. A bit like the man himself, so rarely does he appear in collectors top ten lists.  Keep it up. It's cool outside the circle. 

[Spider-Variant]

6 hours ago, Get Marwood & I said:

You're posting clever, fresh and charming comic related retrospectives on a board that is largely stale, dull and obsessed with the non-comic related. Your posts evidence a love of the medium and a fondness for an artist who meant something to you. And me too. I wouldn't have started the thread in the first place if his work didn't mean something to me. You have a small but happy following here Reggie. A bit like the man himself, so rarely does he appear in collectors top ten lists.  Keep it up. It's cool outside the circle. 

Thanks so much Steve.  It's funny, I started a thread on the ASM 176-180 run years ago (it's even linked in ths thread) and you brought it back in spades.  Those 5 issues probably couldn't have sustained a two year thread, but by opening it up to Ross's whole ASM run, we've had enough to keep the traning rolling.

I truly thought I had exhausted all Ross's real life references, but after doing that Dave Hunt "XX" search, my eyes just kept on finding them.  John Bryne recently posted on his board the following (I paraphrase) in response to Ross depicting Far Rockaway in ASM 138, that when John interviewed for the ASM gig, they told him that NYC was a character in the book.  How correct that was during Ross's run.

There are a few more comparisons I am working on, but the true Holy Grail is the Mindworm's house from ASM 138.  One day, one day....

I do appreciate all the feedback and kind words.  I do my comparisons to try to capture the tremendous effort of a tireless man who brought great joy in my youth,  but I'm glad others enjoy them as well.  

[Get Marwood & I]

4 hours ago, Spider-Variant said:

I do my comparisons to try to capture the tremendous effort of a tireless man who brought great joy in my youth,  but I'm glad others enjoy them as well.  

I said before, I think they'd make a great book Reggie. Following in the tracks of Ross, revisiting the locations, taking new shots, feeding in your thoughts as you do. I can visualise it, and it would be a thing of beauty. A bit Bridges of Maddison County. Use an old camera if you do, won't you. Get the mood right and it would be a lovely homage to leave behind. Go for it Reggie - it has to be now - your audience will probably all be dead in 20 years.

[Frisco Larson]