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Ross Andru's Amazing Spider-Man Club
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Started by Get Marwood & I,

2,723 posts in this topic

Spider-Variant

Spider-Variant

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Here's a real life Ross Andru reference that is a little confusing to me.

As I have documented a couple of times (well more than I probably should have), Spider-Man and the Shocker square off at the Ravenswood Generation Station, just across the Roosevelt Island Bridge, in Amazing Spider-Man 152.  But before kicking the Shocker's butt, Spidey first looks for him at the 41st Street Con Ed Power Plant before heading uptown.

The first thing that was a little off, is that Ross drew the power station right next to the East River, but in real life the power plant was across the FDR Drive from the river.  It has long since been demolished.  Ross put this power plant in the Issue 156 splash as well, for those playing along at home. 

Ross did nail the coal crane and barges, as shown by my real life photo (took me some time to find even that bad photo).  Very spot on.

The other confusing thing is look at the building by the coal crane.  Where is the rest of it?  The crane is just a lattice work of metal, and you should be able to see the rest of this building.  I find this one odd.

If you look at all the real life references from Amazing Spider-Man 152, it is clear Ross started at the 41st Street Con Ed Power Plant, went up FDR Drive, over the Queensboro Bridge, up to the Roosevelt Island Bridge to take pictures of all these references.  

How do I know?  Well Len Wein said this " Ross had an amazing sense of design and story, and he was a stickler for accuracy. Amazing #151, my first issues, starred the Shocker, and the climax takes place on a power station that was located on a small island in the middle of the East River. Ross had his wife drop him off in the middle of the 59th street bridge, and stood there with a camera and a sketch pad for like an hour and a half, until he got all the reference on that power station just right."

I think Len's memory was a little off, because Ross's wife must have dropped him off on the Roosevelt Island Bridge as that was the vantage point Ross drew the power station in which Spidey fought the Shocker in, but I just love how it all comes together.

 

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Edited by Spider-Variant
clarification
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Spider-Variant

Spider-Variant

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I always thought Ross Andru just needed a break from Amazing Spider-man and that was the reason he didn't draw Amazing Spider-Man 154 and 155.  Sal Buscema did those.

But I never even realized the real reason until I read this at about 2 am this morning...

He was so good, in fact, that he was handpicked by Gerry Conway to be the artist for one of the most important comics of all time, Superman vs. The Amazing Spider-Man.

"The real reason was that I just wanted to work with him again," recalls Conway during a phone conversation with SYFY WIRE. "I had the backing of [then-DC Comics EiC] Carmine Infantino to pick whoever I wanted to work with. The contract had stated DC would provide the writer and Marvel the artist. And it made perfect sense because Ross was one of the few artists who had drawn both characters at that point. It was an easy call to make. I've heard that upset Len Wein a bit because it took Ross off the Spider-Man book for a few months."

I never even put the two together until 44 years later.  hm

ASM 154, 155 were March & April 1976 cover dates and Superman vs The Amazing Spider-Man was published March 1976, according to Wiki.

Edited by Spider-Variant
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Spider-Variant

Spider-Variant

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I noticed these building protrusions a little time back and have been trying to figure out if they were a real building in NYC or not.  I think Ross drew the top of the San Remo Apartment building in ASM 147.  Very distinctive top to the building.  I'll give it about an 85% match, which is enough for me to say this is what Ross was drawing.

image.thumb.png.94266078ceea0d36ca5bb49dc37ac536.png

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Spider-Variant

Spider-Variant

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How about some more trivia for a Wednesday (that I have off, oh yeah).

Everyone knows that Nicholas Hammond played Peter Parker in the 1970s live action Spider-Man TV series.

But here Peter is talking with another Super Heroine.  She didn't even have powers on her Spider-Man show appearance below but on another show, she kicked butt.

Who do these legs belong to?  (It's not a dude)

image.thumb.png.7cf08b9a07fb3ebf93cedbb889fcbbda.png

 

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FoggyNelson

FoggyNelson

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Central Park is on my bucket list of places to visit👍👍🦃it’s like we’ve already been there though because I have watched so many movies that the park was in👍

What your favorite thing about the park? Mr Spider-Variant??

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