Spider-Variant

I think I looked at a few of those in the correct timespan, but found nothing. Notice Wolverine is in his Fang costume. It appears he actually wore that in Iron Fist before he stole it in the X-Men 107, but I will defer you the more knowledgeable Bronze Age X-Men fan for confirmation. So, if the 1978 calendar was published in late 1977 and Iron Fist 15 was on sale around May/June 1977, that only gives a few months that the Calendar image could have appeared somewhere.

Yes, Byrne did the month of December. I was leaning here as Byrne over Cockrum as well. I looked at a few different things and I cannot find it. There is a chance that it was created just for calendar, but most of art that appeared on a particular day was borrowed from a comic.

I started a thread on this, but it died a fast death. I'm going to try one more time, because I am interested in the answer. Ok, thought I would go to the experts instead of searching endlessly. Besides the THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN MIGHTY MARVEL COMICS CALENDAR 1978 (Month of December, 25th Day), where did this X-Men image with Spider-Man appear? I think I know the artist and can date it to within a year's span of when it could have been published, but I cannot find it anywhere else. I am thinking perhaps unpublished or fanzine. I love a good challenge, but this one seems to beg for an X-Man aficionado.

I had never heard that story before. Now I can never unsee this either.

Exactly, lol.

Such a wasted youth.

The Magic 8 Ball says "Most Definitely".

Great discussion everyone!

Mike said somewhere he thought those issues were his pinnacle on the book. I really loved Nightcrawler in that book, more than the Punisher. It was the first comic I ever bought in the continental USA as I had lived in Hawaii when I started my comics journey in 1975.

Yes, I saw that episode. Most of what I saw was some of Mike's recreations,. which were plenty nice though.

Great discussion @Get Marwood & I. Hey @ADAMANTIUM , @Winterboy, @ganni, @FoggyNelson, @piper, @HighVoltage , @MattTheDuck, @cosmic-spider-man same question to you (and any others that want to opine), Who was your favorite inker over Mr. Andru's pencils?

Agree. those Goblins were top notch, more evil than the standard fare. I noticed that first panel goblin on your second posted image a few months back when i posted the original art, really stood out. Um, the nose wasn't working for me either.

Issue 127 was not one that I bought off the stands, so it holds no particular fondness in my heart. Coupled with the fact that I find the art somewhat lacking detail, this issue doesn't really resonant with me. Thus, even the storyline feels off, like the dialogue you point out. I think the team was saving their energy for the Jackal and the Punisher in ASM 129.

Yes, all the inkers had their moments here and there. We have talked about Romita inking Ross before, and for the most apart I agree, he tended to over-influence the art. I still like Frank Giacoia on those earlier issues, like 134, 135, and 145. Mike Esposito does a tremendous job on issues 161 and 162, maybe two of his best on the run. Jim Mooney was pretty good as well on the few issues he did. Um, not a fan of DeZuniga on Spider-Man, but I did find a western job he inked Ross on (I think it was Jonah Hex) that looked great.

Here is another Xerox image from Dave Hunt, who with this issue (ASM 127) started doing the background inks over Ross Andru's pencils. Peter Parker tries to console a distressed MJ, as she has just witnessed a murder. Peter's mood quickly changes as MJ explains she can't go forward and identify the killer, who we later learn is the Vulture, um, but not that Vulture. Again, I think Ross does a great job capturing the characters' facial expressions and reactions. I typically really enjoy Frank Giacoia's inks (who did the finished inks here) over Ross's pencils, but on this page, I actually think Ross's original pencils were better than the finished published page portrayed. Like it lost just a little detail. Example look at Ross's original pencils on Pete's hair in that fourth panel, Frank eliminates the little curl. Who was your favorite inker over Mr. Andru's pencils? I think Frank was my favorite regular ASM inker. Tom Palmer did some great work over on Doc Savage with Ross. John Romita and Ross also did a couple of issues (125 and 151) of ASM together, that looked pretty nice.

OH MY! What a great surprise. The Amazing Cosmic Spider-Man has dropped by. Hi Terry, really nice to hear from you, it's been years.

Thanks @ganni, really appreciate it. I was nine when I started collecting Amazing Spider-Man in late 1975. I am going to give myself partial credit, there was some discussion on Flash and Liz, just not what I was remembering.

I think I saw a picture somewhere of you that you had posted on one of the threads.

I sold my collections a few years back but I still have the Marvel Masterworks reprints. It's just hard finding the Letters Page on line for these issues.

My good person Ganni has got me covered Steve. I swear I remember some reader pointing out that Flash was responding to the wrong person somewhere in a letter's page, but man I could be full of it.

Hey @ganni do you have the letter's page from ASM 138 that you can post?

Thanks Ganni. Ok, maybe my memory is shot, lol.

Anyone got the letter's page to Amazing Spider-Man 137? I want to see if my memory is still where it used to be.

Here's another Xerox from the late Dave Hunt from his background inks from Amazing Spider-Man 134. This is after Ross's pencils, the Letter's work, and Dave's inks. Ross's storytelling ability is on full display in this character page, as things flow smoothly panel to panel. Love the facial expressions he used on the main cast, like MJ's in that third panel and Flash's and Pete's in that fifth panel. The unsung hero on this book was Dave Hunt, IMHO. When he left ASM on issue 170, the backgrounds just weren't as detailed. He added a lot of small touches that were missed after he left. Partial note on the original art at the bottom right panel reads "They Look Up To". Note that Liz Allen had a word balloon that got removed in the final edit of the story. But not Flash's response to her in the next panel. Here is a zoomed in view of where the word balloon was going to go, and the arrows to locate the tail of the balloon. Also notice in the last panel Flash's statement makes no sense "I know you're too stand up against these bozos" So, here's the Ross Andru Thread Challenge: 1) Come up with the best response from Liz Allen that Flash agrees with & 2) Come up with the best response from Flash in the last panel. Best entries gets the Ross Andru Spider-Man Thread No-Prize and as always, @Get Marwood & I's half eaten Twinkie. Here are my entries: Liz "I don't think this is a time to joke MJ, something is really going on up there" Flash "I know you're too chicken s*&t to stand up against these bozos"

Nice work, that's either @Get Marwood & I in his early 70s garb or an Andru inspired Peter Parker.