The mystery of Amazing Spider-Man #95 cover, by Romita Sr and Sal Buscema.

[Ferran Delgado]

Marvel is a mess when it comes to storage images of their vintage comics. Hence that many covers were shot and stored before they were retouched, and those unretouched images were used in reprints and sent to foreign publishers.

 

I'm doing a series of comparisons between those raw images and published covers in my blog, which I find really interesting because it shows the role of the art director and how was the art as envisioned by the author. You can find them here:

http://ferrandelgado.blogspot.com.es/search/label/Portadas%20sin%20retocar

Translation button is in the column of the right at top.

 

One of the most interesting sides of the comparisons is that you can imagine the look of the original art from those changes. This is especially important in cases prior to 1965 because almost no cover from that age surfaced.

 

A nice sample is the Silver Surfer #2 cover. With the starting point of the raw drawing at the left and the published cover you could guess that a production copy existed with many stats and plenty of corrective white paint (image of the center).

 

 

When I found the unretouched image of Amazing Spider-Man #95 cover in a spanish edition and made the comparison, I imagined that a similar production copy existed. See the comparison below.

 

 

So now imagine my surprise when I found the published image in the ComicLInk May Auction, and it was a pristine drawing!!!

See below.

This is the auction:

http://www.comiclink.com/auctions/item.asp?back=%2Fauctions%2Fpreview%2Easp%3Fcode%3D2012may%26itemtype%3D1%23Item_922560&id=922560

 

If you compare the final image with the original drawing by Romita & Buscema, you can see that it's not the same one, it has slight differences. So, we could deduct that the drawing auctioned in comicLink was lightboxed from the production copy, in order to create a new clean image easier to reproduce.

 

The key question is: Who lightboxed it? Was Sal Buscema or someone else at Marvel Bullpen?

 

What it looks clear is that Romita didn't touched it, and this is a key fact that it should be reflected in the price. I wonder if the potential buyers did know about it...

 

Another item is the credits. The piece is atributted to Romita Sr as penciler and Sal Buscema as inker (both signed the piece in ComicLink), but the characters at the below of the cover has a Buscema look to me. My guess is that Romita did a very rough layout. What do you think?

 

You'll find larger images in this entry of my blog:

http://ferrandelgado.blogspot.com.es/2012/05/el-misterio-de-la-portada-de-spider-man.html

 

Just to end the thread, the Official Marvel Index to the Amazing Spider-Man # 4 contained a different image of the cover, with the text caption at the top contained inside a balloon:

[Ferran Delgado]

In order to see the differences between the Spider-Man figure of both images, I superimposed them in this image. Check out the changes specially at his eyes. It's the same image with different degree of transparency.

 

 

[Dave Aikins]

You're assuming the other is complete as well. What if it's a stat- how do you know that the one you claim is "unretouched" is actually that without seeing it? It's possible that editorial made the call to reduce the image to make room for more type (as there's so much space up there), and had someone go to town making stats. It's also possible that after it was done, editorial said "the original looks better- use that".

Then there would still only be one original cover.

 

[Ferran Delgado]

Mmm... This is a possibility.

 

I assumed that the first image was the original drawing from the experience of many comparisons done, but this case could be different, as you point out.

 

My theory lied on that the second version had a better look, more balanced; and the differences in Spider-Man, as shown in the superimposition.

 

BUT...

 

What support your theory is:

 

-Taking another look at the superimposition, it's really strange that mostly of lines in the interior fit so surprising well. They doesn't look like tracing but the real thing. What would point out towards it could be a retouched stat, maybe by Romita himself since retouches improved the image, imho.

 

-Lettering in the "unretouched" version looks like a poor copy of the original lettering by Sam Rosen in the published cover/art in ComicLink. I'm an expert on that, trust me.

 

-I just found out recently a sample of a retouched image that finally wasn't used in the published cover, as seen here:

http://ferrandelgado.blogspot.com.es/2012/05/el-fondo-que-desaparece-y-reaparece-en.html

 

If your theory is right, why Marvel would keep in their files a rejected retouched version and send it overseas for publishing? Oh, wait, they are a mess, right.

[Sharkey]

Hi Ferran,

 

Thanks for posting these and pointing to your blog. I had no idea that so many editorial changes were made to the covers originally and on various editions. Very interesting stuff! And full of mystery!

[Ferran Delgado]

Glad you find it interesting!

 

I discovered those changes while I worked adapting title pages and some shouting for the spanish edition, 15 years ago. Since I used my own USA comicbooks as a reference, I noticed some changes, but back then I had no time for doing comparisons and xerox what was interesting. A pity, because in some of the stats we received you could read clearly the margin notes by Kirby.

 

In my DeviantART page you can find some samples of my lettering of those title pages for spanish comics:

http://ferrandelgado.deviantart.com/gallery/11771714

 

It wasn't till a few weeks before, when a collector asked about who retouched his page of FF #78 in the Romta fan page of Facebook, that I began looking seriously for them.

 

You have the story and all of the changes in interior pages of FF #78 in this entry:

http://ferrandelgado.blogspot.com.es/2012/04/original-de-la-pag-20-del-fantastic.html

Translation button at the column of the right at the top.

 

A key part to make those discoveries is that I downloaded all the Marvel comics from the Silver Age and the spanish comics. This makes the research and posts easier and quickier.

[Terry Doyle]

 

The real mystery here is who moved the Houses of Parliament a few miles down river next to Tower Bridge?

[Romain]

 

The real mystery here is who moved the Houses of Parliament a few miles down river next to Tower Bridge?

 

 

Great thread though !!! as always !!!

[*paull*]

 

The real mystery here is who moved the Houses of Parliament a few miles down river next to Tower Bridge?

 

It's a reallly wide angle lens!

[Ferran Delgado]

Ok, mystery solved. The retouched cover published in the spanish edition was also published as the cover of Marvel Tales #76, as seen in the image.

 

When Marvel had the need to send overseas the cover of ASM #95 they simply took the image stored in their files, the retouched drawing of Marvel Tales, and then they pasted a logo and faked the lettering.

 

[PrechterFool-migration]

Thanks for the good read.

[PrechterFool-migration]

Final Hammer on the CLINK Auction not to shabby

 

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #95 PAGE COVER

 

Condition: Any condition

Starts At: $1

Current Bid: $52,777

 

5/24/2012 11:11:23 PM ET $52,777

[Ferran Delgado]

The real mystery here is who moved the Houses of Parliament a few miles down river next to Tower Bridge?

I agree. This is the real thing...