Ross Andru's Amazing Spider-Man Club 9 9

[Get Marwood & I]

On 6/22/2022 at 8:16 PM, Spider-Variant said:

Had I had the money, I probably would have paid $1300 for this nostalgic character page.

Ah, the old what if...? eh.

 

Tell you what, that would make a good comic title wouldn't it. What you could do, is take existing characters and......

[Spider-Variant]

On 6/22/2022 at 3:31 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

Ah, the old what if...? eh.

 

Tell you what, that would make a good comic title wouldn't it. What you could do, is take existing characters and......

Never work, they'd try to put Spider-Man in the Fantastic Four, so some crazy stuff like that... 

Edited June 23, 2022 by Spider-Variant

[ganni]

[Spider-Variant]

Here's another two for one original art page.  From ASM 131, Doc Ock and Hammerhead throw down in an atomic power plant, while Spidey and Aunt May get out of dodge.

The word balloons aren't added here, which is different than the other original art pages in this issue.  Must have used paste-ons.

 

 

[Spider-Variant]

Interesting they had to extend the bottom panels.  

[Get Marwood & I]

On 6/25/2022 at 4:33 PM, Spider-Variant said:

Interesting they had to extend the bottom panels.  

They did a cracking job on extending the reflection lines, didn't they 

[Get Marwood & I]

On 6/25/2022 at 4:18 PM, Spider-Variant said:

The word balloons aren't added here, which is different than the other original art pages in this issue.  Must have used paste-ons.

Presumably because they would have been resized on the finished full pages when split, and would have ended up too big?

[Spider-Variant]

On 6/25/2022 at 9:12 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

They did a cracking job on extending the reflection lines, didn't they 

I noticed that poor job as well.

[Spider-Variant]

On 6/25/2022 at 9:15 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

Presumably because they would have been resized on the finished full pages when split, and would have ended up too big?

Definitely about sizing, but I was too lazy to look up comic vs art board size to see which way it would go.

[Spider-Variant]

I always thought the last few issues of Ross Andru's run on Amazing Spider-Man were a little bit underwhelming.  The villains were not my favorites (and some downright silly, like Big Wheel).  I also thought the art wasn't quite as sharp as compared to say the first issues or even the mid-run issues like 161-162.

But here is a really nice original art page from Ross's and Mike's final issue (185) on ASM.  Not very elaborate backgrounds, but some good Spidey action.

Below that is my tracking of Ross Andru's original art on Amazing Spider-Man that I have a scan or image of (i.e. proof it's still in existence).  The numbers don't change much and stand at 33.4% of Ross's ASM original art pages still around.

The chart below that is the percent of original art from Ross ASM run by book page number.  With my last update, it looks like it is easier to find a page from the middle of the book than finding one at either end.  This gets me to wonder if this was a Penciller vs Inker returned art correlation thing.

[Spider-Variant]

Hey @ganni, can you post the letters page to Amazing Spider-Man 150?

[ganni]

 

[Spider-Variant]

On 7/8/2022 at 8:59 PM, ganni said:

 

Thank you!  I was trying to remember the background inkers on Amazing Spider-Man 146 and thought it was listed somewhere.  Indeed it was in the letters page to issue 150!

 

[ganni]

No problem

[Spider-Variant]

Around August of 1975, Ross Andru drew issue 151 of the Amazing Spider-Man, in which our favorite Wallcrawler disposed of (or did he, lol) his clone in an incinerator. The story doesn't name the location of the incinerator, only stating the locals called it an eyesore. A couple of years back, I identified it as the Greenpoint Incinerator in northern Brooklyn using a 1958 photo. It was an excellent match with the exception of some equipment near the stacks. I thought in the 17 years between the 1958 photo and when Ross drew the issue, this equipment could have been added. Not entirely satisfied, I looked for a 1975 picture of the plant. I couldn't find any but in some 1986 photos, there was some equipment in the area of concern, but it wasn't a good match.

This morning I realized I was incorrect, the incinerator Ross drew was located in Gravesend, southern Brooklyn and not Greenpoint, northern Brooklyn.

The Gravesend building is a very good match (I suspect the same firm designed both buildings), but everything else is too. The piece of equipment that was missing was an air pollution control device and is shown in the second comparison below with photos from 1973. If you look at the third comparison, Ross uses the same design and structures on the chutes as shown in the photos of the Gravesend incinerator chutes.

So now the incinerator building, the equipment, and garbage chutes to the barrages all match near perfectly. I'm convinced I have it correct now.

This plant was also featured in ASM 180 and Ross does a great job of matching his ASM 151 drawings. I actually think the ASM 180 is more to real life than the ASM 151, but the depictions aren't as sharp. Dave Hunt inked the backgrounds in ASM 151, but Mike Esposito must have inked everything on ASM 180.

[Spider-Variant]

Here are two more comparisons from Issues 151 and 180 that I found after posting above.

These make me ask a couple of questions

1) How did Ross get access to this area?  He surely took some very detailed pictures and at angles that can't be obtained from afar.

2)  Why did Ross put so much energy into making his art so real to life?  He wasn't getting paid for detail and would have been on a tight schedule.  The man most definitely loved his craft.

 

[Spider-Variant]

Hey @cosmic-spider-man, nice to have you over here Terry!  

[Get Marwood & I]

On 7/16/2022 at 5:35 PM, Spider-Variant said:

Hey @cosmic-spider-man, nice to have you over here Terry!  

+1

Always nice to see a new face here

I don't think the tag worked Reggie @cosmic-spider-man

[Spider-Variant]

On 7/16/2022 at 1:50 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

+1

Always nice to see a new face here

I don't think the tag worked Reggie @cosmic-spider-man

Thanks for the catch Steve.

Terry is a great collector.  First person that I know of to have a complete run of the 35 cent variants.  

Edited July 16, 2022 by Spider-Variant

[cosmic-spider-man]

On 7/16/2022 at 11:35 AM, Spider-Variant said:

Hey @cosmic-spider-man, nice to have you over here Terry!  

Hey Reggie, This is my favorite thread on the boards I check it out often.  ASM #151 was the first issue I ever bought and it is so cool to know Ross Andru's Art was based on real places, love the photos of the Incinerator.