Ross Andru's Amazing Spider-Man Club 9 9

[ganni]

 

Edited July 2, 2021 by ganni

[Spider-Variant]

Like a moth to the flame, I am inextricably drawn back to the Ross Andru depictions in Amazing Spider-Man 138 (cover date 11/74, drawn 7/74).  After finding photographic evidence of the house Ross used to model the Mindworm’s home after, I thought this issue number would fade from my mind, and just be remembered as another of the wonderful story layouts Ross gave us. 

But I was wrong (which I so often am) and instead found myself not satisfied with the photo of the home from 1940.  No, I wanted a picture from 1974, July preferably.  Well, I knew that was the stuff of dreams, owing to the fact that it took me 2.5 years to find the first photo.  I thought perhaps even a glimpse from an aerial shot, even if it were a different decade, might give me final closure.

And amazingly, I did find the house (barely discernable) from a July 1968 aerial photo of the Rockaway area.    Sure enough, like my 1940 photo, there was the house next door as well.  But also, in the photo were houses and houses around it.  Recalling Gerry Conway had said in an interview that Ross found a house in his neighborhood and it was the only house around, surrounded by vacant lots and kind of eerie and weird, I found this odd.   (Gerry also said it was in Howard’s Beach, which it was not, so I took Gerry’s statement with a grain of salt, astounded simply at the detail he could recall after 45 years). 

I recently found a photo from Sept. 1975 though that changed my entire perspective on Ross’s art from Amazing Spider-Man 138.  I always thought Ross borrowed the image of a real house from a neighborhood and placed it in a rundown, vacant area for dramatic story effect.  I never dreamed in a million years that what Ross drew was his reality in 1974.  As seen in the 1975 photo, the houses in my 1968 photo were all gone.  So, what the heck happened?

Designated a Title I Urban Renewal Area by the City of New York in 1968, the land bounded by Beach 32nd Street, Beach 84th Street, Rockaway Freeway, and the Rockaway Boardwalk was bulldozed to accommodate new low-income housing projects that never materialized.  Gone by 1969.    Still gone until the early 2000s, that’s over thirty years.

By 1974 when Ross put pencil to paper, the houses around the Mindworm’s real life home were all gone.  That explains why this house stood out and why the kids could easily recognize it.  I wrongly assumed that Ross’s house was recognized perhaps by one kid and he spread the word;  but the house was so distinct and isolated, that every spider-man fan must have known where it was. 

That just leaves the apology note in the letters page of Amazing Spider-Man 149.  The note read “We regret the fashion in which we depicted the Mindworm’s house in the November 1974 issue, as it is an actual residence located in the Rockaway section of Queens.” 

What an odd apology?  Not we’re sorry we used this guy’s house in our book and caused him headaches.  No, it was “we’re sorry the way the house was depicted.”  In the story, the house is boarded up and depicted as formerly being abandoned.    Maybe the owner was angrier that his house was shown as dilapidated than the fact that it was used in the story.  Maybe he took pride that his home was one of the last few standing.  It was a beautiful home in 1940 and maybe it still was in 1974.  I find this more than slightly intriguing.

What’s the take-away from all this?  “Ross Andru used a real residence and a real location to model the Mindworm’s home and locale for his story art in Amazing Spider-Man 138.”

In my photos across the decades below, I try to bound the streets (between which the real house was located) with the blue & yellow lines and identify buildings to help set the location relative to the viewpoint.

 

 

 

 

Edited July 5, 2021 by Spider-Variant
Edited to highlight the Mindworm's house.

[ADAMANTIUM]

13 minutes ago, Spider-Variant said:

Like a moth to the flame, I am inextricably drawn back to the Ross Andru depictions in Amazing Spider-Man 138 (cover date 11/74, drawn 7/74).  After finding photographic evidence of the house Ross used to model the Mindworm’s home after, I thought this issue number would fade from my mind, and just be remembered as another of the wonderful story layouts Ross gave us. 

But I was wrong (which I so often am) and instead found myself not satisfied with the photo of the home from 1940.  No, I wanted a picture from 1974, July preferably.  Well, I knew that was the stuff of dreams, owing to the fact that it took me 2.5 years to find the first photo.  I thought perhaps even a glimpse from an aerial shot, even if it were a different decade, might give me final closure.

And amazingly, I did find the house (barely discernable) from a July 1968 aerial photo of the Rockaway area.    Sure enough, like my 1940 photo, there was the house next door as well.  But also, in the photo were houses and houses around it.  Recalling Gerry Conway had said in an interview that Ross found a house in his neighborhood and it was the only house around, surrounded by vacant lots and kind of eerie and weird, I found this odd.   (Gerry also said it was in Howard’s Beach, which it was not, so I took Gerry’s statement with a grain of salt, astounded simply at the detail he could recall after 45 years). 

I recently found a photo from Sept. 1975 though that changed my entire perspective on Ross’s art from Amazing Spider-Man 138.  I always thought Ross borrowed the image of a real house from a neighborhood and placed it in a rundown, vacant area for dramatic story effect.  I never dreamed in a million years that what Ross drew was his reality in 1974.  As seen in the 1975 photo, the houses in my 1968 photo were all gone.  So, what the heck happened?

Designated a Title I Urban Renewal Area by the City of New York in 1968, the land bounded by Beach 32nd Street, Beach 84th Street, Rockaway Freeway, and the Rockaway Boardwalk was bulldozed to accommodate new low-income housing projects that never materialized.  Gone by 1969.    Still gone until the early 2000s, that’s over thirty years.

By 1974 when Ross put pencil to paper, the houses around the Mindworm’s real life home were all gone.  That explains why this house stood out and why the kids could easily recognize it.  I wrongly assumed that Ross’s house was recognized perhaps by one kid and he spread the word;  but the house was so distinct and isolated, that every spider-man fan must have known where it was. 

That just leaves the apology note in the letters page of Amazing Spider-Man 149.  The note read “We regret the fashion in which we depicted the Mindworm’s house in the November 1974 issue, as it is an actual residence located in the Rockaway section of Queens.” 

What an odd apology?  Not we’re sorry we used this guy’s house in our book and caused him headaches.  No, it was “we’re sorry the way the house was depicted.”  In the story, the house is boarded up and depicted as formerly being abandoned.    Maybe the owner was angrier that his house was shown as dilapidated than the fact that it was used in the story.  Maybe he took pride that his home was one of the last few standing.  It was a beautiful home in 1940 and maybe it still was in 1974.  I find this more than slightly intriguing.

What’s the take-away from all this?  “Ross Andru used a real residence and real location to model the Mindworm’s home and locale for his story art in Amazing Spider-Man 138.”

In my photos across the decades below, I try to bound the streets (between which the real house was located) with the blue & yellow lines and identify buildings to help set the location relative to the viewpoint.

That's a lot of fun!

The Rockaway Beach sign?

That was a Ramones song too, I would have guessed it was a real reference, but wouldn't have guessed New York!

[Spider-Variant]

22 minutes ago, ADAMANTIUM said:

That's a lot of fun!

The Rockaway Beach sign?

That was a Ramones song too, I would have guessed it was a real reference, but wouldn't have guessed New York!

Thanks @ADAMANTIUM.  Hmmm, not sure about a lot of fun.  Sometimes it feels like I am rambling to an audience of one, lol.

I do appreciate all the kind words from you and the rest of the posters here.  

[ADAMANTIUM]

2 minutes ago, Spider-Variant said:

Thanks @ADAMANTIUM.  Hmmm, not sure about a lot of fun.  Sometimes it feels like I am rambling to an audience of one, lol.

I do appreciate all the kind words from you and the rest of the posters here.  

 My Dad is a History Teacher, and I only wish half of his lectures were about comics haha

[Spider-Variant]

2 minutes ago, ADAMANTIUM said:

 My Dad is a History Teacher, and I only wish half of his lectures were about comics haha

Yes, these examples are kind of like comics met history.  I have learned so much just by trying to reconstruct the 1970s as Ross drew them.

[Get Marwood & I]

10 minutes ago, Spider-Variant said:

Thanks @ADAMANTIUM.  Hmmm, not sure about a lot of fun.  Sometimes it feels like I am rambling to an audience of one, lol.

I do appreciate all the kind words from you and the rest of the posters here.  

There's a big audience here Reggie, for what you are doing, trust me. Many CGC people read but don't comment, and many find the 'like' button an embarrassing triviality so they don't leave their mark. This isn't Facebore - many decent collectors are reading and enjoying. Don't let the lack of participation put you off (as I often do, in my threads). Take a look at the 'online users' page every so often after you've posted, and you'll see who's paying attention. And 93K views is a clue. Keep going mate. 

[Spider-Variant]

3 minutes ago, Get Marwood & I said:

There's a big audience here Reggie, for what you are doing, trust me. Many CGC people read but don't comment, and many find the 'like' button an embarrassing triviality so they don't leave their mark. This isn't Facebore - many decent collectors are reading and enjoying. Don't let the lack of participation put you off (as I often do, in my threads). Take a look at the 'online users' page every so often after you've posted, and you'll see who's paying attention. And 93K views is a clue. Keep going mate. 

Thanks Steve.  

[Get Marwood & I]

8 minutes ago, Spider-Variant said:

Thanks Steve.  

You're welcome. In my experience, it's very rare for any thread here at CGC to have more than a handful of active participants. There are casual readers, regular readers who don't show themselves and a small hard core of people who post regularly because they love the subject matter. We've got our small group! 

[MattTheDuck]

It's also interesting that the Housing Authority would leave one house standing.  Lots of this kind of large-scale demolition has been going on in Detroit over the past decade or so, but there aren't even plans to replace. it.

[Spider-Variant]

1 hour ago, MattTheDuck said:

It's also interesting that the Housing Authority would leave one house standing.  Lots of this kind of large-scale demolition has been going on in Detroit over the past decade or so, but there aren't even plans to replace. it.

It's very curious to me as well.  I'm sure there probably were a few more, but what made the determination?  And where did all the home owners go?  Did the city buy their houses and they simply moved on?  And how does it take 30 plus years to rebuild?

[MattTheDuck]

54 minutes ago, Spider-Variant said:

It's very curious to me as well.  I'm sure there probably were a few more, but what made the determination?  And where did all the home owners go?  Did the city buy their houses and they simply moved on?  And how does it take 30 plus years to rebuild?

It's possible there was a "refuse to sell" situation, where they had to use eminent domain to get the owners of this house (and perhaps a few others) out and it just took a while to work through the legal process.  It does seem like there'd be plenty of demand for the housing at various times since the razing whether low income or otherwise.

[HighVoltage]

4 hours ago, Get Marwood & I said:

You're welcome. In my experience, it's very rare for any thread here at CGC to have more than a handful of active participants. There are casual readers, regular readers who don't show themselves and a small hard core of people who post regularly because they love the subject matter. We've got our small group! 

I wish I had time to comment more and deep-dive like you guys have.

please know that all your posts & info have helped me to enjoy Spidey & the Andru era so much more than I already did. I have special affinity for this era, as it’s when I started collecting Spidey off the racks.

1 billion kudos!!!!!

[Get Marwood & I]

13 hours ago, HighVoltage said:

I have special affinity for this era, as it’s when I started collecting Spidey off the racks.

Great time wasn't it, great time... 

[Spider-Variant]

FYI, I went back and edited my 1968 photo to show the Mindworm's home.  I laugh as I type that, because just like a kid in 1974, I now really believe the Mindworm once lived there.   

[Spider-Variant]

5 hours ago, Get Marwood & I said:

Great time wasn't it, great time... 

The best, the best.  When I discovered back issues through the mail, I think I had died and gone to heaven.  I remember saving up my money, begging my older brother to write me a check, mailing in my order, and waiting for those Spider-Man back issues that I had missed to arrive.  I checked the mailbox every day after school.   Seems like only yesterday and not 40 years ago.  

[FoggyNelson]

On 7/2/2021 at 3:22 AM, ganni said:

 

I loved the letters to the editors‼️👍❤️❤️

[Spider-Variant]

27 minutes ago, FoggyNelson said:

I loved the letters to the editors‼️👍❤️❤️

I think I wrote in but never had anything published.  Anyone else remember writing in?

[MattTheDuck]

I had a letter published in Thor.  

[Spider-Variant]

21 minutes ago, MattTheDuck said:

I had a letter published in Thor.  

Oh neat, what issue?  Unless you want to remain anonymous, of course...